Exposure Flashcards
a bit chilly
“merciless iced east winds that knive us”
.Personification of the wind
.Emphasises the brutality
“But nothing happens”
.refrain
.mimics the cyclical nature of life in the trenches.
.Contrasts Jessie Pope’s portrayal of war
“like a dull rumour of some other war”
.Contrasts Jessie Pope’s portrayal of war
.ties in with “but nothing happens”
“Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
.Grey is the colour of German Soldier Uniforms
.
“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”
.sibilance mimics the sound of the wind
“Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow”
.the weather is the most deadly thing there
.links to title of poem
Exposure
.polysemic
.literal exposure to elements
.exposing the truth of war
.Owen’s response to Jessie Pope
“Slowly our ghosts drag home”
.they might as well be dead if they are already ghosts
.Our is a collective pronoun which de-invidualises them.
“on us the doors are closed, - We turn back to our dying”
.shows they have no other option but to remain in the trenches
.they have no other fate but to die in war
.’us’ and ‘we’ are collective pronouns
“For love of God seems dying”
.The soldiers have lost their faith in God due to the horror they experience