Rhetorical Analysis Of Alliteration In Owen's 'Gun'

Owen expands on the shelling in lines 3 and 4, noting, “Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle/ can patter out their hasty orisons” (Lines 3 and 4). Owen repeats “only” to build momentum and to truly explain the sounds of the guns. He uses alliteration in “rifles’ rapid rattle” and onomatopoeia in “stuttering” and “rattle” to imitate the harsh and repetitive sounds of rifles. The alliteration creates a sense of the rapidity and frequency of the firing. Owen again personifies the guns, this time by using “stuttering” like the stutter of people. To him, the guns represent people and the people appear as animals. He compares the shelling to the guns rattling out prayers. Ironically, these prayers do not help the soldiers; they wound or kill

He writes, “And bugles calling for them from sad shires” (Line 8). A bugle is a small simple brass instrument without valves, similar to a trumpet. Bugles are used for three main purposes: at a funeral, to mark time, and to call a retreat. The “sad shires” are the towns from which the men come. They are “sad” because many of the men are away, most of them dead. We could interpret this line in three ways. First, the sound represents the mourning of the soldiers in the home towns. Since the sound is rather frequent, it shows the massive amount of death and the herd-like killing of the soldiers as referenced in Line 1. Second, the sound could mark the time of the day, reminding the aimless and purposeless soldiers of how slowly time is moving. This slowing of time contrasts with the fast-paced life of the soldiers before the war and shows how war ages men. Third, the sound from the shires could be a calling of retreat, asking the men to return home. This sense of hope appears only here in the poem – the remaining lines all have a sombre mood emphasizing on death. However, this could also be interpreted as the notification of death at home. This imagery of the bugle varies greatly from its value in previous wars. Before World War I, trumpets were played before battle to generate patriotism and to remind the soldiers to fight for glory. Now, in World War I, it only represents the slowing of time, a retreat, or