Exposure Flashcards
what is the poem about?
soldiers in trenches of World War One are awake at night, afraid of an enemy attack but nature seems to be their main enemy
‘our brains ache’
reference to the mental and physical pain soldiers endure from bombs and gunshots
‘the merciless iced east winds that knive us…’
creates imagery that the audience will be able to see how ‘merciless’ and brutal the wind is
‘sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’
sibilance mimics the bullet, nature is the real enemy (snow is the real threat)
‘Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army’
dawn is personified using the language of battle, normally dawn brings hope but not here
‘what are we doing here?’
rhetorical question - represents that the soldiers are loosing hope and questioning what they are truly fighting for
‘snow-dazed’ ‘sun-dozed’
half-rhyme creates a link between their current situation and their dreams of the past
‘for love of God seems dying’
could mean that their love of God is disappearing or that they feel God’s love for them is dying, they are question Gods faith and are questioning whether if he was real would he put them through it
‘all their eyes are ice’
metaphor refers to the eyes of the living and the dead men - its a vivid description of how they’ve been overpowered by nature, it hints that living men are no longer able to feel any emotion after all they have been exposed to
‘but nothing happens’
final stanza ends in the same way as the first, suggests that even death doesn’t change anything
what are the themes in ‘Expose’?
nature, conflict, loss and absence
the power of nature in ‘Exposure’?
it is personified as the deadly enemy, the men don’t expect to die from German gunfire but from the exposure to the elements
conflict in ‘Exposure’?
bleak imagery is used to convey the men’s pain, the hopeless tone of the poem suggests that the men believe they have little chance of surviving but they seem to except that they are never going to see their families again
loss and absence in ‘Expose’?
the men in the trenches have no hope of things improving. ‘we only know war lasts, rain soaks and clouds sag stormy’ emphasises that their lives are miserable and filled with suffering
what is the form of ‘Exposure’?
present tense, collective voice shows the experience was shared, regular rhyme scheme (ABBAC), each stanza ends with a half line, leaving a gap which mirrors the lack of activity or hope for the men
