exposure

Question 1

what is the poem about (4)

Answer 1

1 soldiers in the trenches in ww1 are awake at night afraid of the enemy attack
2 nature seems to be their main enemy - it is freezing cold, windy and snowy
3 The men imagine returning home but the doors are closed to them. They think sacrificing themselves is the only way of keeping their loved ones at home safe
4 They return to thinking about their deaths in the trenches

Question 2

what form does the poem take (3)

Answer 2

1 first person plural voice shows all the soldiers share the same feelings -gives poem eerie mood as if all soldiers are speaking in unison
2 ABBAC rhyme scheme - monotony of the mens experience
3 fifth line of each stanza - half line- shows no hope and creates tension
4 present tense creates a sense of it all never ending

Question 3

what is the structure (3)

Answer 3

1 8 stanzas
2 final line is a question reflecting on their situations
3 - nothing changes despite their sacrifice

Question 4

key context (4)

Answer 4

1 written between 1917 1nd 1918 from the trenches of WW1 not long before Owen was killed
2 Owen had first hand experience of the realities of warfare
3 he suffered with shell shock PTSD in 1917
4 challenged the propaganda created by the media

Question 5

what is the poets key messages (2)

Answer 5

1 to dismiss the glamorisation of patriotism and expose the truths of ww1
2 war is futile and a waste of life
3nnature is presented as incredibly powerful- despite war, it is the soldiers most dangerous enemy.

Question 6

key quotes

Answer 6

1 our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us- personification of weather presents it as dangerous
2 but nothing happens- repeating emphasises monotony soldiers are living through
3 sudden successive flights of bullets streak with silence- sibilance makes bullet sounds soft reducing the threat less deadly
4 than the air that shudders black with snow- weather seem more of a threat than the war
4 what are we doing hear - implies soldiers question the point of their sacrifice however at the end of the poem they turn back to their dying “ because they believe otherwise
“kind fires wont burn or sun wont smile true on children - suggest they cling on to belief their deaths have a purpose
6 all their eyes are ice - metaphor conveys the loss of emotion in the soldiers frozen death like state

Question 7

which poem compares well

Answer 7

london

Question 8

how do they compare

Answer 8

1 both poems use bleak imagery throughout to convey hopelessness
2 in London the image of the marriage hearse suggests even a happy occasion is tainted and offers no hope. Similarly in exposure bleakness is created through the air being black with snow. This is in contrast to the tradition image of white snow being pure and replaces them with blackness which could represent hopelessness and death
3 exposure is arguably more emotive because the men are narrating their own suffering and contemplating their own deaths - Owen draws upon his own time in ww1 trenches further heightens the emotions. In London despite the emotive images there is disconnect between the speaker and the suffering. Blakes occupation as a poet and artist does not add the same emotion to the poem as Owen’s own experiences,