Exposure3
- 1. Exposure. By Kayleigh and Annabelle.
- 2. What is the story? At the start the soldiers are too scared to go to sleep. In the second stanza the soldiers can hear the rumbling guns in the distance and people twitching in agony. In the fourth stanza bullets are being thrown through the air and the soldiers are prepared for a battle. In the sixth stanza the poet talks about the soldiers being murdered and their dying. In the final stanza the night is drawing in and so is the coldness.
- 3. What extreme situations do the soldiers face? ‘ We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy’. This quote proves that the soldiers were facing horrific weather situations which is destroying their spirits, it also shows each day is getting harder and harder to bare. ‘ Slowly our ghosts drag home’. This shows people have been brutally murdered and their souls are being taken back by the ghosts back to their loving families. By the use of a metaphor.
- 4. How do the soldiers feel? ‘All their eyes are ice’ this quote shows the soldiers feelings through a metaphor. it shows that their bodies are shutting down and that they believe there is no where they belong. It can also be literally translated that they are so cold even their eyes are frozen.
- 5. How does the poet show his feelings? ‘ Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us…’ By using the word ‘us’ the poet is showing how he is part of the pain the soldiers went through and the real truths that the people at home weren’t aware of. By using the phrase ‘Our brains ache’ at the beginning of the poem shows how quickly the war can destroy the soldiers souls. Also the use of personification saying ‘winds that knife us’ brings across the even the wind is against them. This shows Owens feelings to be sad and angry towards the war for all the deaths as a result of it.
- 6. How does the poets languages bring across the feelings? ‘ But nothing happens’ this phrase is repeated at the end of 3 stanzas. It is used to imply just how scared the soldiers are pf the war. It also shows the desperation for the war to be over. ‘ Flowing flakes that flock’ the use of alliteration brings a slight glance of hope to the people at home as they think it could be bringing a fresh calming atmosphere but to the people of the front line it brings nothing but more trouble to this endless war.
- 7. ‘flickering gunnery rumbles’ the use of onomatopoeia shows the poets language by introducing sounds so people can begin to understand the constant tremor the soldiers can to constantly out up with.