Exposure Flashcards
Wilfred Owen
‘Our brains ache…’
‘Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us’
‘Wearied we keep awake…’
‘Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent’
‘Worried by silence…’
‘Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, But nothing happens.’
‘The poignant misery…’
‘The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow’
‘Sudden successive flights…’
‘Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’
‘Pale flakes with fingering…’
‘Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces…Is it that we are dying?’
‘The burying party…’
‘The burying party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp, Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
But nothing happens.’
‘Slowly our ghosts…’
‘Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires’
‘Northward, incessantly…’
‘Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rambles, Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war. What are we doing here?’
‘Tonight, this frost will…’
‘Tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us,
Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp’
