Exposure

• Who wrote the poem "Exposure"?

  Wilfred Owen
• What experience does "Exposure" describe?

  World War One trench warfare
• When did Wilfred Owen join the British Army?

  1915
• What theme is often found in Owen's poetry?

  The futility or pointlessness of war
• How does Owen structure each stanza of the poem?

  With a powerful opening followed by anti-climax
• What is the rhyme scheme of "Exposure"?

  A B B A C
• What does the broken rhyme pattern signify in the poem?

  The building momentum of anticipated battle
• How does the poem end, and what does it signify?

  With "but nothing happens," highlighting futility
• “mad gusts “
• “ winds that knife us”
• What type of accounts does the poem provide about war?

  Authentic first-person accounts of an ordeal.
• What phrase indicates the soldiers' mental state in the poem?

  "Our brains ache."
• How does the poem transport readers to the soldiers' experience?

  Through first-person perspective.
• What does the repeated line "but nothing happens" suggest?


  It creates an anti-climax in the poem.

  cyclical structure
• What is the key part of the poem regarding nature's personification?


  It blames nature for the soldiers' suffering.
• “Sudden successive flights of bullets streak in silence “

  
  

  mimic the sound of bullets

  mimic the sound off shivering

  mimic sound of a serpent to show the sinister side of warfair
• How does ownes use a caesura in “slowly war ghosts drag home : glimpsing the sunk fires” 


  Creates a barriar between the place they cannot return to
• Why does owens use pararhymes “winds that knife us” and “curious , nervous “ + what is a para rhyme

  Only rhyming the consonants leaves the reader unsatisfide - mirrors the soilders feelings
• nature is an even bigger threat then the enemy "dawn massing in the east her melancholy army" juxtaposes the traditional nurturing roll of nature

  this minimises the actual battle "less deadly then the air that shudders with black snow"- death like connotations black with limbs from frost bite
• seasons change to show just how long they have been there waiting "snow-dazed" "sun-dosed" "blossom"
• talks about how soldiers are forgotten the metaphor "on us the doors are closed"- those at home are forgetting the soldiers dying for them to be safe

  refers to how the military see soilders as dispensable by depicting the soldiers as indistinguishable from the mud "this frost will fasten on this mud and us "
• Fear the soldiers actually felt and they were unable to sleep always waiting for something "wearied, we stay awake because the night is silent"