Overall message
The men are also fighting a war against the weather
Context
Metaphor
‘Sunk fires’ -the men are going to die
Personification
‘Merciless iced east winds that knife us’ -they are fighting a war against the weather
Simile
‘Like twitching agonies is men among its brambles’- agony of the men dying from being stuck on the barbed wire.
Fictive alliteration
‘Flowing flakes that flock’- subtle nature of the men’s deaths
Repetition
‘But nothing happens’ -just waiting to die
Prolepsis
‘Tonight his frost will fasten in this mud and us’ -the men, for a fact, will die that night.
Rhythm and meter
Irregular- as the men die of hypothermia they become incoherent.