Exposure Flashcards
Who wrote Exposure?
Wilfred Owen
What is the opening line, which implies that it is about a shared experience?
“Our brains ache”
What quotation, in stanza one, shows that nature is personified and shown to be attacking the soldiers?
“in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
What type of punctuation shows that the soldiers are waiting for something to happen - but it never does?
ellipses …
What emotions are used to show the reason why their brains hurt?
“confuse/worried/curious/nervous”
What short, simple half line emphasises boredom and tension and is repeated throughout the poem?
“But nothing happens”
What quotation uses “brambles” of the barbed wire to remind us of the pain caused by nature?
“like twitching agonies of men among its brambles”
What quotation uses assonance and onomatopoeia to create a vivid aural description of the battle field?
“flickering gunnery rumbles”
What quotation is a biblical reference to Mathew 24:6, where Jesus foretells the end of the world?
“like a dull rumour of some other war”
What rhetorical question asks what the point of it all is?
“what are we doing here”
What quotation shows that dawn is personified and that it normally brings hope, however not in this case?
“dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”
What quotation is a description of dawn approaching which mirrors the soldiers in the trenches?
“ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
What does the colour “grey” have connotations of?
no colour - the battlefield is cold and lifeless. Grey was the colour of the Germans uniforms so this aligns nature with the enemy
What quotation uses sibilance to mimic the whistling sound of bullets flying?
“sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”
What does the quotation “black with snow” suggest?
That snow is normally white and symbolises purity but here it is black which symbolises death and evil
What quotation used alliteration to emphasise the relentlessness of the snow?
‘flowing flakes that flock”
What quotation shows the snowflakes being personified - maliciously seeking the men’s faces?
“pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”
What quotations use half-rhyme to link between their current situation and their dreams of the past?
“snow-dazed” and “sun-dozed”
What rhetoric question is an answer to the question in stanza 2?
“is it that we are dying?”
What quotations uses assonance of the “oh” sounds to make the imagined journey seem painful and slow?
“slowly” “ghosts” “home” “glozed”
What quotation is a metaphor which shows that they look like jewels which are precious but cold?
“crusted dark-red jewels”
What quotation has frequent caesuras which reflect the soldier’s concerns that people back home were losing interest in their fate?
“shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed, -“
What quotations suggests the soldiers believe they’re sacrificing themselves in order for life at home to be preserved?
“since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn; nor even suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.”
What quotation implies that the soldier’s love for God is disappearing or God’s love for them is disappearing?
“for love of God seems dying.”
What quotation uses vivid imagery of what exposure to the cold does to the soldiers bodies?
“shrivelling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp”
What metaphor refers to the eyes of the dead and the living and shows that the soldiers lose the feeling of emotion due to the fact they’re overpowered by nature?
“all their eyes are ice”
What quotation in the final stanza ends the same way as the first stanza, suggesting that even death doesn’t change anything?
“But nothing happens”
What is the form of exposure?
Present tenses, first person plural. Regular rhyme scheme reflecting urge monotonous nature of the men’s experiences
What is the structure of exposure?
8 stanzas - no real progression. The last stanza ends with the same as the first one, showing the monotony of life in the trenches and the absence of change
What is the mood/tone of exposure?
suffering/boredom/hopelessness
