Exposure

Question 1

“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us”

Answer 1

Personification and sibilance.

Makes the weather seem deadly and menacing and characterises the weather as the real enemy of the soldiers.

Question 2

“Dawn massing in the East her melancholy army…”

Answer 2

Personification

Emphasises that nature is hostile and brings suffering.

Question 3

“All their eyes are ice”

Answer 3

Metaphor

Describes the extreme effects of the weather that have overcome the soldiers.

Question 4

“Less deathly than the air that shudders black with snow”

Answer 4

The weather is presented as more menacing than bullets. Contrasting images of black and snow are unsettling. They highlight the horrors of being exposed to the elements

Question 5

“But nothing happens…”

Answer 5

Repetition

Gives the readers a sense of the boredom caused by waiting and hints at the pointlessness of war.

Question 6

“Slowly, our ghosts drag home”

Answer 6

Metaphor

Suggests that war has sucked all the life out of the soldiers.

Question 7

“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”

Answer 7

Personification

- dawn is usually associated with ideas of light and hope but here its hostile and brings even more suffering

Question 8

“Black with snow”

Answer 8

Oxymoron

• unsettling, highlighting the horror of the soldiers being exposed to the elements
• highlights how close to death the soldiers are

Question 9

“Exposure”

Answer 9

Double meaning

• the soldiers are exposed to the elements of the weather
• the soldiers are also exposed to the futility of war