Exposure (TOP 5) Flashcards
(6 cards)
Exposure context
Owen wrote poem in trenches, he wrote poem to express horrors of war opposed to internalising it. Inspired by writers like Sasoon, who critiqued patriotism and jingoistic attitudes
Exposure (Quote 1)
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”
Personification of “dawn” being a belligerent and systemic violent army juxtaposes traditional views of Mother nature as nurturing. Irony where Dawn is typically heralded as a symbol of renewal, yet offers no such promise. their future appears as bleak and unyielding as predawn darkness they emerge from
Exposure (Quote 2)
“We turn back to our dying” “For love of God seems dying”
Semantic field of death and decay: despite semantic field, fear is absent, replaced by a grim sense of defeat as they are are exploited, dehumanised and emasculated. they choose to accept inevitability of death. Disillusionment with religion due to dehumanising conditions juxtaposing God’s omnibenevolent nature. Previous indoctrination and jingoism seems meaningless in such conditions.
Exposure: Pararhyme
“knive us/ nervous” mirrors deep internal conflict soldiers face. the unsettling sound pattern creates a sense of dissonance and discomfort, echoing the psychological strain of waiting in fear and the unnatural conditions of trench warfare. Imperfect rhyme reflects the broken uncertain reality of soldiers lives contrasting with the ordered structure of the poem with the chaos they feel inside. in this way the very sound of the poem becomes a representation of conflict - between man and nature, expectation and reality, life and death.
Exposure (Form/Structure)
cyclical structure:highly emotive opening sentence leading to anticlimactic ending of stanzas for readers to empathisecontinuous vicious cycle of war, highlighting there is no true end to soldier’s plight.
form: repetitive rhyme scheme of ABBAC underscoring the nature of nothing changing in war
Exposure links
Identity - Kamikaze
Power of nature - Ozymandias
Memories - bayonet charge
