Exposure~ Wilfred Owen

Question 1

Wilfred Owen

Answer 1

Born 1893 - died 1918 (trying to cross canal got caught in gunfire)

Question 2

ABOUT…

Answer 2

reality of life in trenches about soldiers waiting around freezing in the cold conditions, death may come at any moment, but not for a whole as nothing is happening. However even as the soldiers wait they are not save as icy weather is attacking them just like an enemy.

Answer 3

WEATHER IS THE ENEMY AS WELL AS GERMANS

Question 4

EXPOSURE MEANING….

Answer 4

Having no protection from something harmful
E.g flights of bullets
The revelation of something secret.
The poem is also and exposure of the truth of war to the readers
Or
Soldiers exposure to the elements of the war.

Question 5

Reality of EXPOSURE

Answer 5

Emotive language & shocking imagery to expose the lies of the government propaganda ( the lies)

Question 6

RELIGIOUS QUOTE

Answer 6

“For love of God seems dying”
Grew up with strong religious faith, now destroyed by personal experiences. Very likely many men who faced horrors of the war question their faith in God

Question 7

Physical & physiological suffering

Answer 7

“Our brains ache”
Actual pain OR impact of war on the soldier’s thinking

Answer 8

“Less deadly than the air”
Men are almost immune to fighting
They are aware a greater danger is found in the environment itself.

Question 9

Dominant Weather (context)

Answer 9

Winter 1917 (one of the coldest winter’s recorded)

Answer 10

“Iced east winds that knive us”
Biting winds attack the men like enemies.
The cold stabs at them and penetrates there skin (personification- seems like an actual enemy)
Shows fear and resentment many soldiers had for the cold weather, which could easily make them I’ll or even kill them.

Question 11

QUOTE

Answer 11

“Tugging on the wire”
Barb wire around trenches
Twitching agonies of men suggest the wire was bending and contorting.
Terrible imagery of soldiers stuck in the wire.

Answer 12

“The air that shudders back with snow”
Sinister connotations
Death or lack of hope

Question 13

VERY POWERFUL IMAGE IS DESCRIPTION OF DAWN

Answer 13

Compares dawn to a female war commander (PERSONIFICATION-SOMETHING INHUMAN GIVEN HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS). Preparing “ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
Image of heavy clouds lining up ready to launch an attack of sleet or snow.
The dawn is positioned as an enemy.
Imagery- real threat is weather (waiting in the cold may kill them)
POWER OF NATURE

Answer 14

“All their eyes are ice” last stanza.
-complete lack of emotion

Question 15

…

Answer 15

Stanza 1 - ellipsis
Trail of gradually
Symbolic- hours men stay waiting
Draw the line out in the same way that time seemed to stretch out before the men.

Question 16

“But nothing happens”

Answer 16

Repetition (sense of waiting, uncertainty, boredom) that the men face

Question 17

WEATHER AGAIN

Answer 17

“Frost” “gusts” “snow-dazed” “flowing flakes”
Helps to show reader how influential the weather was upon a soliders daily life.
Terrible infections such as french foot & gangrene could develop in cold, wet weather

Question 18

Sibilance
‘SS’ sound

Answer 18

“Merciless iced east winds”
Helps us to imaging the rushing sound of the icy wind. Poem becomes symbolic of environment the soldiers are encountering

Question 19

ALSO sibilance

Answer 19

“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”
‘SS’ sound imitates the sound of bullets ripping through the air. ‘SS’ sound becomes symbolic of the bullets themselves, which fire successively one after the other.