The weight of the rifle
Jones uses a metaphor in the following passage, to describe the difficulties of battle: "It's difficult with the weight of the rifle." This metaphor emphasizes how heavy the responsibilities and pressures of warfare is, describing it as being a "weight" that emotionally weighs down the soldiers.
Like a fugitive's irons
In part 7, Jones uses a simile to how a rifle restricts movement: "Slung so, it troubles your painful crawling like a fugitive's irons." Here, due to its heaviness, the rifle restricts movement like shackles would.
Armed simile
Jones uses a simile to describe how one of the soldiers is armed in Part 4. He writes that the soldier was "armed like Derfel Gatheren." Although this is quite an obscure reference, it alludes to a figure from Welsh history called "Derfel the Mighty."
Tourist simile
In the poem, Jones refers to the fact that tourists will one day be taking pictures on the battlefields, and in his last moments the protagonist John Ball says that he will leave his rifle for "a Cook's tourist to the Devastated Areas."
When describing this in his notes, Jones uses a simile to describe how this is like strangers "occupying a house you live in, and which has, for you, particular associations."
The Somme
The terrible bloodshed and loss of life that occurred during the Battle of the Somme is now often used as a metaphor for the atrocities of war and the unjust loss of life. This horrific battle led to the deaths of 125,000 British troops, and many more casualties, making it a devastating testament to the tragedy of warfare.
