Exposure

• "Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us...": Exposure


  • Sibilance connoting that there is no escape from war, through the sound imagery mimicking the sound of wind, making them all paranoid.
  • "Brains ache" - connotes their frustration and exhaustion they are facing, creating mental and physical fatigue.
  • "Winds" - Pathetic fallacy - Making the enemy feel vulnerable by surrounding them, showing the extent of natures power.
  • "Knife" - Personification - Making nature the enemy so this war is never ending.
• "What are we doing here?/ The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow...": Exposure


  • "What are we doing here?" - Rhetorical question - Soldier questioning his life choices, causing regret and he realised he is insignificant.
  • "Poignant misery of dawn" - Personification - Dawn connoting the start to a new day, creating a new beginning and a new opportunity. However the same pain, misery and death happens.
• "All their eyes are ice/ but nothing happens.": Exposure


  • "Ice" - Death, corpses - connoting loss of humanity and brutal conditions like the trenches.
  • "Nothing happens" - Nothing is being achieved, death isn't worth it, showing the futility of war. The same phrase is repeated throughout the poem, to show how the soldiers are seen as insignificant.
• Exposure - Structure:

  • Regular stanzas - Connotes how things may appear to be normal on the surface, but in reality it is not and causes chaos.
  • Regular stanzas contrast with the chaotic imagery created.
  • Cyclical structure shows how war is never ending, and the reality of war will never change.
• Exposure - Themes:

  • Power of nature.
  • Reality of war.
  • Effects of war.
  • Loss of humanity.
• Exposure - Form:

  • Use of half rhyme, disorientating the reader.
• Exposure - Language:

  • Sibilance used in "Sudden Successive Flights" and "Silent Sentries Whisper", used to mimic the sound of war.
  • Collective pronouns used forces empathy on the soldiers, immersing the reader.