This means that the poem can be thematically divided in two, since the first two stanzas describe the war itself, while the last two describe post-war feelings. Additionally, there is a division in the form of the poem as well. The first two stanzas form an Italian sonnet, while the last two are in a loose form. This means that there is a clear relation between the form and the sub-themes of the poem, as while the first two stanzas describe the war, the last two deal with the after-war emotions felt by the speaker. The strong emotional instability experienced as a consequence of exposure to war is reflected in the "disordered" form of the stanzas it is described in.
Throughout these four stanzas, the reader encounters an effective and continuous use of figurative language. Owen mainly employs similes and metaphors, although he also uses some personifications. Similes and metaphoric devices are first used to describe the soldiers, whose physical appearance is degradated by comparisons to beggars and old women. Their tiredness is described through allusions to sleep and alcohol, as in the phrase "drunk with fatigue", which makes the reader picture the soldiers dragging themselves as drunken people do. .
An important metaphor is present in the second stanza, which compares the process of gas poisoning to that of drowning. The gas is referred to as a "thick green light, /As under a green sea", and the death of the soldier is described as " him drowning". These similes and metaphors achieve a watery imagery, which is responsible for a vivid description that makes the reader sense the physical and psychological suffering the soldiers were going through. .
In the last two stanzas, figurative language is used to create a strong imagery that makes the reader emotionally responsive and even disgusted to the description of the soldier's dead body. The personification of the eyes, described as "writhing in his face" evokes a strong image, while the description of the blood "com[ing] gargling from the froth corrupted lungs" creates disturbing sound and visual effects.
