exposure - wilfred owen

Question 1

Give a plot summary for Exposure.

Answer 1

exposure - wilfred owen:

• describes soldiers in World War I
• they are freezing and exhausted from listening into the silence and waiting
• they are attacked by the conditions, but nothing is done to change it
• they think about home and how warm it would be
• they question their faith in God and they are all becoming husks of themselves

Question 2

When was Exposure written? What is the relevance of this?

Answer 2

Exposure was written in 1918. This is relevant as this was written whilst he was in the First World War on the front line.

Question 3

What was Wilfred Owen’s experience of the war like?

Answer 3

exposure - wilfred owen:

• in WWI, many under-aged men went in
• conscription was in 1916
• there were big rats, it was muddy and wet
• Owen enlisted in 1915 but suffered from shell shock in 1917 and returned home
• a year later, he returned to the Western Front but was killed in November 1918
• the poem is about what he personally experienced; he wanted to convey the blatant reality of it

Question 4

What is Exposure based on during WWI?

Answer 4

Exposure is based on Owen’s experience in 1916 in the Battle of Somme. At this point, conditions were very harsh (very cold, water logged) and resources were running low. This battle also lasted nearly five months.

Question 5

Give eight key quotes from Exposure.

Answer 5

exposure - wilfred owen:

• “our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds (sibilance) that knive us…”
• “worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous”
• “but nothing happens”
• “what are we doing here?”
• “dawn massing… her melancholy army”
• “slowly our ghosts drag home”
• “for our love of God seems dying”
• “all their eyes are ice”

Question 6

Give six relevant points about structure or form in Exposure.

Answer 6

exposure - wilfred owen:

• half rhyme
• refrain repetition
• equal stanza length (five lines, with “us…” exposed)
• hissing sibilance used throughout
• first person
• present tense

Question 7

Give four themes present in Exposure.

Answer 7

exposure - wilfred owen:

• futility of war
• effects of conflict
• power of nature
• suffering