This poem takes the form of a sonnet and it is a form used mostly for love poems. Why use a sonnet to write a poem in which you criticise people for being lustful, greedy and destructive? ... This "bare" image of nature, pertains not just to man's destruction of nature, but to his spiritual bareness. ... "And for all this, nature is never spent." ... God through his infinite mercy continues to sustain and rejuvenate nature, with nature representing the physical nature and the human spirit so that we may continue to live in hope. ...

• Word Count: 1415
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The portrayal of nature in the poem: the mad gusts' of the merciless iced east winds that knive' and the poignant misery of the dawn', is negative and introduces the idea that the soldiers in the salient are under attack, not only by the enemy, but from nature as well. In fact, in this instance it seems as if nature itself is the enemy. Owen's use of pathetic fallacy develops this idea; the description of Dawn massing her army', the referral to the stealth' of the snowflakes and the deathly' nature of the air are images that are at once animated in th...

• Word Count: 2437
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School