Exposure

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

Written in first person plural - collective voice shows how this experience was shared by soldiers across the war.

Rhyme - regular rhyme scheme shows the monotonous nature of war
Half rhyme gives an uncomfortable feeling to the poem
“Salient, silent”

Rhythm - each stanza ends with a half line showing how it’s an end of a cycle that hasn’t finished yet. It never will.

Question 2

Repetition

Answer 2

“But nothing happens”

• the repetition of this shows how monotonous it is for the soldiers
• constant state of misery

“What are we doing here?”
- rhetorical questions ask why the men are exposed to such suffering

“For love of god seems dying”
-Universal bleakness

Question 3

Paradoxical language

Answer 3

“Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent”
-usually silence brings peace but it doesn’t here

Things that bring peace bring terror (nature)

Question 4

Aural quality of words

Answer 4

Firstly long vowels
- “weary”
Gives a sense of the long time they were there

Changes during the attack to short and snappy
-“sudden successive”

Question 5

Pathetic Fallacy

Answer 5

Nature is the real enemy in the trenches
“Iced east winds that knive”

“Shivering ranks of grey”
- grey is the clouds and the colour of the German uniform

Weather is a slow death whereas bullets is fast

Question 6

Suffering

Answer 6

There is reminders of the real physical pain as well as the mental and emotional pain and loss of hope. Even thinking about home is painful for the men

Question 7

Boredom

Answer 7

There is a sense of frustration brought by the repetition and they are left to contemplate about their own deaths and loose hope for God

Question 8

Hopelessness

Answer 8

The soldiers are helpless against the weather.
Little hope for the men
Sense of vulnerability

Question 9

Context

Answer 9

Wilfred Owen was a soldier in WW1.

He was against war and was never patriotic and wrote about the pain of war.

He wrote about the horrible conditions and why the soldiers are fighting