Exposure x COTLB

Question 1

quotations COTLB

Answer 1

• “cannon to the right…..”
• “theirs not to make reply…..”
• “half a league half a league half a league onwards!”

Question 2

quotations exposure

Answer 2

• “merciless east winds that knive us”
• “what are we doing here?”
• “dawn massing in the east”

Question 3

P1 intro

Answer 3

both poems convey the immediate threat posed to young, vulnerable soldiers sent out to war.

• COTLB is a real human threat
• exposure the lack of humans is the threat

Question 4

COTLB P1

Answer 4

• repetition “cannon to the right of them….”
• first two lines contain “to” where as the last is “in” which represents the gradual encroachment of the cannons killing the soldiers, realisation of their death.
• “them” shows them to be a subject rather than actual people, dehumanising them.
• fact there is no behind shows there is no going back for the soldiers.

Question 5

Exposure P1

Answer 5

• personifies nature “merciless east wind that knives us.”
• alikens the nature to some sort of tyrannical, oppressive leader, showing the soliders to be a slave to their master.
• quote is beginning of a pararhyme, showing the discomfort, fragmented nature of war
• contextually, makes ppl question war.

Question 6

P2 intro

Answer 6

-both poems talk of fate and destiny, and the soldier apparent suffocation of such control over these privileges.

Question 7

COTLB P2

Answer 7

• repetition “theirs not to make reply….”
• “not” for the first two lines, “but” for the final one symbolises the priorities of the military. more concerned about duty and order than life itself.
• repetition of “theirs” is ironic bcz it makes it seem as if the soldiers are in control but audience knows they aren’t.
• despite being poet laurette, conveys tennyson’s distaste in the way british military operate.

Question 8

Exposure P2

Answer 8

• rhetorical question “what are we doing here”
• rhetorical question shows they are looking for an answer, yet society as a whole cannot provide an answer as to why they are sent to war.
• ‘we’ is ironic bcz soldiers are not actually in charge of their own destiny. trained to question themselves before authority.
• wider contextual point questioning the moral expectations of the british public.

Question 9

P3 intro

Answer 9

reflects how soldiers are heading towards an inevitable death

Question 10

P3 COTLB

Answer 10

• dactylic diameter “half a league half a league”
• rhythm runs parallel to that of horse hooves. fast and unstoppable nature reflects how the soldiers are powerless to their inevitable death
• purpose of this is for Tennyson to save the solider’s humility by saying it was not their fault, but the sheer power of the enemy.

Question 11

P3 exposure

Answer 11

• personification “dawn massing in the east”
• contrasts to usual preception of hope with dawn. Instead, soldiers situation is so bleak that even dawn is deadly for them, representing how they are void of hope.
• dawn is described using a military phrase “massing” alikening nature to a military enemy.