Exposure

Question 1

Who wrote exposure and when was it written

Answer 1

Wilfred Owen , 1917

Question 2

Summary of exposure

Answer 2

Nature is personified as the enemy rather than the actual opposition and it shows the trauma and possibly later psychological effects of war

Question 3

Key themes of exposure

Answer 3

-the futility of war
-suffering
-power of nature
-reality of conflict

Question 4

Context of exposure

Answer 4

-Poem was written whilst Owen was fighting in trenches which creates authentic first person narrative
-War was romanticised to the point it had gained mythical status, all poems at the time focused on the honour of fighting so he exposed the horrific reality of war, this contradicted the scenes portrayed in the British press
-based on World War One, where many suffered from hypothermia and frostbite

Question 5

Form and structure of exposure

Answer 5

-Last line of each stanza is shorted and indented which emphasises importance
-first four lines follow regular rhyming pattern which evokes the unchanging nature of daily life in the trenches (monotony of war)
-cyclical structure which portrays the fact that nothing has happened in that time

Question 6

Key quotes of exposure

Answer 6

‘Merciless iced east winds that knife is ‘
‘We cringe in holes’
‘We turn back to our dying’
‘But nothing happens ‘

Question 7

Analyse quote ‘we turn back to out dying’

Answer 7

-Inevitable sense of fate, there is no escape
-blunt passive statement shows soldiers disillusionment with war
-could be thought their faith is dying as it is difficult to reconcile the theory of a benevolent god with the reality of conflict, after WW1 Christianity falls apart

Question 8

Analyse quote ‘merciless east winds knive us ‘

Answer 8

-Personification and sibilance, nature is sinister
-killed stabbed by nature, nature is more deadly than the war, the weather is the real enemy
-merciless = without pity

Question 9

Analyse quote ‘but nothing happens ‘

Answer 9

-Repeated throughout poem
-emphasises agony of waiting and shows that war is not all action (soldiers must be vigilant) this is what is making the war so traumatic as their minds are filled with a constant sense of dread and sorrow
-critiquing war for its futility and unnecessary suffering, there is no glory or heroism to be found in trenches

Question 10

Analyse quote ‘we cringe in holes ‘

Answer 10

-cringe from something you don’t want to face, fear, terrified
-makes them seem like animals or prey, vulnerable
-remind the readers that the soldiers are just ordinary men and we are made to think how we would behave in the same circumstances would we be noble or terrified