The poem begins with the image of the men returning to the safer area behind the lines. They are described as being exhausted and walking through mud hunched over barely awake. The speaker uses the phrases "bent double", "knock-kneed" and "drunk with fatigue" to show their state of exhaustion.
Another image in the poem is the image of the boy dying from the gas attack. The speaker uses the phrases "eyes writing", "hanging face", and "froth-corrupted lungs" to demonstrate the horror of the gas's effects.
