Poetry Flashcards
“Slowly our ghosts drag home,”
Exposure
“We cringe in holes”
Exposure
Antithesis meaning
Opposite
What are the key idea explored in exposure
Pointlessness of war, misery in war, loss of humanity, weather and boredom and lasting effects of war
“Our brain aches in the merciless iced east winds that knife us” what technique is this and what does it highlight
Sibilance, personification highlights the intensity and the brutality of the weather. Personified to sound menacing and deadly
Nature is personified in a sinister way to create fear in the listener
The quote “Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow” suggests…
suggests nature as more damaging and deadly than the bullets
“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces” what technique is this and what is reflected through it
the consonance (repetition of consonant sounds) reflects the ferocity of the weather through the harsh sounds of the letters
“Dawn amassing in the east? The melancholy army attacks once more and in ranks on shivering ranks of grey” suggests…
That dawn that is usually associated with ideas of light and hope is now contradicted and is hostile here and brings even more suffering
What does the colour imagery “grey” in “Dawn amassing in the east her melancholy army/ attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey” suggest
Despair and boredom
What does the word “ranks” suggest in the “dawn amassing in the east her melancholy army attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey” a reminder for
It is a military term and is repeated reminding the reader that the weather is the soldiers enemy
What do the quotes “The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow” and “War lasts, rain soaks and clouds sag stormy” highlight
The bleak imagery of misery of the soldiers in war
“We hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire”
Exposure
What technique does Owen use throughout the poem to emphasise the boredom he is experiencing and to give a the readers a sense of this boredom cause by waiting
Repetition in “but nothing happens”
What rhetorical questions does Owen use to hint and the pointlessness of war and highlight the boredom he is experiencing?
“What are we doing here?” Is it that we are dying”
What does the metaphor “Slowly our ghosts drag home” suggest
That War has sucked all the life out of the soldiered and it also reminds the readers they are on the brink of death
What does the metaphor “all their eyes are ice” suggest
The soldiers have lost their humanity and are close to breaking point and it also describes the extreme effects of the weather
How does the five line stanzas (rhythm) reflect the boredom of the soldiers
The form mirrors the repetitive and never ending nature of war. It also mirrors the ongoing boredom and misery of the soldiers
How does the ABBAC rhyme scheme reflect the boredom of the soldiers ?
Reflects the monotony (sameness) of war. The last line of each stanza creates an unsettling feeling to mirror how destabilised and on edge the soldiers feel waiting for the enemy to attack
How does exposure being a first person narrative reflect the boredom of the soldiers?
It has many collective possessive pronouns like “we” “us” or “our”. This hints at the collective suffering of the soldiers in WW1 and also encourages the reader to share their pain
What poems would you want to compare the theme of the effects of or reality of conflict in exposure to ?
War photographer, poppies or kamikaze or bayonet charge or remains
What poems may you want to compare the theme of the power of nature versus power of man in exposure to?
Storm on the island or the prelude or tissue
What does “Wearied we” in the quote “Wearied we awake because the night is still silent” do and how does it do this?
The use of alliteration makes the phrase difficult to say alluding to the difficulty of the soldiers lives
What does the quote “worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous” create and how ?
A rushed, panicked pace and contrasts with the content of the poem through asyndetic listing
“Like twitching agonies” is a … and what image does this create”
Simile and it creates an uncomfortable image to hear
What does the use of sibilance and fricatives in “Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence” do
They create a horrific image
What does the absence of war in the poem suggest?
That weather is the main enemy
What does “We turn back to our dying” show and how
It is a blunt and passive statement to show the soldiers disillusionment with their cause
What does “For love of God seems dying” imply and how?
It is a religious reference and is implying there is a lack of religiously imposed morality remaining in the situation which highlights the cruelty of it
Why does Owen open the poem with “Our brains ache”
To focus the poem on the psychological impact of war
What do the para rhymes do?
They create an underlying atmosphere of unease
Where does Owen use a cyclical structure and what does this emphasise?
The last line of the first and last standard is, “but nothing happens” which connects the end of beginning of the to emphasise the fact that nothing has happened in that time
What does the caesura in “slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires” do
It depicts the soldiers to imagining the warmth of their homes yet there is a Barrier between the two places as they cannot return and must instead stay and fight in the cold
What does “dull rumour of some other war” suggest
That the weather is the real war and the actual fighting isn’t the main issye
Why do the first three lines end with ellipses?
To emphasise the waiting and boredom of the soldiers
How is exposure and the prelude similar?
Nature presented to be an inescapable force in both poems
How is exposure and prelude different?
Wadsworth gives nature power due to its great expanse however in exposure nature power comes from its sheer aggression
How is charge of the light brigade and exposure similar?
Both poets repeat phrases to criticise how violence and military mistakes continue to repeat themselves
How are the poems exposure and charge of the light brigade different?
In charge of the light blade Tennyson is not outwardly critical of the government and Owen is on Tennyson is critical of the rash action in his poem whereas Owen the detests are waiting in the trenches
How is bayonet charge and exposure similar?
Both poets to pick soldiers who have reached the battlefield and realise that it is largely what they have been told and the psychological element of fighting is also addressed in both poems
How is bayonet charge and exposure different?
An exposure of the soldier seems relatively prepared to fight however the soldier in being that charge shows his extreme reluctance
