Exposure Flashcards
Who wrote Exposure
Wilfred Owen
What is Exposure about
soldiers in the trenches of WW1 are awake one night afraid of an enemy attack, however nature seems to be their main enemy as it is freezing cold, windy and snowing, the men imagine returning home but the doors there are closed to them, they believe that sacrificing themselves in the war is the only way of keeping their loved ones safe, they return to thinking about their deaths in the icy trenches
What is the form of Exposure
present tense, first person plural - collective voice shows how the experience was shared by soldiers across war, regular rhyme scheme (ABBAC) reflecting the monotonous nature of the men’s experience - offers no comfort the rhymes are jagged like the reality of the men’s experiences and reflect their confusion and fading energy
What is the structure of Exposure
8 stanzas but no real progression, last stanza ends with the same line reflecting the monotony of life in the trenches and absence of change, ellipses hint that they are waiting for something to happen but it never does
What is the questions of Exposure
poem uses rhetorical questions to ask why the men are exposed to such dreadful conditions and whether there is any point to their suffering, ‘What are we doing here’ - asks the point of it all, ‘It is that we are dying?’ - possibly answering the first question
What is the bleak language of Exposure
bleak imagery to remind the reader the men’s pain and awful weather and the lack of hope for the soldiers, assonance, onomatopoeia and verbs ass to the bleak mood and makes the descriptions vivid and distressing, ‘flickering gunnery rambles’ - assonance and onomatopoeia create a vivid aural description, ‘grey’ - no colour making the battlefield seem cold and lifeless, ‘black with snow’ - pure white snow is black due to the evil and death, ‘slowly our ghosts drag home’ - long ‘oh’ sounds makes the imagined journey seem painful and long, ‘all their eyes ice’ - metaphor refers to the eyes of living and dead men and that the overpowering nature means they are no longer able to feel emotion
What is the personification of Exposure
nature is repeatedly personified, making it seem the real enemy of war, ‘winds that knive us’ - personified nature to attack them, ‘pale flakes with fingering stealth’ - maliciously seeking out their faces
What are the feelings and attitudes of Expose
suffering - there are reminder of the real, physical pain that the soldier experience as well as the exhaustion and fatigue, even thinking about home is painful for the men as they are not welcome there, boredom - there is a sense of frustration at their situation as they are left ‘worried, ‘watching’ and waiting but ‘nothing happens’ and the men are left to contemplate their deaths, hopelessness - they are hopeless against the power of nature and there is nothing they can do to change their situation, the poem offers little hope of the future
What are the themes of Expose
power if nature, effects of conflict, reality of conflict, loss and absence
What language/techniques does Exposure have
questions, bleak language, personification
