Exposure

Question 1

Who was the poet that wrote exposure ? What are some useful contextual points about him ?

Answer 1

Wilfred Owen
- beloved war was pointless and this is a recurring theme in exposure
- often writes bitterly satirical poetry
- fought and died in WW1 in the British army
- perused a career in the church but found they didn’t do what they said they did

Question 2

What is the context of the poem ?

Answer 2

WW1
- conditions where appalling and harsh
- war was seen as honour able and exiting and almost a privilege
- Owen was keen to expose the reality of war
- British public knew little of the real war
- Owens was a revolutionary poet and didn’t conform to the ideas of glorification of war and overly nationalistic pride

Question 3

Analyze the structure of the peom?

Answer 3

The poet employs half rhyme
- gives the poems a sense of nervous anticipation
Rhyme
- ABBAC
- build up of rhyme causes anticipation yet as the reader we are repeatedly let down as it is broken in the final line reflecting the repetitive and futile situation the soldiers experienced

Question 4

Analyze the end lines of each stanza ? Think qoute, what and why

Answer 4

The repetition of blunt anticlimactic lines to close each stanza ‘but nothing happens.’
- build up of highly emotional and often visceral imagery as the reader anticipates combat yet they are repeatedly mislead
- the reader is faced with a version of war that is unconventional so we empathize with them
- conveys the repetitive and mundane warfare of WW1
- used to hearing about action and heroism her own subverts these expiations to show the harsh realities of war
- caesura forces us to stop and focus like the soldiers

Question 5

What are the 9 quotes you should know ? (Death, other fight, wind and flake, attack, wait, sunrise, fires, winds)

Answer 5

‘ dying’
‘Dull rumor of some other war’
‘Winds that knife us’+’ pale flakes with fingering stealth’
‘Attack once more in ranks shivering ranks of grey’
‘ but nothing happens.’
‘Dawn’
‘Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires’
‘East winds that knife us…’

Question 6

Why does the poet repeatedly use a specific word at the end of a lot of stanza ? What and why

Answer 6

‘Dying’
- ambiguous biblical references to gos
- references to Christian story of Jesus as they die for something they believe in
- the soldiers are like Christ dying to save others

Question 7

What is a good qoute showing there annoyance ?

Answer 7

‘ dull rumor of some other war’
- biblical allusion to the end of the world
- religious link to bible
- their situation is so bad that it’s like the end of the world

Question 8

What is a good qoute showing natures power and aggression ? What and why ?

Answer 8

‘East winds that knife us’ ‘pale flakes with fingering stealth’
- repeated personification of nature but juxtaposing pastoral and anti-pastoral imagery
- fricative makes it sound harsh
- inversion of the conventional pastoral imagery into hostile with nature itself being the enemy

Question 9

What is another example of nature being an enemy ?

Answer 9

‘ attack once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey’
- rain given militaristic qualities
- personification of nature

Question 10

What is a good qoute showing the cyclical structure ? What and why ? Tie this with two other quotes one being a question and the other sunrise

Answer 10

‘But nothing happens.’
- connection between the beginning and end of the poem which creates a cyclical structure
- emphasizes how nothing has happened and nothing has been achieved and leaves the poet to question ‘what are we doing here?’
- this repeated rhetorical question highlights the futility of war
-not even ‘dawn’ can save them as dawn symbolizes hope and renewal yet here it’s bitterly ironic for the soldiers

Question 11

What is a good qoute showing their death ?

Answer 11

‘Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sink fires’
- the colon is used as a syntax barrier and separates them from returning
- metaphor which both symbolizes and foreshadows their death and bleak impending future
- also possible biblical allusion to Mathew 13:42 as the port subtly references hell
- The poet suggests that for their torment and damage to the earth they shall go to hell for transgressing against god

Question 12

What is a good qoute showing the slow pace of war ?

Answer 12

‘East winds that knife us…’
- slows the pace of the poem as the reader is forced to expire ends the same frustrations as the soldiers
- repeated ellipses throughout the poem emphasizes the boredom of the soldiers