Exposure Flashcards
Themes (4)
- Power of nature
- Effects of conflict
- Reality of conflict: Charge of the light brigade: group of soldiers at war, Bayonet Charge: soldier at war, Remains: modern view of soldier and war, Kamikaze: duty at war and nature
- Loss and absence
About
The first-person speaker finds nature a more brutal enemy than the boring war. At the end of the poem, the horror of burying the dead is shown in a matter of fact way, emphasising the sense of despair.
Big Ideas (3)
- Suffering and isolation
- Hopelessness
- Political
“Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
Power of nature, Effects of conflict, Reality of conflict
The weather is their enemy, the largest issue at the time – first topic mentioned, always on their minds
Long vowels of the first 3 words suggests tiredness
“Our” – suffering is widespread across all soldiers affected
“Brains” – the cold has reached every part of them, lost feeling or numbness elsewhere. The cold has surrounded them, their vital organs are being hurt, portrays danger
“Ache” – constant pain sometimes underlying, sometimes excruciating but never gone, unrelenting
“Merciless” – unforgiving, uncaring, no sympathy and even when it harms them it doesn’t stop
Sibilance in: “merciless”,“iced”,“east”,“winds”,“us” - harsh noises, emphasises harsh nature of weather and strong whip-like winds
“Knive” – killing, piercing, impaling them, personification: wind is the killer, out to kill them, not the war enemy
“Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, But nothing happens”
Reality of conflict
Sibilance: portrays quiet yet eerie sound of whispering and keeps the silence reflected onto the reader similar to the soldiers
Listing of words surrounding suspicion creates tension, fear, confusion, not what is expected from the enemy
Paradox: cannot sleep because it is too quiet but nothing happens, only silence
Worried by the silence when usually soldiers would welcome silence as a break but here it is torture
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”
Power of nature, Effects of conflict, Reality of conflict
Clouds are attacking them
Next day arises but they are sleep deprived, still no action, no motivation “melancholy”, depression, miserable, nothing to look forward to but constant paranoia and fear
“dawn” is no longer about new hope but instead about dread and begrudging way of life full of gloom, despair
“Dawn massing” – personification – reflects hatred towards weather, speaks of it as if it is an army, enemy
“army” of clouds is like the German army however more repetition of “Nothing happens” shows another let down of their hopes for some sort of action
“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow.”
Power of nature, Reality of conflict
Sibilance: shows how sudden itis, quick, harsh sound, mirrors movement of bullets, jolts reader from passivity
However, even the bullets are “less deadly” than the weather
“Black with snow” – contrast/juxtaposition: “black” literal: snow has been discoloured by muddy trenches, miserable atmosphere. “black” metaphorical: It symbolises death, usually snow is white symbolising purity whilst black symbolises death.
“Our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires” contrasts “we turn back to our dying”
Reality of conflict
Idea of imagination vs reality as they remember home
“Ghosts” – trying to train their minds to travel home for a source of positivity and hope. Remembering as to why they are fighting, family memories and their safety, dying, nearly dead, ready to go to escape this hell
“Sunk fires” – warmth imagery, reflects strong desire for light and warmth, so eternally cold even just imagining it brings them strength
Contrasts with:
Returning to reality where they are dying
Realising that this is their reality now and possibly their last memories, hurts more because of this comparison to what they left behind
“For God’s invincible spring our love is made afraid” but “For the love of God seems dying”
Reality of conflict
Paradox that the soldiers cannot win.
“invincible” – 1. they believe that God is on their side and will help them to win without failure, 2. the bad weather will be replaced by warmer Spring which will allow normal fighting to continue which is why they are “afraid”, they also may not even make it to Spring and their love turns to fear at these realisations
“The love of God seems dying” – 1. to love God is to die for belief, Christianity, kept their faith. 2. How could God allow such horrendous suffering on such a colossal scale, questions: Is to love God to die?
“Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice, But nothing happens”
Reality of conflict
Over the night many soldiers will die of hypothermia from the extreme cold
“Pausing over half-known faces” – the buriers only “pause”, not “stop”, there are so many deaths they are numb to it and it doesn’t faze them anymore
“half-known faces” – ominous, so many deaths cant be counted. So many died with no-one they knew around them, barely acquaintances but close enough to be affected . they are dying for nothing
“Ice” – frozen and dead from cold, “frozen-over” – metaphorical, also when dead the eyes look like glass, still
Structure (3)
- Autobiographical, First person plural presents the collective suffering of the soldiers
- 8 stanzas of 5 lines, last line is shorter in every stanza. This acts as an anti-climax because despite all the nervous anticipation, this is a poem in which “nothing happens”. The line leads nowhere just as the men are going nowhere and have no purpose
- Regular rhyme scheme of abbac. Use of half rhyme creates an unsettling feeling throughout and represents the monotonous nature of the men’s experiences. This is because half rhymes sound wrong and the poem describes the situation where many things are wrong
Context (6)
- Wilfred Owen is widely recognised as the leading British WWI poet. He dies in the action in 1918 just a week before the war ended
- A main focus of WWI was trench warfare, resulted in enormous loss of life with little ground gained.
- During the battle of the Somme over 60,000 British soldiers died in one day and only 6 miles were gained by the end of the war.
- Trench life was awful as hundreds of thousands of soldier lived in cramped holes underground in barbaric conditions, plagued by rats, lice and the freezing cold.
- Owen was angry that the soldiers lived in dangerous trenches whilst the generals lived comfortably behind the front line and his poems try to show the truthful conditions to the people back home.
- The poet’s tone and provoking and emotive language is used to upset the reader.
