Poetry Anthology

Question 1

EXPOSURE
“Our brains…”
What are the 3 language comments?

Answer 1

“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us / wearied we keep awake because the night is silent,”

1. sibilance
2. assonance
3. alliteration

Upsets our idea of war. “silence”, no armies just cruel nature. Is nature rebelling against war?
Shows slowness of time for soldiers.

Question 2

EXPOSURE
“Dawn massing…”
What are the 3 language comments?

Answer 2

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

1. pathetic fallacy
2. repition
3. assonance

Nature is arming itself. Stronger than any human army. Shows natures power over the men but feels bad for attacking them.

Question 3

EXPOSURE
“Therefore, not…”
What are the 3 language comments?

Answer 3

“Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born / For love of god seems dying.”

1. anaphora
2. homonym
3. metaphor

Penultimate stanza, Owens speaks of home. May show hes proud to fight for home but could also show Owens thinks its a waste of life.
Owens is trying to kid himself into finding logic behind the death.
Could show countries at war go against god or that all people can go against god.
Wilfred was going to train as a priest before ww1, is he questioning faith?

Question 4

EXPOSURE
“Pause over…”
What are the 4 language comments?

Answer 4

“Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,/ But nothing happens.”

1. adjective
2. metaphor
3. homophone
4. bathos

Shows how empathy and humanity is lost in war.
Soldiers do not know others because:
- Spent too little time on frontline before dying,
- Never wanted to make friends for fear of death.
The burial party are unempathetic- like ice.
Soldiers lose themselves at battle “eyes/i”

Question 5

EXTRACT FROM, THE PRELUDE
“One summer…”
What are the 3 language comments?

Answer 5

“One summer evening (led by her) I found/ a little boat tied to a willow tree”

• personification
• noun
• abstract noun

WW was a pantheist. Loved nature. Sexual undertone, struggle?
Nature led him to steal the boat, it was not his doing. Willow shows the sadness and pain he may reveal in this poem which contrasts the summer.

Question 6

EXTRACT FROM, THE PRELUDE
“The horizon’s…”

Answer 6

“The horizon’s utmost boundary; far above/ was nothing but stars and the grey sky.”

• noun
• abstract noun

Horizon = not a real boundary therefore all boundaries are false, we should not conform to them.
Is challenging the existence of god and the rules around god. He believes we should set our own boundaries.
He is questioning & struggling with these boundaries, however hes already rejected them as he stole the boat.