Winter Warfare- Edgell Rickword

Form: Five quatrains, each a single sentence.

Language: ·         Use of vivid imagery to drive home the unbearable conditions that the soldiers were subjected to. ·         (Talking about ice) ‘Turned the wire into fleecy wool,/ Iron stakes to sugar sticks/ Snapping at the pull.’ Poet here suggests that nature is able to easily break something that can tear men apart. Displaying natures triumph over humanity. ·         Describes how the conditions were unbearable for both sides: ‘Saw two figures gleaming there;/ Haumptman Kalte, Colonel Cold’ (Haumptman Kalte being German for Colonel Cold).

Structure: Poet begins by depicting ‘Colonel Cold’, who is perhaps not a character but symbolic of war, as having an effect on everything in its path, suggesting nothing can escape the grasps of war. However ends by depicting nature as triumphing over man, with ‘Those who watched with hoary eyes’ (‘hoary eyes’ meaning ice and snow on eyelashes). Perhaps suggesting that although man destroys everything in its path, nature will always reign superior.

Tone : Very cold and despondent tone used to depict the harsh conditions under which these soldiers had to live and perhaps encourage the reader to feel pity for them.