Exposure - Wilfred Owen

Question 1

Briefly the describe what life is like for the soldiers in the trenches.

Answer 1

Life in the trenches is presented as miserable and monotonous. Soldiers live in extremely cold and wet conditions that don’t improve. They feel like they are close to death and seem resigned to this fate.

Question 2

In lines 21, the soldiers say “Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”. What technique is not being used here?

A. Personification
B. alliteration
C. contrast

Answer 2

C. The quote features the personification of Snowflake’s feeling for the soldier’s faces. There’s also the alliteration of the ‘f’ sound.

Question 3

How do you think the soldiers feel when they say “Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed” in line 29?

Answer 3

The soldiers feel isolated and disconnected because they feel like they have been abandoned, even by loved ones at home who they feel have stopped thinking about them.

Question 4

How does Owen use language to present the feeling of boredom?

Answer 4

Owen uses the assonance of long vowel sounds in phrases such as “Slowly our ghosts drag home” to highlight how the days (and even their daydreams) seem to drag on for the soldiers. Furthermore, the repetition of “But nothing happens” throughout the poem reflects how the days are unchanging, even when horrific deaths occur around them.

Question 4

How does the first line set the tone for the rest of the poem?

Answer 4

The first line sets a bleak tone, which continues throughout the poem. The painful image of “brain’s” aching suggests the soldiers are suffering serious physical and psychological damage, such as shell shock. Furthermore, describing the “merciless” winds establishes a tone of relentlessness and highlights the soldiers’ persistent suffering.

Question 5

How is form used to convey the poem’s message?

Answer 5

Owen uses a strict form with a regular rhyme scheme to convey a sense of the relentless lack of hope felt by the soldiers in the trenches.

Question 6

What effects do the final words have on the reader?

Answer 6

By repeating the phrase “but nothing happens” from earlier in the poem, Owen emphasises the pointlessness of war — even the soldiers deaths won’t change anything.

Question 7

What is the effect of the first three words “Our brains ache”?

Answer 7

It’s immediately conveys a sense of the soldiers suffering, referring to both physical and psychological pain. It also establishes the collective voice of the poem.

Question 8

How does Owens use of rhyme reinforce his message?

Answer 8

Owen reinforces his message about the soldiers’ suffering by using half-rhymes like “knife us” and “nervous” throughout the poem. This repeated use of half-rhymes helps to give the reader a sense of the soldiers’ discomfort. The unchanging ABBAC rhyme scheme also reflects Owen’s message about the relentlessness of the soldier’s misery.

Question 9

How is the 5th line of each stanza different to the other four lines?

Answer 9

The fifth line of each stanza is shorter than the other lines. These lines also don’t rhyme with any of the other lines in the stanza.

Question 10

What effect do these different 5th lines have on the reader?

Answer 10

These lines sound jarring to the reader — this could reflect a disjointed, uncertain nature of life in the trenches. There shortness also hints at how the soldiers’ lives are cut short.

Question 11

Find an example of a rhetorical question in the poem.

Answer 11

“ What are we doing here?” (line 10)

Question 12

What do the rhetorical questions suggest about the soldiers?

Answer 12

This suggests that the soldiers have become disillusioned with the war, as they question what they are doing in the trenches.

Question 13

What do you think is the biggest danger to the soldiers: the weather or the human enemy? Explain your answer.

Answer 13

Owen presents the weather as a greater threat to the soldiers than the enemy. The weather relentlessly attacks them, whereas the human battles are presented as a “dull rumour of some other war”, which presents the human enemy as distant and harmless. The weather is also relentless, forcing the soldiers to “cringe in holes” like helpless animals. This shows how much the weather affects them in contrast to the human enemy.

Question 14

To what extent is the soldier situation ironic?

Answer 14

There was a cruel sense of irony to the poem in that the soldiers would have joined the war expecting to fight other soldiers, but instead they are battling the elements. This is heightened by the fact that the soldiers can’t fight the weather like they would real soldiers.