The image of excitement Owen produces among the soldiers is done through the use of charged words and punctuation. The image that is produced from “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,” can be described as a division of soldiers in the trenches going about the daily routine of shooting and getting shot at, undergo a horrid excitement of gas landing in the trenches. Then, as a soldier barks, telling the others to place on the gas masks. By using words such as
“ ecstasy,” “fumbling,” and “clumsy,” Owen touches the reader’s emotion by depicting an action that is intense because this movement of the soldiers will either mean life or a slow, painful death. Also, the punctuation that is present produces an envisionment of an officer barking at the younger, less experienced troops, telling the soldiers to put on the masks over the words “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!” The overall image smoothly and excitingly transitions from the walking, bloody, and fatigued troops to a life or death situation that makes an essential impact on the poem. Though the troop of men successfully attached the gas masks, Owen continues on to further depict an image of a not so fortunate man who did not have the same privilege. The picture from “And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-- Dim, through the