The Death Bed Literary Elements

The omniscient speaker in the poem describes the internal state of a dying soldier as well as the external environment. Second-person perspective is also used to address the reader.

The poem is composed of seven stanzas of different lengths written mostly in blank verse.

Metaphors
-Water is used in an extended metaphor to describe the man's drifting consciousness.
-"in the wings of sleep" (Line 4): Sleep is compared to something that flies.
-"his mortal shore / Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death" (Lines 5-6): A shoreline is used to describe the relationship between the man's mortality and his approaching death.

Similes
-"silence heaped / Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls; / Aqueous like floating rays of amber light" (Lines 1-3): Silence is compared to steadfast walls and floating rays of light.

Alliteration
-"Silence and safety" (Line 5): The /s/ repeats.
-"Bird-voiced, and bordered" (Line 13): The /b/ repeats.
-"and sighed, and slept" (Line 15): The /s/ repeats.
-"wind, was in the ward" (Line 16): The /w/ repeats.
-"Flickered and faded" (Line 21): The /f/ repeats.
-"Rain—he could hear it rustling" (Line 22): The /r/ repeats.
-"Light many lamps and gather round his bed. / Lend him your...will to live" (Lines 34-35): The /l/ repeats.
-"cruel old campaigners" (Line 38): The /c/ repeats.
-"And there was silence in the summer night; / Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep" (Lines 40-41): The /s/ repeats.

Assonance
-"Soaring and quivering in the wings" (Line 4): The short /i/ sound repeats.
-"mortal shore" (Line 5): The long /o/ sound repeats.
-"Lipped by the inward" (Line 6): The short /i/ sound repeats.

The end of the poem can be considered a form of situational irony. Just after having evoked the reader's presence with the use of second-person, the speaker describes thudding guns in the distance. This is a warning to the reader to not take safety for granted.

War Poem, Lyric Poetry

The dying soldier's internal landscape, as well as the ward and surrounding woods.

Lingering, Melancholy, Critical

The protagonist is the young soldier whose life is cut short as a result of World War One. The antagonists are the cruel old campaigners who give the orders to send soldiers to their deaths as they remain safely on the sidelines.

The major conflict of the poem is whether or not the young soldier will encounter his death. This death is further intensified by the speaker's anger towards those he holds responsible for having caused it, i.e., military officials in World War I.

The climax of the poem occurs when the speaker directly asks the reader to care for the dying soldier and criticizes the military establishment.

The rain that soaks the woods outside the ward, "Gently and slowly washing life away," foreshadows the soldier's death (Line 27).

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The thudding guns allude to the violence of World War I.

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The soldier's pain is personified as a rabid beast. Death is also personified in the poem.

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The thudding sound of the guns is an example of onomatopoeia.