Personification of nature is used around line 14 and there is an idea that he can't stop his battle against nature. The end of the poem looks at a man's struggle with nature and there is a literal meaning of the poem that his son will get stung again by the nettles. There is also a sense of emotional hurt and that life is an endless battle.
Personification of the nettles is used on line 3 and the references to the military. instead of using "My son" he uses "The boy". He uses alliteration in this poem "blisters beaded" this could mean that he has been on his feet for ages and that he has been walking around so long and fighting to stay alive that he has blisters on his feet.
"My son would often feel sharp wounds again" this could mean that his son gets flashbacks of what happened in the war, and that the flashbacks are so deep that he can feel all of that pain again, this shows how much went on back in the world war.