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In this first stanza the tone of the poem in depressing and tragic. It expresses the realities of war rather than the heroism and glories of war. It uses descriptive words such as sludge, trudge, lame, and blind emphasizing the fatigues of war. These soldiers are basically marching to their own deaths as they have lost all senses and emotions, becoming numb to the tragedies. They became lame, blind and deaf to the situations around them. This picture shows soldiers who were blinded by a gas attack, they stand in line waiting for medical attention, relying on the man in front of him to lead the way due to the fact that they have lost their ability to see.

As they turned their backs on the explosions and gunfire they were also truning their backs to the myth that "it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland." By having this in the beginning of the first stanza, Owen immedeately wants to put across his main theme of the poem: It is not sweet of honorable to die in war, but that the myth has been misleading to the soldiers who go into war. They find nothing glorious about it, all they see is the gruesome side of war, witnessing their fellow men marching to their deaths, which thye eventually become numb to.

The pace immedeately changes as the second stanza begins. There is a sense of urgency, and it brings the reader into the present actions. It shows the urgency of the soldiers who try to quickly put on their helmets to prevent themselves from inhaling chlorine gas. Unfortunately one soldier did not get his mask on in time and the narrator witnesses hos disturbing death. It descirbes the soldier going into convulsions while each part of his body is slowly effected by the gas. He finally ends up dying by drowning in his own bodily fluid which fills his lungs.

Soldiers under gas attack

Artillery retalliation while under gas attack

Training for gas attacks

Loading gas shells

The next two lines of this stanza are separated into their own couplet for emphasis. They emphasize the fact that the narrator is forced to helplessly watch this man who plunges at him for help. Their is nothing the narrator can do while he is forced to watch this man gutter, choke, and drown.

The beginning of this third stanza continues to be very descriptive. It invites the reader to imagine what the men at war were going through. They senselessly had to fling the dead soldier into the wagon where there were many deceased bodies already. As the man was lying in the wagon death slowly overtook him. The whites of his eyes were twisting around in the sockets, his skin was becoming unattached from his face, and at every bump the wagon went over the blood gurgled up from his dilapidated lungs. Owen describes this death as obscene as cancer, comparing it to a horrible disease. He states, "the incurable sores on the innocent tongue." Here he physically means that his tongue was being physically damaged, but also that it was an innocent tongue because it was one that knew the truth about war. It is the healthy tongues which are the tongues telling all the lies; the ones which never experienced war for themselves.

At the end of this stanza he concludes by revealing that there is an old lie about glory and honor and that it can be found when fighting for you country. He tells us that next time we hear a young child who looks to find some type of glory for themselves, we shouldn't tell them that they could find it in war. War is simply a place that numbs a person of emotion and feeling. Owen truly believes that war is in no way sweet and honorable, but that the reality of it, is that people are dying gruesome and senseless deaths.

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Images courtesy of Photos of the Great War

http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/photos/greatwar.htm