Coursework.Info - Inspiration in an Instant

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The 28-line poem, written loosely in iambic pentameter, is told from the person of Wilfred Owen. It begins with a description of war-weary soldiers marching "through sludge," "blood-shod" and "drunk with fatigue". As gas shells begin to fall, the soldiers scramble to put their gas masks on. In the rush, one man clumsily drops his mask, and the narrator sees the man "yelling out and stumbling / and flound'ring like a man in fire or lime" The image of the man "guttering, choking, drowning" permeates his thoughts and dreams, forcing him to live this grotesque nightmare over and over again. In the final stanza, Owen writes that if readers could see the body-the "eyes writhing", the "face hanging", the "vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues"-they would cease to send young men to war while instilling visions of glory in their heads. No longer would they tell their children the "Old lie,"...

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