exposure

• "our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us"

  • hyperbole emphasises physical pain and discomfort
  • "brain" war is causing soldiers mental pain and physical pain
  • personification of wind - more deadly than the enemy
  • the weather is ruthlessly stabbing the soldiers
  • inclusive pronouns - universal suffering/unity of soldiers
  • elipses - elongated sense of time, time is passing slowly - people dont associate war with monotony and being bored
• "watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire"

  • "watching" the soldiers are passive and helpless
  • juxtaposed by the "tugging" of the wind - wind is active and strong
  • personification of "mad gusts" nature is unpredictable
  • alliteration of "w" - soldiers lips quivering/whimpering
  • caesura - slow emotional and physical decline of soldiers
• "flickering gunnery rumbles / far off like a dull rumour of some other war"

  • onomatopoeia and synaesthesia - mixes the senses-soldiers are delirious
  • biblical reference to the end of the world in the bible
• "we only know, war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy"

  • rule of three - monotony and boredom, repetitive nature of soldiers experience
  • pathetic fallacy - reinforces depression and gloominess
  • sibilance - recreates the silence/adds sinister tone
• context


  Owen was a ww1 soldier, and young boys glorified war. Owen wanted to expose the harsh reality