Exposure

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

“Knive us… silent…salient…nervous…happens”

• The first four lines of verses have a rhyme pattern which is then broken to reflect anticipation and momentum of the battle which never comes. The repetitive nature is reflecting repetitive and futile situation soldiers are in
• Pararhyme gives it an incomplete edge and there is a denied satisfaction, perfection just like there is no situation of war. There is no fighting which makes it incomplete as that is what they are here for
• The eight-verse repetition reflect the emotional roller-coaster of the soldiers

Question 2

Opening

Answer 2

“Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
* We expect the danger to be the enemy. Irony as nature is attacking men, nature is tuning against the barbaric nature of man and killing them as if nature is punishing them. It is not taking mercy on the men because of the horror of war they brough to the land
* Assonance of the repeated “I” in “brains…in the merciless iced” slows down the rhythm of the rhyme and slows down the exposure the speaker is feeling as they are out there for a long time
* Length of lines are 12 – 13 syllables. We normally find poems with 10 or less so Owen wants to mimic how long the men are exposed to terrible conditions which would kill them

Question 3

SOAPAIMS x2

Answer 3

“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”
* Sibilance to represent that there is a constant threat. The sound of bullets. The ‘s’ sounds are harsh showing that the conditions they are in are always harsh.
* Sibilance refers to bullets being found and a change of pace from the previous stanza suggesting a new urgent threat.
* Continuation of “s” could imply how the bullets never stop and are continuous.
* Contrast between silence and sudden gunfire.
“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”
* Nature is more dangerous. Personification and there are little differences between nature and soldier as they are both killing
* Labiodental fricative of ‘f’. The snowflakes sound so gentle and evocatively beautiful but is deadly
* Adjective “pale” connotes death and sickness the result of war. I could represent the fear the soldiers feel as they sit in the trenches

Question 4

Structure

Answer 4

“But nothing happens”
* Cyclical structure to the beginning as at the first stanza at the end nothing happens as well. It is an anti-climactic end. They are slowly going crazy and paranoid. They are slowly dying that is the truth. They either die from bullets or slowly perishing due to nature or their own mental health.

Question 5

Ending

Answer 5

“For love of God seems dying”
* People are challenging belief in God. How can there be God if there is so much suffering. One of God’s commandments are “thou shalt not kill” but if God was on their side, then they would not even be going into war
* Reference of Christ’s death. Soldiers are like the god’s death. The soldiers are like God, giving up everything to protect their country and fighting for the civilians.