Exposure + SOTI

• (use for line of arguement)

  • both Exposure and Storm on the Island present the conflict between humans and nature, and as nature is presented more powerful than man
  • they feel as if they are fighting nature and are at war with their surroundings
  • nature is presented as harmful to humans
  • in Exposure, they are struggling to survive
  • in SOTI, they are compromising with nature just to exist
• SOTI:

  "we build our houses squat"

  • better for the weather conditions - more stable in the weather - having to live in a diferent way because of nature
  • collective pronoun used to show the need for all men and women to compromise with nature, which shows weakness of humanity
• SOTI:

  "it blows full blast"

  "exploding comfortably"

  "spits like a tame cat turned savage"

  • shows how difficult it is to be attacked by nature
  • not direct threat of death like in Exposure
  • semantic field of war as if man if at war with the elements of nature
• Exposure:

  "dawn massing in the east her melancholy army"

  • personification of nature, nature is a direct enemy and wants to cause death
  • "dawn" is the commander of a great army, ready to attack
• Exposure:

  "is it that we are dying?"

  • tragedy of him not understanding if he is alive or dead
  • placed at the end of a stanza purposefully - to show confusion, too much suffering to really comprehend
• Exposure:

  "merciless iced east winds that knive us"

  • weather is personified as the enemy, more deadly than the actual enemy itself
  • "merciless" - evil and vicious
  • "k" sound - word itself is sharp - mimics sharpness and harshness of weather
  • sibilance presents unease and tension
  • links to war language in SOTI
• SOTI:

  "spits like a tame cat turned savage"

  • nature can never be tamed by man, even if man believes it has the loyalty of nature
  • there is always the everlasting threat of the destructive power of nature
• Exposure:

  "sun dozed"

  "snow dazed"

  • conflict with nature has caused him to be disorientated and cannot function
• SOTI:

  "exploding"

  "blast"

  "salvo"

  • semantic field of war
• • both poems are being constantly attacked by the surrounding nature around them
  • both poems respond to people who suffer and die from nature
  • in Exposure, many men died at the hands of exposure - link to title
  • in SOTI - have feeling of fear and danger, stroms causes danger around the earth
• • in Exposure, most stanzas end in statements which link to disorientation
  • shows nature has mentally attacked the soldiers to the point where they do not know what will happen next
  • links "dawn massing in the east her melancholy army" - nature is the enemy, cannot be stopped and will continue to attack until he does die