Exposure

• Why did Owen write such brutal poetry?

  -A therapist advised him when he suffering from shell shock to write about his experiences

  -His work expresses the true horror of war due to this
• How did Owen go agaisnt normal war poetry?

  -War was glorified to an almost mythical status in Britian

  -Owen dispelled this by exposing the horrific reality

  -This could by why he decided to name his poem exposure
• But nothing happens'

  -Repeated throughout the poem

  -Shows how draining the inertia is

  -Shows the monotony of war

  -Is anti-climax, mirrors the feelings of the soldiers onto the reader
• the merciless iced east winds tthat knive us'


  -Personification

  -The first enemy we are introduced is nature, showing us this is the first worry the soliders have as nature is essentially killing them
• twitching agonies of men among its brambles'

  -Brutal and horrific imagery

  -Makes the reader uncomftorble

  -Owen is exposing his feelings of war
• What are we doing here?'

  -Rhetorical question

  -no motivation to fight, no glory
• Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence'


  -Sibilance

  -Just when the inertia and weather is about to kill you there a deady bullets too
• Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow'

  -Oxymoron

  -Shows how unnatural war is

  -Nature is killing them more than bullets
• We turn back to our dying'

  -Blunt statement shows soldiers disillusionment with their cause
• For love of God seems dying'

  -Religeous reference

  -the situation is so dire that soldiers turn from God

  -Even Owen who once sought a career in the church
• How does the rhyme scheme show the inertia?

  -Allows the fifth line to stand out, emphasing its message

  -highlights the futility of war
• What effect do the pararhymes have?

  -underlying atmosphere of unease

  -Only rhymes consonants

  -Reader is unsatisfied, contasntly anticipating something- just like the soldiers
• What are the best poems to compare to?

  -Bayonet Charge

  -Charge of the Light Brigade