THE 6 Flashcards
THE 6
Prelude
Exposure
Remains
War Photographer
Emigree
Kamikaze
’Lustily, I dipped my oars into the silent lake’ - Prelude
lustily - adverb, shows carefree, confident and power he feels. shows his desire and passion, enthusiasm to enter the lake. power and control he feels over nature (power of humans)
dipped my oars - verb phrase, sexual references?
silent - adjective, presents nature as passive and subservient towards humans
quote uses active voice, ‘i’ the subject and ‘lake’ the object - unequal power dynamic, lake referred to as female, who at the time were weaker, mother nature?
‘A huge peak, black and huge’ - Prelude
Volta - structural method, turning point
huge - adjective, repeated many times, showing shock and loss for words, overwhelming intimidation, unexpected and unfamiliar (power of nature)
‘Moved through my mind by day and were a trouble to my dreams’ - Prelude
phrase itself shows his emotional turmoil, power of nature is not to be underestimated; it is menacing and threatening and is a force of its own
‘day’ and ‘dreams’ - nouns, juxtapose each other, thoughts of nature dominating his mind, haunting him
‘troubled’ - noun, psychological turmoil and reflection of previous beliefs
‘Our brains ache’ - Exposure
our - pronoun, soldiers are united in suffering
brains - noun, fundamental organ being put under psychological torment, trauma
ache - verb, continuous agony and dull monotony of war, no progress of getting better from this ache, no progress in war
(REALITY OF WAR, EFFECT OF WAR)
‘merciless iced east winds that knive us’ - Exposure
merciless - personification, presenting nature as powerful and menacing
merciless iced east - list of adjectives, wind seems more powerful and much more stronger/effective
knive us - metaphor, the wind and nature is powerful enough to inflict pain equal to or worse than war and human violence
(POWER OF NATURE)
‘Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army’ - Exposure
massing - verb, nature is continuously growing and soldiers are always fighting against the elements, nature never surrenders
east - noun, where the sun rises, should bring hope to the soldiers but it doesn’t, juxtaposes the hope of a new day and dawn to their melancholy, hopeless reality
melancholy- adjective, nature is seen as dull, reinforcing ideas of war & boredom, nature is slowly killing them
army - noun, military imagery, personifies dawn as the enemy instead of the other soldiers, nature is the true threat
(POWER OF NATURE, REALITY OF CONFLICT, EFFECT OF CONFLICT)
‘But nothing happens’ - Exposure
recurring refrain, repeated throughout the poem, creates a dull repetitive theme, purpose of Owen to show the monotony of war, waiting for something to happen or their own deaths
but - contrast to the speakers optimism of something happening, reality of nothing happening
nothing - negative, cements belief that nothing will ever happen, shows certainty and exposes that war is monotonous and frustrating (there is no progress)
‘End of story, except not really’ - Remains
Volta, mood and attitude changes from anecdotal story and facts to his reality and experience
juxtaposes facts vs experience - war may have ended, but psychologically attacks him and he continues to relive this event
caesura - comma enhances juxtaposition, reflects soldier’s broken state of mind, fragmented
not really - colloquial, the event will continue to haunt him, perhaps forever
(EFFECT OF WAR, REALITY OF WAR, MEMORY)
‘drink and the drugs won’t flush him out - He’s here in my head’ - Remains
drink drugs here head - alliteration, creates steady rhythm that shows the memory is permanently carved into his mind
flush him out - verb, our bodies in fevers naturally flush the disease out to keep us protected, but soldier feels burdened with responsibility and he decides try and get rid of it as a coping/self preservation mechanism
here - preposition, memory of event is always present even with the war over
(EFFECT OF CONFLICT, MEMORY, IDENTITY?)
‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’ - Remains
shows responsibility and guilt of the death
his - possessive pronoun, didnt really know the man yet it holds weight to the soldier
bloody - metaphorical symbol, Shakespearean reference for the guilt he feels as shown in macbeth
my - possessive pronoun, personally feels responsibility for death despite there being multiple other people
life, hands - nouns, create link between life being taken away by his hands and trigger
(EFFECT OF CONFLICT, REALITY OF CONFLICT, MEMORY, GUILT)
‘Spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’ - War photographer
whole phrase is a metaphor
spools, suffering - alliteration, soft silibance, juxtaposes the loudness of war and the silence of the darkroom
for photographer, they are not just spools but reminders and symbols of the travesties witnessed
ordered rows - juxtaposes chaos of war, connotations to rows in a graveyard
‘A half-formed ghost’ - War Photographer
is when the photo begins to develop - ppl in it look like ghosts.
could refer to the fact that ppl in it are dead now and they are ghosts.
the image will haunt his life for a long time
name/any identifiable features not included, simply another casualty in war
‘A hundred agonies in black and white’ - War Photographer
Whole quote - a metaphor
black and white - nouns, colours but also the shows clarity of pictures metaphorically showing the clear pain and undisputed suffering they are going through
juxtaposes regular people + how they are desensitised to such media ‘sunday supplement’, dont see the full extent of pain photographer has experinced leaving him isolated
‘I am branded by an impression of sunlight’ - Emigree
branded - violent graphic verb, suggests sence of permanence, negative and violent connotations, unable to forget these memories and incapable to move on.. cannot truly experience the present when constantly thinking of the past and longing to return
impression - noun, - suggests memory is unclear, it is a feeling they remember
sunlight - noun, implies memories are filled with joy, positivity and sunshine
