Exposure Flashcards
What is the Context of the poem?
WW1 poetry
exposed to weather conditions
exposed to the enemy
exposure to the British public of war
Analyse “wind that knive us”
personification the weather is slowly killing them nature is more deadly then enemy soldiers
weather described as ‘merciless’ and attacking them ‘knife us’ this is unexpected as we expect the fight to be between soldiers.
Analyse “sudden successive”
sibilance s sound is the shivering sound the soldiers make negative atmosphere this reminds the reader the constant threat the soldiers are in
What does the cyclical structure show?
back were it started the fact that nothing has been achieved other then the fact that soldiers are dying
What does the poet want the reader to know/
wants reader to understand the intensity of waiting during battle and the anticlimax lead down when nothing happens
structure stanza in the same way start with blunt powerful line and uses highly emotive vocab choices but then ends with anticlimax
Everything is tense but leads to nothing be on edge for no reason
Rhyme scheme backs up the structure same to show the days are repeated but the fact its not full rhyme shows the unease feeling
Analyse “our love is made afraid”
So broken and hurt are the men that they feel abandoned and lose faith in
God Contrasts/juxtaposes the battlefield with garden of Eden. Tone is one of betrayal and despair.
Analyse the structure in “our love is made afraid”
Use of scattered punctuation slows the pace, we can imagine the soldier
finally succumbing to exposure and dying.
What is the structure of the poem?
The poem uses a large amount of ellipses, caesuras and repetition to create an on-going sense of waiting and boredom.
What does the half line to end show?
The poem is made of eight stanzas with a consistent use of a half line to end. This reinforces the sense of stasis or sameness throughout the poem that nothing is happening
Why is para-rhyme used?
to showing words which appear to rhyme yet sound wrong when read to create the sense of unsettledness in the poem the soldiers are feeling.
Why is onomatopoeia used?
Owen also uses a huge amount of onomatopoeia and alliteration in the poem to emphasise the atmosphere and
to draw parallels to the violence of war and weather.
Analyse the title
noun-foreshadows the men are exposed
physical conditions resulting from being outside in sever weather without adequate protection
the awful lies of propaganda have been revealed
ORGIN-17th century from the word enclose to be trapped therefore soldiers are trapped (animalistic)
What does “ache” suggest
Verb-continuous of prolonging pain
feeling an intense desire to go home
feeling intense sadness
an emotion experienced with painful or bittersweet intensity
analyse “merciless”
adjective showing no compassion
power of natural world
almost links to “nonchalance” which is used to describe the wind
modified by the image of the knife which seemingly penetrates the soldiers shows vulnerability
Analyse “mad”
adjective means to be mentally ill or extremely foolish behaviour to send the soldiers in by using propaganda in a frenzied mental or physical state personify the wind links to merciless wind out of control or the man
