Exposure Flashcards
Who wrote Exposure?
Wilfred Owen
What did Owen do for a living?
He was in the British army
What war was it about?
World war 1
What did war poetry focus on before Owen?
-Patriotic verse which praised the bravery of the soldiers
What were the British attitudes to war?
It was a very brave and heroic thing to do
What did Owen believe about war?
-It was pointless
What is seen as the enemy in Exposure?
Nature
What could the title ‘Exposure’ refer to?
- Him exposing the harsh realities of war to the public
- Alternatively it could be seen as the soldiers being exposed to the harsh weather conditions
“Our brains ache…”
“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
“But…”
“But nothing happens”
“For love…”
“For love of God seems dying”
“What are we….”
“What are we doing here?”
“Black with…”
“Black with snow”
What does the anti-climactic ending “but nothing happens” reflect?
-Each stanza ends with an anticlimax. Owen wants the reader to feel what it is like for the soldiers-preparing for a battle, then “nothing happens.” This emphasises the boredom and suffering that the soldiers experience.
What does the repetitive rhyme scheme ABBAC emphasise?
The repetitive nature of war and the boredom paired with it.
Why does Owen impose pararhyme in the first stanza?
To give the poem a sense of being incomplete, therefore the lack of perfection reflect the lack of perfection in the war which the soldiers have to experience.
As the first and last stanza end with “but nothing happens,” what structurally does it create?
A cyclical structure
What does the cyclical structure reflect?
That war achieves nothing, reflecting the absence of change in war.
