Exposure

Question 1

Key Idea

Answer 1

Nature is personified as the enemy rather than actual opposition, boredom is a key theme and psychological effects of war are explored.

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

Written in 1917, Owen actually fought in the trenches whereas Ted Hughes did not, in Britain war was romanticised to the point of mythical status. Dispelled this lie by writing of the horrors of war.

Question 2

‘Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us’

Answer 2

Nature is personified as the real enemy and sinister to embody fear, displays how they are fighting 2 battles at once, against their opposition and against nature (God) as well.

Question 3

For love of God seems dying’

Answer 3

Religious reference to imply the lack of religious imposed morality remaining in the situation to highlight the cruelty of it all.

Question 4

‘Sudden Successive flights of bullets streak the silence’ -

Answer 4

Sibilance to position nature as the enemy, imitates the sound of gunfire to show that nature is just as much of a threat. Sinister atmosphere created by the serpent like connotations of sibliance