Auditory imagery is used greatly in Owens poems in an effective manner to stir up strong

emotions with in the reader. In Dulce et Decorum Est, the image of the suffocating soldier
is made more real and solid with the use of auditory writing. The sounds in the words " . . .
the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs," imitates the sounds of choking
as it describes the image of the dying soldier, encompassing the reader in an illusion of
watching the soldier die in front of them. Owen also uses vivid imagery by selecting
textured, rough diction to convey the traumatic events for the reader to experience. The
soldiers exhaustion is effectively conveyed in the metaphor drunk with fatigue. This
conjures up the image of men staggering uncoordinatedly, exhausted and deprived of
sleep.
The Anthem of Doomed Youth uses different imagery techniques to convey the messages
to the reader. Choirs of wailing shells" is a powerful metaphor, where auditory imagery is
evident in the wailing shells, making you imagine and hear the sound of the bullets
screaming past your head in a battlefield. Religious imagery is also pertained in this poem.
The line, No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, talks about the young soldiers
not getting proper funerals. No prayers and bells is the use of religious imagery as the
vision of people singing during mass and bells ringing, like that in a proper funeral, come
through the readers mind and thus effectively creating a somber mood. Lastly, Owens
creative use of figurative language paints the visual imagery for the reader. The boys "die
as cattle", they have been slaughtered mercilessly. The simile refers to the mass amount of
deaths there was, and just like "cattle" it was a constant occurrence. Notably, the way in
which Owen compares the soldiers to animals is very effective in creating imagery as the
reader is able to image the young men, one by one, falling to the ground to the realms of
death.
Figurative language is an effectual tool used in poems to create imagery, evident in the
poem Spring Offensive. Metaphors are greatly used throughout the poem to create
graphic images for the reader e.g. earth set sudden cups /In thousands for their blood"
refers to the cups as metaphors for the craters left by bombs, filling with the blood as the
men die and invoking a visual image of the bloodshed and lives lost. Like a cold gust is
the use of a simile to create imagery; the May breeze becomes a cold gust, emphasizing
the manner in which the men stiffen and brace themselves in preparation for battle as if
the reader can actually see the soldiers in front of them. Personification, though not used
significantly, also manifests the imagery. Sky burned / With fury" is personification that
suggests the intensity of the bombardment, and brings the images of bombs blasting as
the sky burned.
One of Wilfred Owens most common theme in his poems is unseen scars. He allows the
reader to see the pain of the characters through effective use of emotional imagery. He
talks about though the soldier may return alive or uninjured, their lives will never be the
same. In Disabled, the pain of the mans life is not his injury, but how the others react to
him. He will never feel again how slim / Girls waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,
shows what he has personally lost as the result of war. The moment when the womens
eyes / Passed from him to the strong men is wonderfully picked out by Owen, as it defines
the womens embarrassment at staring, as well as the mans misery at no longer being
seen as a valid person. This gives the reader an insight and enables them to imagine just
how ghastly the effects of war, emotionally and mentally, on soldiers.

Wilfred Owens The Sentry, like many of his poems, uses auditory imagery within his text.
Whats different about this poem, though, is that it uses onomatopoeia frequently to create
the imagery. And thud! Thump! Thud! Down the steep steps came thumping . . . The
Sentrys body. This use of onomatopoeia (thud, thump, thud) is appealing to more of our
senses we dont just see the body falling, we hear it too. The alliteration and repeated
sounds also add to the flowing rhythm and images of the poem without blurring the clarity;
Slush . . . choked the steps / too thick with clay to climb. We hear the clogging footsteps,
see the mud and most of all, feel the effort to walk through the mud, thus creating tactile
imagery as well as auditory.