The Sentry
We’d found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew,
And gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell
Hammered on top, but never quite burst through.
Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime,
Kept slush waist-high and raising hour by hour,
1. ‘We’d’ personal pronoun – sharing the experience with reader, (personalising for greater impact). The use of ‘we’d’
also allows the soldiers to be viewed by the readers as one body, one entity- they have a shared brotherhood.
(‘old Boche dug out’ – German dug out in a trench, deserted, abandoned.)
Notice that the enemy is ‘he’- there is no antipathy particularly expressed. The enemy is not demonised by Owen,
perhaps because they too are soldiers. However, they are not given individual identity but seen as one ‘he’ this
could be in response to Germany being known as ‘Father Germany’. The use of ‘he’ suggests a closeness (the
German soldiers do not need to be named as such) we can infer that this may be physical closeness. Both sides of
the fray are aware of one another and is attacking the other. This acknowledges the movement between both sidesthe rest of the stanza describes the legacy of living in this situation: the death, dirt and human waste.
And choked the steps too thick with clay to climb.
What murk of air remained stank old, and sour
2. alliteration and assonance – ‘hell’ (and ‘hammered’), ‘shell’, ‘shell’. Lots of sound devices to reflect cacophony of
sounds on battle field – unrelenting, constant assault on hearing and other senses. ‘frantic’ gives mood of frenzied
and desperate attack.
With fumes of whiz-bangs, and the smell of men
Who’d lived there years, and left their curse in the den,
3. onomatopoeia in ‘hammered’ – sense of being pounded relentlessly by the shells, beaten down, pinned in place by
enemy shells. Shells rain down but never break through the dugout – so the men are protected by the enemy
fortification (ironic)
If not their corpses . . .
4. onomatopoeia in ‘guttering’ (remember sound from ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’) and metaphor ‘waterfalls of slime’.
The condition of trenches which are exposed to a nature – continuing rainfall and dampness have resulted in a buildup of slime so that it looks like a waterfall down the edges of the trench. Reality of life in trenches is painted within
these lines and can be seen to be very grim.
5. Rain has turned the trench into a bog filled with mud, snow and slime that continues to rise hourly. ‘hour by hour’ –
the use of such a common phrase in this context suggest the tedium of the daily life on the front. The use of hours
called also be significant in that life expectancy at the front was short thus time had to be measured in smaller
increment than weeks or days.
6. alliteraton ‘c’ – hard consonant sound, difficulty of ascending, escaping the trenches because of their condition after
the rainfall. ‘choked’ and ‘guttering’ similar connotations – being strangled, starved of air, desperate writhing.
7. Reality of life in trenches – emphasises, elaborates, reinforces – first the rain and sludge, now the fetid air. ‘murk’ –
gloominess, hanging in a suffocating way. Link to ‘choked’. Air is thick, heavy, dense and foul smelling.
8. Air thick with smells of old weapons, of men living at such close quarters without recourse to bathing facilities, of
dead bodies left out in the open, putrefying. onomatopoeia and colloquialism in ‘whizz-bang’. Almost a childish
name, Guy Fawkes and fireworks, for such a deadly shell.
9. Compounding smell of men – daily life, rotten feet, disease, bodily odors. ‘den’ – reduces soldiers to animals living in
lairs, caves, dens. Stripping them of their humanity as life in the trenches has done. Life where they do not even
experience the basic amenities of life and hygiene. ‘corpses’ – not even given a decent burial, left like prey in a ‘den’.
Soldiers have to live amongst the dead. Ellipses is used to pause, to consider the dead, left to the elements, left
among the living, without proper burial or rites. Leads into the 2nd stanza.
10. Suggests a traditional English sonnet form using a quatrain of iambic pentameter. As Owen writes he undermines
the predictable rhythm. The stanzas are mostly rhymed but the rhyme pattern throughout the poem varies
(traditional patterns are usually abab or abcb but Owen predominantly uses abba.). The opening 8-12 lines which
don’t conclude in fully developed quatrains seem initially to take the abca pattern- this leaves readers with a feeling
that the poet’s emotions/sentiments about the incident remain unresolved.
(Looking for the quatrains- i.e lines 1-3, 4-7, 8-9, 10-12, 13-17, 18-19, 20-23, 24-27, 28-31, 32-35, 36-37.)
There we herded from the blast
1.
Stanza 2 continues the idea that the men have been dehumanised, turned into animals ‘herded’ – connection to
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ in which the soldiers are referred to as ‘cattle’ to convey image that herded off to their
slaughter. Here the use of ‘herded’ allows us to visualize the soldiers sheltering together, there seems to be no
leadership. Connect this to the documentary on Owen- it was not until he returned to the front after being treated
for shell-shock that he really became a leader.
2.
Onomatopoeia continues the cacophony of relentless sounds pounding on the men in the ‘old Boche dug-out’.
Euphemisms are twisted to suit Owen’s purpose- ever heard the phrase “knocking on deaths door?” Here it seems
that the whiz-bang becomes an agent for death as Owen notes it ‘found our door at last’ – it seems that the men are
anticipating their deaths “at last” (connotation).
3.
Dash – pause just before impact of explosion. We as readers are forced to anticipate the coming blast in the same
way that the soldiers themselves did.
4.
The blast of wind that accompanies ‘whizz-bangs’ is portrayed through the verb ‘buffeting’ as ongoing, hostile,
antagonistic, pounding against the soldier’s eyes and sucking out their breath. Owen described this time at the
frontline as the worst he ever experienced. It can be seen within these lines that Owen was quickly losing all
optimism. Without optimism and hope the faith he once had seems to have been almost extinguished- perhaps a
parallel can be drawn to the sentry, the flame of hope cannot be seen because war had blinded Owen to it.
5.
Onomatopoeia and exclamation – listing emphases the sound of the sentry’s body coming down the steps after the
attack on the dug-out. Some confusion, uncertainty of what is coming down the steps – the men are in darkness
(need for candles).
6.
Repetition of ‘And’ (conjunction) to begin lines (‘And’ most common word in spoken English), almost suggests that
this is a verbal account, links lines.
7.
‘flood’ and ‘deluging’ are used (connotation) to heighten the sense of how much ran has impacted on the trench –
Of whiz-bangs, but one found our door at last, Buffeting eyes and breath, snuffling the candles,
And thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping
And sploshing in the flood, deluging muck –
The sentry’s body; then, his rifle, handles
Of old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck.
We dredged him up, for killed, until he whined
‘O sir, my eyes – I’m blind – I’m blind, I’m blind!’
Coaxing, I held a flame against his lids
And said if he could see the last blurred light
He was not blind; in time he’d get all right.
‘I can’t,’ he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids’,
Watch my dreams still; but I forgot him there
In posting Next for duty, and sending a scout
creating appalling conditions in which they exist on daily basis. The sentry’s body falls into a flood plagued trench
sending the detritus of filth flying or ‘deluging’ into the trench–there is a lot of muck in trench.
To beg a stretcher somewhere, and flound’ring about
8.
Dashes are used to creates and link lines in this stanza – pause reflecting momentary uncertainty of those in the
dug-out. The soldiers do not instantly react, they are uncertain of what to do- perhaps awaiting Owen’s orders?
9.
alliteration – the use of hard consonants ‘b’ and ‘r’. These sound mimic those of guns while also providing emphasis
to certain images- Owen wants readers to pay attention to the accumulating clutter within the trenches, the poor
conditions these men endure.
To other posts under the shrieking air.
10. ‘dredged’ – scooped him up from muck, of mud and rubbish in the trench. Also conveys the loss of humanity and
the dehumanising effects of war. Initially the soldiers thought the sentry was dead (until he ‘whined’ – moaned,
cried out in agony, pleaded.).
11. ‘O’ – shape of letter reflects shape of mouth in agony and fear as the sentry fears he is blinded. Rising hysteria –
Punctuation is used by Owen to convey the sense of rising hysteria (first dashes, then commas and finally an
exclamation mark is used to add emphasis to the repetition of the phrase ‘I’m blind’.)
12. The narrator is gentle in his approach to the sentry and his injury. The sentry thrashes about in desperation pain
and fear – hoping that he will not have lost his sight. The candle is used here as a symbol of hope – hope that the
sentry is not blind.
13. The sense of hope is continued through the use of ‘if’. Light of knowledge, of truth, of wisdom, or optimism – being
lost to these men in the trenches. Semi-colon – goes to the narrator’s hope that he would be alright, the pause
14. Simile- dredged up from the trench, now eyes described as watery animal ‘like squids.” Reality of what happens to
the young men in war. The bulging, blind eyeballs haunt the narrator long after the event. A semi-colon is used to
change from the immediacy of the individual drama and misery to the wider concern for rest of men in trenches.
Although he will be haunted by the eyes, he must move on to ensure they all don’t meet the same fate- he is in
charge and must ensure the safety of his men.
15. While readers dwell upon the individual tragedy the soldiers cannot they have to resupply, move on and put
someone else in the sentry’s position now that he is incapacitated. One man’s blindness is rendered almost
insignificant his case is a reality, a tragedy of war. This man is literally blind, in the past, in signing up he was blinded
by the propaganda, the idea of glory and heroism.
16. The war effort is seen to be under-resourced here. Even a man, injured and blind cannot gain adequate medical
treatment- his unit have to ‘beg a stretcher somewhere’. ‘flound’ring’ (like a flounder in a watery trench) clumsy,
uncontrolled, off balance, confused, close to falling- the soldiers now bear an extra burden in the form of their fallen
comrade (in reality this could very well have been the death of the unit- they are now slower than before; an easier
target).
17. personification ‘shrieking air’ – sound of whizz bangs whistling through the air is the most obvious association,
however, consider the sound of men screaming (the injured, the terrified, those barking orders), the sound of the
wind whistling through the trenches – Nature is noted earlier in the poem- can we assume that nature is crying out
against unnaturalness of situation? The unnecessary death?
Those other wretches, how they bled and spewed,
1. Here Owen notes that there are many other soldiers in great stress, deserving of pity for their agonies – this is the
reality of death and near-death in the trenches.
And one who would have drowned himself for good, I try not to remember these things now.
Let dread hark back for one word only: how
Half listening to that sentry’s moans and jumps,
And the wild chattering of his broken teeth,
Renewed most horribly whenever crumps
Pummeled the roof and slogged the air beneath –
Through the dense din, I say, we heard him shout
‘I see your lights!’ But ours had long died out.
2. ‘drowned himself’: implies that life so bad in trenches that suicide in the muck and filth of the trenches is preferable
to life, to going on (suicide).
3. Dash - pausing, not wanting to go on with the memory of the suffering of those around him. Suggests the agony of
his memories- these sorts of memories are connected with PTSD and continue to be reported by today’s soldiers.
Consider the connection this may have with ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’ ‘Now’ (line 3) suggests that the narrator has
moved on- or at least time has and he has had to physically. While the narrator is haunted by a past event (of death,
dying, hopelessness and despair) we, the readers, now imagine these same images- perhaps feeling his horror.
4. ‘dread’ – great fear, terror, unpleasant encounters, anxiety, frightened for the future. ‘hark back’ – recall and
remember the dread easily. Colon: to separate the dread feelings being experienced from the cause of it? The
stranding of the word ‘how’ suggests that there are many questions beginning with this word that must be left
unasked- it is not the role of a soldier (nor a man of faith) to ask how or why but to instead act upon the will of the
Generals/God.
5. Onomatopoeia: ‘pummeled’ (goes with ‘crumps’ – shells) repeated striking blows on the roof of the safe haven of
the dug out – they are safe nowhere, death and destruction rains down on their heads. The rain of artillery is
unceasing, even as they contemplate the situation of the young sentry they must continue to move forward both
physically and mentally or else they will be lost. The men seem to be losing much of their compassion and are
instead acting as if on automatic pilot.
6. alliteration – harsh ‘d’ to reflect harsh memory of a man blinded. The harsh sounds surrounding the men in the dugout- the repeated emphasis on the these harsh syllables helps to form a rhythm that mimics that of the rifles and
falling shells that surrounded the soldiers.
7. Exclamation (dialogue) of the young man who believes he has regained sight, but the horrifying reality is that he
hasn’t. The line that follows the exclamation shows the disillusion of the men. The young sentry himself has perhaps
regained some hope, he sees “your light”, he knows that once away from the front he will be sent home. He has the
desire to believe something that isn’t true (he is more than likely permanently blind) as he did the day he signed up
for duty.