2.4.6 Exposure

Question 1

Poet

Answer 1

Wilfred Owen

Question 2

Theme Code

Answer 2

QEND-BCV

Question 3

Themes

Answer 3

Bravery, Loss and Absence, The Futility of War, Reality of Conflict, Power of Nature, Effects of Conflict, Vulnerability

Question 4

Quotes

Answer 4

• ‘Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous’
• ‘But nothing happens’
• ‘we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire, like twitching agonies of men’
• Misery’, ‘melancholy’, ‘grey’
• ‘For love of God seems dying’
• ‘All their eyes are ice’

Question 5

Main Structural Points

Answer 5

• Refrain
• Eight Stanzas of Five Lines
• Rhyme Scheme of ABBAC
• Para-Rhyme

Question 6

Explain the quote we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire, like twitching agonies of men’

Answer 6

Personification and Simile
The personification of the wind is as though it is the enemy attempting to break through the defences of the barbed wire.
Simile to compare the wire’s movement to the way it moves when a person falls into it - linking the physical enemy with the natural one.

Question 7

Explain the quote ‘But nothing happens’

Answer 7

//
This phrase is repeated after 4 of the stanzas emphasising its importance. It tells us that the reality of the situation is that the struggles, mental torture and pain these soldiers go through aren’t during the middle of a battle but rather sitting and waiting. This is what kills most of them, not fighting.

Question 8

Quotes for the Main Structural Point

Answer 8

‘But nothing happens’

Question 9

Simplified Main Structural Point

Answer 9

The first four lines build tension but are then brought with an anti-climatic line reflecting building anticipation of war that is never realised. Para-rhyme used as imperfect war requires less-than-perfect rhyme.

Question 10

Main Structural Point

Answer 10

Owen wrote ‘Exposure’ with eight stanzas of five lines each. The first four lines of each stanza, dramatically heighten the tension of the stanza before being brought to an anti-climatic line of ‘but nothing happens’. The first four lines also build up a rhyme scheme of ABBA just for it to be broken down in the final line (with each stanza following the rhyme scheme of ABBAC) reflecting the building momentum and anticipation of battle which is never coming. The rhyme scheme stays consistent throughout each stanza of the poem to reflect the repetitiveness of waiting for battle and the repetitiveness of fighting nature in this futile situation Just as the poem stays the same so does the situation the soldiers are in, stuck in the cold, waiting. Although the poem does follow a rhyme scheme of ABBAC, Owen decided to use para-rhyme because an imperfect war requires a less-than-perfect use of rhyme.