Exposure Quotes and Ideas

Question 1

The use of the collective pronoun ‘our’ shows that that suffering isn’t from one perspective, but it is from a shared experience. Futhermore, rather than a person fearing death from another person, the soldiers are fearing nature as the gales are personified to portray it as a merciless enemy.

Answer 1

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

Question 2

The use of the simple short half line shows the boredom of the soldiers and also builds gradual tension as the half line ends very abruptly compared to the rest of the lines in the stanza. Furthermore, this half line is repeated in the ends of stanzas 1, 3, 4, 8 suggesting the insanity of the soldiers.

Answer 2

“But nothing happens.”

Question 3

The use of rhetorical question questions the soldier’s will to fight. This half line may have an answer according to the fith stanza’s half line.

Answer 3

“What are we doing here?”

Question 4

What is the effect of the constant use of elipsis?

Answer 4

The elipsis emphasises the constant waiting for something “But nothing happens”…

Question 5

Wilfred Owen uses a oxymoron contrasting to a certain time of day to convey the low morale the soldiers have.

Answer 5

“misery of dawn”

Question 6

Wilfred Owen uses a semantic field of glumness to show the dull, greyness of the overcast weather is like an army.

Answer 6

“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey”

Question 7

Wilfred Owen uses the alliteration of ‘f’ to cast an ominous undertone creating a sinister image of these snowflakes as killers, disturbing the otherwise nonthreatening image.

Answer 7

“With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause and renew,”

Question 8

Wilfred Owen uses the simile to show a gruesome image of dead soldiers in no-man’s land.

Answer 8

“Like twitching agonies of men among the brambles,”