Exposure

Question 1

in the merciless iced east winds that knive us… Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent…

Answer 1

The harsh weather conditions are an additional opponent for the soldiers. There are sibilant ’s’ and alliterative‘w’ sounds in ‘iced east winds’ — consonances that convey the biting cold, the intensity of the wind that hurts them as if stabbed with a knife.The personification of the wind suggests that the weather is like a deliberately vicious and inescapable enemy.The men are faced with double peril; enemy soldiers and the risk of hypothermia from exposure. To emphasize how long this drags on, ellipses are used after ‘silent’…

Question 2

We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.

Answer 2

It’s the only thing they know, as they are confused and numb to the whole situation. ‘War lasts’ being juxtaposed with ‘rain soaks’ joins something very normal to something horrific, but both are part of everyday life for them.

Note the heavy, slow rhythm of this line, with long assonant vowels in ‘clouds’, and ‘know’ and ‘soaks’, and especially the last phrase ‘clouds sag stormy.’ If spoken aloud, the words would be difficult to say. Sibilance—repetition of the ’s’ sound—is used; it creates an eerie watery sound, echoing lines one and two of the first stanza.

Question 3

For love of God seems dying

Answer 3

This again is complex.

The simple Christianity in which Owen once believed seems inappropriate. They lose faith in God because He is allowing them to die slowly in the cold. The previous lines in the same stanza point to this, in their fear that ‘invincible’ spring is not ‘true’; not something they can trust.

It could also suggest that God’s love for them has died, or why would He not care for them and save them? They thought it was God’s intention for them. It also leaves doubt as to whether they will receive and fulfill God’s love when dead