Exposure Flashcards
“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us… Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent”
Irony as nature itself is attacking the men instead of the enemy.
Assonance of “I” slows down the line and mimicks the exposure that the speaker is feeling.
Owen draws out the line length to mirror the exposure of the men.
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
Suggests that there is more danger from the weather than there is from the soldiers from the trenches.
Pathetic fallacy - the melancholy weather reflects the emotions of the men.
“So we drowse, sun-dozed, littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses. - is it that we are dying?”
The soldiers escape from the war, in their minds.
The sibilance is ironic as nature is seducing him to sleep so that it can kill him.
“Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born, For love of God seems dying”.
“lie” could imply that the soldiers are lying when they say they should die for their country.
“For love of God seems dying” suggests that people have no love for God by going to war because he would not approve of us fighting, with the commandment thou shalt not kill.
“Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice, but nothing happens”.
The burial party’s eyes have become like ice as they are completely unfeeling. War has removed their ability to empathise.
“But nothing happens” Owen is making a political point, calling for peace as war does nothing.
How does repetition enforce Owen’s political point?
The repetition of “but nothing happens” emphasises Owen’s demands for peace as war is not resolving problems.
