EXPOSURE

• “Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”

  • In media res -> brains aching could be them trying to work out why the war is happening or why their commanders are leaving them to death - “but nothing happens” they get no answer
  • Wind is personified to be vicious and inescapable enemy showing that the men face double peril: the weather and the actual enemies
  • The east winds could be a reference to the Greek god eurus (God of the east winds) showing the winds to have an overwhelming superiority over the soldiers on the western front. Eurus is also depicted with a knife
• “Like twitching agonies of men along it’s brambles”

  • Simile highlights how the men can’t escape from the brambles and if they attempt to do so they’ll be even more enmeshed in it. Everything natural and artificial causes pain
  • The men enmeshed in brambles could refer to Jesus wearing the crown of thorns. Both young men are sacrificed
• “air that shudders black with snow”

  • Oxymoron shows that soldiers are more likely to die from the cold than getting shot
  • Air is black
  • Due to the contrast with the white snow
  • The snow induces the blackness showing it to be poisonous maybe it’s mother natures revenge
• “ the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs Shutters and doors, all closed “

  • refers to idiom “when the cats away the mice will play” as the soldiers home is deserted
  • Pitiful -> only the mice can rejoice
  • The innocent mice = those not fighting - they rejoice as the home's theirs but are blinded by propaganda and dont see the dark realities of war.
  • Soldiers aren't welcome home as they were expected to stay in the battlefield OR their families have moved on
  • Anastrophe -> the doors = the liminal existence between life and death
  • The men are metaphorically shut behind the doors of life and die
• VONTEXT:

  • German soldiers wore grey and attacked from the east, like dawn.
  • The phrase “Rumour of some other war” is quoted from the “Gospel of Matthew.” 24:6, which states “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars.” This reflects Owen’s previous religious beliefs
  • adage about modern warfare: “months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.”
• " pause over half known faces "

  • They pause; there is a reverence in death and seeing ‘half-known’ faces no longer alive. This implies understated emotion.
  • Half known could imply that the faces were so disfigured they were hardly recognisable
  • Could refer to a burying party - the soldiers are so used to death they are number and iced. Their tears may be frozen or their eyes are too icy and shocked to convey emotion reinforced by the homophones eyes and iced
• "All their eyes ice"

  • “Their” separates the poet from his fallen comrades, it also contrasts the earlier use of collective pronouns . Showing all unity is lost in death
  • Matthew 15:14 states “if a blind man leads a blind man both will fall into a pit”
  • The government is oblivious to the pains of war leading to the men with eyes of ice. The soldiers end up dead in a literal pit