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- "knock-kneed, coughing like hags"
- Simile
- "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks"
- Alliteration
- "And watch the white eyes writhing in his face"
- .
- Metaphor
- "Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to hoots"
- Wilfred Owen uses similes to describe the soldiers. He compares them to old and sickly people in order to reveal how the experience of war has aged and embittered them. This also emphasizes the contrast between the young men joining the military and the experienced, older soldiers.
- Synecdoche
- Owen uses the same consonant sound of /w/ in this line. The image of the soldier's eyes remaining wide open after death represents the pain that he suffered and the horrors of war he experienced. His final expression holds the emotions of terror and fear.
- Onomatopoeia
- Owen describes the soldiers using a metaphor in order to demonstrate their loss of coordination and total exhaustion. These words are meant to display the soldiers' terrible physical and emotional state.
- Consonance
- "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks"
- Owen uses the word "sight" to represent the speaker as a whole. The synecdoche brings attention to the change in point of view (to present tense) and the speaker's reflection of his memories from the war. This highlights the feelings of despair and guilt he faces as his memories haunt him.
- "In all my dreams before my helpless sight"
- "the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs"
- Owen uses the onomatopoeiatic word "gargling" to express fury and revulsion towards the military. He wanted to highlight the physical and emotional damage done to youngs boys after joining the military, having initially been given false promises and hope.
- Owen uses consonance with the sound of /b/ in the first line. This creates a harsh sound in the beginning of the poem. Owen does this in order to stress the effects that war has on soldiers and the misery they experience throughout war. He wanted to convey a sense of horror and despair within it.
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