exposure

• ‘the merciless iced east winds that knife us’
• ‘on us all the doors are closed: we turn back to our dieing’
• ’but nothing happens’
• ‘for love of god seems dieing’
• ‘what are we doing here’
• consistent 5 line stanzas reflects monotony of war
• ‘snow-dazed’ ‘sun-dozed’

  
  

  • pararhyme creates uneasy tone
  • leaves reader unsatisfied to mirror soldiers unease
  • reader left anticipating a rhyme similar to soldiers anticipating battle
  • impression that poem is only just kept together similar to how soldiers are only just coping
• 'our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds'


  • reference to brains establishes poems focus on psychological impact of war
  • alternative: physical pain as his brain aches from the cold causing suffering
• 'but nothing happens'


  • cyclical structure as last line of first and last stanza to connect end and start
  • emphasises that nothing has happened over time
  • anaphora to emphasise futility of war: situation remains the same despite suffering so they aren't achieving anything
  • owens objected against unnecessary wars and poor leadership
• Owen wrote the poem in 1917 as he was fighting in the trenches


  creates authentic first person narrative
• 'for love of god seems dying'


  • link to jesus suffering and dying to save humanity
  • their faith is dying- difficult to reconcile a benevolent God due to the reality of conflict
• ‘sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence, less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow’


  • sibilance to mirror sound of gunfire to show that snow is a real threat as snowflakes slice through the air like bullets
  • battle is with nature, not the enemy
  • sinister atmosphere perpetuated by serpent like connotations of the sibilance used
• 'dawn massing in the east her melancholy army'


  • personification of nature throughout to imply nature is an even bigger threat than the actual enemy
  • juxtaposes nurturing role associated with a female, with aggressive connotations of an army