Exposure Anthology Poems Flashcards
Summary of Poem
The poem is written from a WW1 soldier describing the weather and conditions they are in in the trenches living through misery, boredom and icy weather
Exposure Title Meaning
Ambiguous Meaning- could refer to the weather that the soldied are exposed to, Owen could also be exposing the truth of war and how harsh the conditions are and how propagnada and the government isn’t portraying it how it really is.
Key Ideas in Exposure
Owen shows the solders as freezing in the trenchs as they wait on an attack or movement from the other side. He reveals truths about war and explores the agony of waiting and the pain they are gong through.
Themes in Exposure
Loss of faith (in God)- “for the love of God seems dying” –> Destroyed by experience.
Themes in Exposure
Actual pain- “brain ache” –> physical impact
Themes in Exposure
Loss of Humanity- death and soldiers need to shut off their feelings as their coping strategy.
Personification of Weather
The weather is personified through to make is sound like the enemy and menacing as well as deathly. This is also characteristics the weather as the real enemy of the soldiers. E.g. “Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”, “Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow”, “Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”.
Repitition
Repitition of “but nothing happens” throughout the poems give the reader a sense of the boredom caused by waiting showing the pointless of war and how it only brings mental stresses.
Rhythm
The poem is made of 5 line stanzas. The form mirrors the repetitive and never ending nature of war and the ongoing boredom and misery of the soldiers.
Key Quotes
“but nothing happens”
“attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
“less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow”.
“slowly, our ghosts drag home”
