Exposure Flashcards

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1
Q

How many stanzas are in Exposure?

A

Eight

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2
Q

What does repeating the phrase ‘But nothing happens’ emphasise?

A

The agony of waiting and that war is not all about action

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3
Q

What are the three main themes in Exposure?

A

War, Weather and Despair

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4
Q

What are the different interpretations of the line ‘Our brains ache’?

A

The soldiers are in physical pain

The soldiers are developing psychological problems

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5
Q

What are the different interpretations of the line ‘We cringe in holes’?

A

The poet makes us think the soldiers are like frightened animals

The poet reminds the reader that the soldiers are just ordinary men

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6
Q

What are the different interpretations of the line ‘…on us the doors are closed’?

A

The soldiers are thinking back to happier times

The soldiers are thinking ahead to what lies in store for them

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7
Q

What rhyming pattern to the stanzas follow?

A

ABBAC

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8
Q

What does Owen used to unsettle the reader and defy the expected outcome?

A

Half rhyme.

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9
Q

What is the effect of assonance in Exposure? (Give examples)

A

Unsettling

‘knive us’ ‘nervous’ ‘silent’ ‘salient’

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10
Q

What does the use of sibilance do in the fourth stanza? (give examples)

A

Reminds us the of the whizzing sound of the bullets.
The sibilance gradually fades away, like the hail of bullets would do.

‘Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.’

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11
Q

What effect does assonance have in the third stanza? (give examples)

A

The long ‘o’ sounds emphasises the tedious wait for something to occur.

‘know’ ‘grow’ ‘soak’

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12
Q

What are the two different aspects of the poem?

A

The war itself and the conditions they are trying to survive in

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13
Q

How does Owen draw the reader in?

A

Use of emotive language

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14
Q

What poetic technique can you identify: ‘flickering gunnery rumbles’

A

onomatopoeia

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15
Q

What is the structure of this poem?

A

Blank verse

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16
Q

The tone of the poem is?

A

Despair

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17
Q

‘Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow’ uses the technique…

A

Personification

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18
Q

The phrase ‘but nothing happens’ indicates

A

No one will come to help them

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19
Q

What themes are evident throughout the poem?

A

Effects of conflict
Power of nature
Reality of conflict

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20
Q

What effect do the regular stanzas and rhyme have?

A

reflects the monotony involved and that nothing changes

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21
Q

Half rhyme is used in places; what effect does it have on the reader?

A

It’s unsettling, which reflects difficulties being faced

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22
Q

Which technique: ‘mad gusts tugging’ and ‘Pale flakes…feeling for our faces’?

A

Personification

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23
Q

What is the effect of the personification?

A

Makes the weather seem purposeful, depicting it as the enemy

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24
Q

What is the effect of the sibilance used here: ‘silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous’?

A

It conveys hushed tones, depicting the soldiers’ worry

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25
Q

Wilfred Owen wrote ‘Exposure’ during which war?

A

WW1

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26
Q

In what year was Wilfred Owen hospitalised?

A

1917

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27
Q

In Exposure, the para-rhyme shows…

A

Owen was showing that war us unnatural and chaotic

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28
Q

Complete the line: Slowly, our ___________ drag home

A

Ghosts

29
Q

Complete the line: Dawn massing in the east her…

A

melancholy army

30
Q

Complete the line: Sudden successive flights of bullets…

A

streak the silence

31
Q

Complete the line: We _______________ in holes

A

cringe

32
Q

What is the opening line of Exposure?

A

Our brains ache

33
Q

Exposure focuses on…

A

trench foot
frostbite
hypothermia

34
Q

What is presented as the real enemy to the soldiers in Wilfred Owen’s Exposure?

A

The Weather

Boredom

35
Q

Wilfred Owen was…

three points

A

…famously anti-war
…one of the most well known WW1 poets
…a solider in the war twice

36
Q

What are key ideas in Exposure?

A
Lasting effects of war
Boredom in war
Weather as enemy 
Pointlessness of war
Loss of humanity
37
Q

Summarise the poem:

A

The poem is written from the point of view of a WW1 soldier describing living through the misery, boredom and icy weather conditions during a night in the trenches. The weather is presented as the real enemy of the soldiers.

38
Q

What could the title suggest?

A

The title could refer to weather that the soldiers are ‘expos[ed]’.
However, Owen is also “expos[ing]” the harsh, undignified aspects of conflict that are never portrayed in propaganda or poems glorifying war.

39
Q

Explain the idea of loss of humanity in the poem:

A

There is a sense that the men lose their humanity and dignity.
This depiction is the antithesis (contrast) to images of heroism soldiers would have seen before war.

40
Q

Explain the idea of lasting effects of war in the poem:

A

The speaker hints at the fact that war changes the soldiers irreversibly as they no longer fit in when they return home.
The negative consequences of war are lasting.

41
Q

Explain the idea of pointlessness of war in the poem:

A

The speaker in the poem seems to have lost sight of what he is fighting for

42
Q

Explain the idea of misery in war in the poem:

A

Unlike the propaganda materials that focused on the glory of war, this poem reveals the horrific day-to day misery experienced by those who went to war.

43
Q

What quotations suggest the idea that there is a loss of humanity in war?

A

“Slowly, our ghosts drag home”

“we cringe in holes”

44
Q

What quotation in the poem uses sibilance?

A

“Our brains ache in the merciless ice east winds that knife us”

45
Q

What the sibilance in the quotation “Our brains ache in the merciless ice east winds that knife us” highlight?

A

The intensity of the pain and the brutality of the weather

46
Q

Finish the quotation:

“Less deadly than the air…

A

…that shudders black with snow”

47
Q

What does the quotation “Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow” suggest?

A

That nature is more damaging and deadly than bullets

48
Q

What quotation uses assonance?

A

“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”

49
Q

What does the assonance in the quotation “Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces” reflect?

A

It reflects the ferocity of the weather

50
Q

What is personified in these lines?

“Dawn amassing in the East her melancholy army / Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey.”

A

Dawn

51
Q

What is the contradiction used the personification of dawn?

A

Dawn, usually associated with ideas of light and hope, is here hostile and brings even more suffering.

52
Q

What techniques are used in the lines personifying Dawn?

A

Contradiction
Colour Imagery
Military Vocabulary

53
Q

What quotations use imagery to highlight the misery of the soldiers in war?

A

“War lasts, rain soaks and clouds sag stormy”

“The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow”

54
Q

What does the use of Rhetorical Questions in the poem suggest?

A

The pointlessness of war

55
Q

Give examples of rhetorical questions in the poem:

A

“What are we doing here?”

“Is it that we are dying?”

56
Q

What line is repeated throughout the poem?

A

“but nothing happens”

57
Q

What sense does the repetition of “but nothing happens” give the reader?

A

A sense of boredom caused by waiting

58
Q

What does the line “but nothing happens” hint at?

A

The pointlessness of war

59
Q

What metaphor reminds us that the soldiers are on the brink of death?

A

“Slowly, our ghosts drag home”

60
Q

What metaphor implies that the soldiers have lost their humanity and are close to breaking point?

A

“All their eyes are ice”

61
Q

Fill in the gaps:

“War lasts, rain (1) and (2) sag stormy”

A

(1) soaks

(2) clouds

62
Q

What does the quotation “Slowly, our ghosts drag home” suggest?

A

War has sucked all the life out of the soldiers

63
Q

What is the poem written in?

A

First person

64
Q

What are examples of possessive pronouns used in the poem?

A

“we” “us” “our”

65
Q

What does the use of possessive pronouns hint at?

A

The collective suffering of the soldiers in WW1.

It also encourages the reader to share in their pain

66
Q

What is the purpose of the repetition of the ABBAC rhyme scheme?

A

To reflect how nothing changes

67
Q

What is the purpose of the final line in each stanza?

A

To create an unsettling feel.

Mirrors how destabilised and on edge the soldiers feel

68
Q

What poems could you compare the theme of power of nature vs power of man in Exposure with?

A

Storm on the Island
The Prelude
Tissue

69
Q

What poems could you compare the effects/reality of conflict in Exposure with?

A
War Photographer
Poppies
Kamikaze
Bayonet Charge
Remains