`Mental Cases', by Wilfred Owen, was first drafted at Ripon in May 1918 and revised at Scarborough in July. It was originally called `The deranged'. `Mental Cases' could be described as poetry of the time, as it reflected the horrific after effects of war.

In this poem of three stanza's Owen shows how soldiers have become `mental cases' as a result of experiences in the war. The first stanza starts with a rhetorical question `Who are these'. Here Owen is trying to establish an identity of the soldiers. The `twilight' shows that they do not know where they belong, either in night or day and `rock they, purgatorial shadows' symbolizes their state of mind and health, they are rocking backwards and forwards, in the dark.

The heavy assonance in `drooping jaws that slob their relish', makes the reader cringe at what the soldiers have been reduced to, it gives...