Exposure Flashcards
Context
• Owen - in 1917 he wrote to his mother, ‘the marvel is that we did not all die of cold’
• poem is about war between the soldiers and weather conditions
• nature as an enemy is a recurring theme
• exposure of truth for British soliders
• combat stress reaction and shell shock as a result of living on high adrenaline
• poem was written in the trenches, so an authentic account
• wants to expose reality/horror of war
• lived 1893-1918
• gave up a career in church because he felt people weren’t being looked after
• avid fan of John Keats
• in his time, Owen was a revolutionary war poet - most focused on patriotism, where Owen wanted to dispel this myth that was was honourable and exciting
• believed war was pointless
• didn’t believe in the ‘honour, might, majesty, dominion or power’ of war
Structure and rhyme scheme
• eight quintains
• each stanza begins with a blunt and powerful sentence, followed by highly emotive vocab choices, building tension, and ends with an anti-climax - repeated to emphasise constant rollercoaster
• ABBAC rhyme scheme and pararhyme - building anticipation which is never realised, denied satisfaction of full rhyme
• sense of being incomplete
• unconventional rhyme creates impression poem is only just kept together, like soliders are only just coping
• consistency of rhyme scheme allows the fifth line to stand out, emphasising it’s message - monotony of war is revealed
FOTTE
F - pararhyme, anti-climax
O - ‘our brains ache’ - John Keats - witnessing evil and link to nature
T - anthropomorphism - ‘we cringe in holes’
T - metaphor ‘our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires’
E - ‘but nothing happens’ - cyclical, ‘all their eyes are ice’
