Exposure

• "our brains ache"


  shared painful experience ~ makes reader more involved
• "merciless iced east winds that knive us"


  - sibilance ~ harsh edge to nature

  - nature is personified ~ attacking them
• elipses ...


  hints the wait that never ends, constant anticipation
• "Confuse" "Worried" "Curious, nervous"


  Lots of different emotions - another reason why their brains hurt, mental exhaustion
• "but nothing happens"


  The short, simple half line emphasises their boredom and tension.

  ~ agony of waiting, war isn't just about action
• "twitching agonies of men amongst its brambles"


  - vivid picture of wounded men ~ reminder of pain caused by nature
• "dull rumour of some other war"


  Bible reference ~ Jesus says 'You will hear of wars and rumours of wars' ~ remembering memories of home
• "what are we doing here"


  rhetorical question ~ what is the point of it all?
• "clouds sag stormy"


  - coldest winter in history ~ soldiers died from hypothermia

  - pathetic fallacy ~ reflects mood of soldiers/depression of war ~ weather more dangerous than war
• "dawn massing in the east her melancholy army"


  - Dawn is personified using the language of battle, normally dawn brings hope but not here

  - weather is an army attacking

  - hopelessness and futility
• "ranks on shivering ranks"


  mirrors soldiers in trenches
• "grey"


  - battlefield is cold & lifeless ~ dreary

  - German uniform was grey so this aligns with nature of the enemy
• "sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence"


  sibilance ~ mimics the whistling of bullets
• "black with snow"


  snow ~ normally white ~ symbolic of purity, juxtaposes this idea with black which is symbolic of evil or death
• "flowing flakes that flock"


  alliteration emphasises the relentlessness of the snow
• "pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces"


  - personification ~ maliciously seeking their faces

  - what should've been beautiful is deadly

  - intrusive verbs portray how helpless the soldiers are to the weather
• "snow dazed... sun dozed"


  link between their current situation and dreams of the past
• "is it that we're dying?"


  possibly answering previous question ~ here to die
• "slowly... ghosts... home... glozed"


  assonance of long 'oh' sound makes journey sound painful and slow
• "crusted dark red jewels"


  fires offer no warmth ~ look like jewels which are precious but cold
• "shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,"


  caesura reflects how the men are shut out of their homes

  - concern that people back home were becoming less and less interested in their fate as war dragged on
• "since believe not otherwise can kind fires burn"


  believe they're sacrificing themselves in order for life at home to be preserved
• "love of god seems dying"


  highly evocative, emphasising this constant death of faith and drawn out dehumanisation of the soldiers - questions whether god can exist in such a horrific and chaotic world
• "shrivelling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp"


  vivid image of what exposure to elements does to their bodies
• "eyes are ice"


  - metaphor refers to eyes of living & dead men ~ vivid description of how they've been overpowered by nature

  - living men can no longer feel emotion (warmth) ~ frozen
• "but nothing happens" (end)


  ends same was as first stanza ~ even death doesn't change anything