Fitting the clumsy helmets Just in these lines are revealing the poison gas that was used to kill soldiers. Unfortunately one soldier couldn’t get to his helmet In time, “And floundering Like a man In fire or fire or Lime refers to the type of poison gas the man Inhaled; it’s a chalky white substance that burns human tissue. In this case it’s burning the inside of the man’s lungs. The soldier narrating the poem sees this man’s painful death through the eyepieces’ of his gas mask. In the third stanza the dying soldier lunges at our narrator gasping for life. “Behind the wagon that we flung him In, / And watch the white eyes writhing In his face” (17-18) .
In the final stanza this soldier becomes Just another causality of war: a statistic. His eyes are darting about his head, which is an effect of the poison gas running through his veins. The way the soldier describes the dead solider, it seems as if it’s traumatized him; although he’s most likely seen death before. Even though the poem doesn’t say, we could possibly assume that he was close to the dead soldier ND that’s why he described him In such a way. Come gargling from the froth- corrupted lungs”(22) although the soldier Is dead, the fluids from Inside him are making noise and causing foam to protrude from his mouth.
