exposure

Question 1

“our brains

Answer 1

ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”

• sibilance along with harsh consonants create a cutting, bitter element that “knive” the men
• brains ache: mentally affected as well as physically

Question 2

“exposure”

Answer 2

abstract noun suggests loss of protection, soldiers are vulnerable

Question 3

“worried by

Answer 3

silence, sentries, whisper, curious, nervous”

• plethora of different emotions shows emotional conflict and overload of emotions
• “silence” : more deadly, psychologically tormenting and threatening than the expected loud sounds of war. emphasises the psychological power that nature, and it’s absence, has over human.

Question 4

“dawn

Answer 4

massing in the east her melancholy army”

• personification of nature heightens pathetic fallacy- used to imply that nature is the most powerful of all forces

Question 5

“sudden

Answer 5

successive flights of bullets streak the silence”

• sibilance used to imitate the sound of bullets in the air; emphasising it’s danger

Question 6

“what are we doing here?”
“is it that we are dying? ”

Answer 6

question asked in second stanza, answered in the last stanza. soldier experiences moments of clarity