Exposure Flashcards
Form
Consistency of rhyme scheme, in the first stanza Owen builds rich imagery throughout, and the simple fifth line “but nothing happens” creates an anti-climax to symbolise the monotony of war.
Pararhyming of “winds that knife us” and “curious, nervous” is unconventional, creating the impression the poem is only just being kept together just like the soldiers are only just coping
Structure
Cyclical structure - “but nothing happens” on last lines of first/final stanzas connect the end and beginning of the poem
Anaphora, speaker repeats “but nothing happens” to emphasise the futility of war as the situation remains the same despite their suffering
Caesura - separates home from trenches
Language
Religious references - Owen uses a contemporary listener’s association of Christianity with morality to show the soldier’s selflessness, as the speaker says “for love
of God seems dying,”- but also shows the soldiers losing their love of God, their faith is “dying” as it’s difficult to reconcile the theory of a benevolent God with the reality of conflict
Sibilance - “sudden successive flights of nullets streak the silence,”: sinilant consonants mirror the sound of gunfire showing snow’s the real threat
Personification of nature - bigger threat than the actual enemy, Owen makes a direct comparison by describing the actual battle as “less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,” which ironically suggests soldiers have gone away to fight with nature instead of the opposition
Reality of war
Boredom - Passage of tone represented by description of season changing from “snow-dazed” to “sun-dozed,” showing how long the soldiers are in the trenches just waiting.
Despondency felt by soldiers who believe they’re being forgotten - “on us the doors are closed”(metaphor)
Suffering-
Owen negatively personifies the wind as “mad gusts tugging on the wire like twitching agonies”
Soldiers unable to sleep due to fear driven constant state of alertness - “wearied, we stay awake because the night is silent”
