Exposure

Question 1

Context and motivation

Answer 1

Most poems before were patriotic
He wanted to change these British attitudes
Also he had left the church
Questioning if there is a god because of this terrible thing

Question 2

What happens in the poem?

Answer 2

They are in a trench and the weather is very cold, causing a lot of suffering
No conflict except distant sounds
They begin to zone out and wonder if they are drying
Reflects on going home
Comment on how they have to go to war to protect domestic life
They will have to live through it tomorrow

Question 3

What structure does each stanza follow?

Answer 3

Begins with a blunt and powerful sentence
Followed by emotive sentences
Ends with anti climax ‘but nothing happens’

Question 4

What does the structure of each stanza represent?

Answer 4

Owen’s experience of war
A lot of it is just waiting around filled with adrenaline terrified of what is to come
But it never happens and it’s just constant anxiety

Question 5

Blunt and powerful sentence example

Answer 5

‘Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us…’

Question 6

Examples of emotive words

Answer 6

‘Wearied’ ‘low’ ‘drooping’ ‘worried’ ‘nervous’

Question 7

Rhyme scheme throughout the whole poem

Answer 7

1st line rhymes with 4th
2nd and 3rd rhymes
5th doesn’t rhyme

Question 8

What is the effect of the thyme scheme?

Answer 8

Same repetitive rhyme = same repetitive suffering the soldiers have to go through that’s inescapable

Question 9

What type of rhyme does he use?

Answer 9

Pararhyme
The consonants rhyme but the vowels don’t

Question 10

Examples of pararhyme

Answer 10

‘Knive us’ ‘nervous’
‘Silent’ ‘salient’

Question 11

What is the effect of the pararhyme?

Answer 11

Something is not quite right as the vowels are different
Creates permanent nervous sense
No satisfaction of full rhyme = soldiers feel the deprivation of safety

Question 12

‘For love of God is dying’

Answer 12

He left the church = people are losing their faith because of this
Biblical imagery of Jesus sacrificially dying on the cross = soldiers

Question 13

Biblical imagery

Answer 13

‘Like a dull rumour of some other war’
Reference to Bible verse which says the end of the war will be when there’s rumours of war

Question 14

Effect of Biblical imagery

Answer 14

The situation is so horrible it feels like the end of the world

Question 15

Personification in exposure

Answer 15

‘Winds that knive us’
‘Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army’

Question 16

Why does he use personification

Answer 16

To show the absolute danger of weather and how its a bigger enemy than the opposing side

Question 17

Examples of sibilance

Answer 17

‘Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’
‘Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces’

Question 18

Effect of sibilance

Answer 18

Creates sound of flying bullets
Creates sounds of shivering soldiers
Creates sinister tone that the environment is dangerous

Question 19

Why does he use caesura so much

Answer 19

Reflects the division between war and the soldiers dream of domestic life

Question 20

Ending of the poem

Answer 20

‘But nothing happens’

Question 21

Effect of ending poem

Answer 21

Repetition of the same phrase creates cyclical structure
Nothing as a result has been achieved
They must go back to their suffering

Question 22

‘Our ghosts drag home’

Answer 22

Ghosts = their conscience fading back to a domestic life without suffering

Question 23

‘Shutters and doors, all closed; on us the doors are closed’

Answer 23

Doors are closed because to keep in heat back home, unlike them who are trapped in cold.
Doors are however metaphorically trapped on them and they can’t get back
Caesura = divide between domestic life and war zone