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Guidelines for writing Poems, Stories and Tales

What does white eyes writhing mean?

The phrase “white eyes writhing” is a visual image used to describe the appearance of the young soldier who has inhaled poison gas. It expresses the unnatural movement of his eyes as they seem to roll around his head due to the extreme physical pain he feels.

Is white eyes writhing in his face a metaphor?

Alliteration is used in the line, ‘watch the white eyes writhing in his face’ and displays a soldier’s eyes ‘writhing’ as if his eyes are expressing what he is feeling like, which would be agony and fear. The ‘whiteness’ of his eyes conveys horror and emphasizes his anguish towards war.

What does and watch the white eyes writhing in his face?

We cannot escape the visceral, violent and horrific images – “the white eyes writhing”, the “hanging face” that emphasises the desperate man’s bulging eyes and tongue, and the tortured imagery in the simile of the face that is “like a devil’s sick of sin”.

What does devil’s sick of sin mean?

‘like a devil’s sick of sin’ l. 20. The implications for pain and loathing here are dark. The man’s face is compared to that of a devil, who is itself horrified by – and surfeited with – evil.

What is the meaning behind Dulce et Decorum Est?

it is sweet and fitting

Pro patria mori. “Dulce et Decorum est” is a poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, and published posthumously in 1920. The Latin title is taken from Ode 3.2 (Valor) of the Roman poet Horace and means “it is sweet and fitting“. It is followed by pro patria mori, which means “to die for one’s country”.

What does deaf even to the hoots mean?

‘Deaf to the hoots’ further shows how handicapped they are from war; they even lose their senses. ‘Hoots’ shows that the shells are useless and they became gentle like owls, this might be because they are used to the sound of shells. Now, it is like background noise for them.

What does come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs mean?

The imagery Owen uses is prevalent in these lines: “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs/ Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,” (Lines 21-23). These lines show that the men were brutally killed in this war.

What does coughing like hags mean?

described as beggars. The simile ‘coughing like hags’ was used. because the men who went into battle were relatively young, yet after. battle they looked old and ugly, hence hags.

What technique is drunk with fatigue?

Metaphor: There is only one metaphor used in this poem. It is used in line seven of the poem, “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots.” It presents the physical state of the men. Onomatopoeia: It refers to the words which imitate the natural sounds of the things.

What does high zest mean?

high zest is saying that people say it with enthusiasm and the desperate glory is talking about how the boys have been told they will be comming back heroes and girls will be falling for them where as in actual fact half of them won’t come back.

What does it mean to cursed through sludge?

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, The soldiers in this poem are crippled, mentally and physically overcome by the weight of their experiences in war.

What does Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time mean?

An ecstasy of fumbling fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling.” Meaning that when someone threw the gas one of them wasn’t able to get a mask on. He’s trying to go into deep details on how the war really is.

WHAT DOES As under a green sea I saw him drowning mean?

“As under a green sea, I saw him drowning” explores the fear of war, in particular the horrific effect of chlorine gas. This composition captures the emotional turmoil of life in the trenches during World War 1.



What does all went lame all blind mean?

The somewhat hyperbolic declaration that ‘All went lame, all blind’ shows how the men had lost sight of the objectives of the War as it descended into a bloody and lawless conflict with both sides just caring about how much they hate the other.

What is blood shod?

They are “blood-shod”—a use of metaphor since it is an implied, rather than directly stated, comparison between the blood on the troops’ feet and the boots they have “lost.” Also note a similar use of hyperbole—a figure of speech based on exaggeration—when the speaker says the men are “deaf” to the cries of their

Is drunk with fatigue a metaphor?

‘Drunk with fatigue,’ is an expression that uses a metaphor to suggest that the men are mentally vacant and are staggering along. To be ‘Drunk with fatigue,’ these men must be so tired that they are no longer sane and can barely even think for themselves.

What does of vile incurable sores on innocent tongues mean?

The description of ‘froth-corrupted lungs, / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud / Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues’ is in particular contrast to the idea of this being a ‘sweet’ or ‘fitting’ death.

What is the old lie?

It means ‘It is sweet and fitting to die for your country‘. When Owen wrote his poetry based on his experience of the Great War he did not agree with this saying; he wrote poetry that was full of horror yet told the truth. Therefore he called this saying ‘the old lie’.



Is desperate glory an oxymoron?

Another oxymoron is found in “To children ardent for some desperate glory” where two opposite words are used to express poetically the sense of the paradox while at the same time is an oxymoron.

What does you too could pace mean?

‘you too could pace behind the wagon…’ Definition. How/why is this used – To force the reader to visualise and experience the action of ‘flinging’ a dead body into the wagon – to put the reader in the same position helped to convey the reality of this horror.

What does pro patria mori?

Latin term or phrase: pro patria mori. English translation: to die for one’s country.

Is Dulce et Decorum Est an anti war poem?

Wilfred Owen’s, “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” is arguably the greatest anti-war poem. It was composed near the end of the First World War by Owen who had actually experienced the horrors of the trenches.