Power and conflict – grade 9
analyses
{I used these notes to get full marks in multiple essays}
Exposure
The poet - Wildred Owen
Born in 1893.
Joined the British Army in 1915.
Died in battle on 4th November 1918: a week before the end of the way.
He originally pursued a career in the Church, but gave up when he felt that it failed to
care for those in its locality.
He was an avid fan of the poet John Keats.
Owen wrote Exposure in 1917 from the trenches of WW1: not long before his death.
Much of his poetry reveals his anger at the war's waste of life and horrific conditions
What the poem is about
Soliders in the trenches of World War One are awake at night, afraid of an enemy attack.
However, nature seems to be their main enemy - it's freezing cold windy and snowing.
The men imagine returning home, but the doors there are closed to them.
They believe that sacrificing themselves in the war is the only way of keeping their loved ones safe.
They return to thinking about their deaths in the icy, bleak trenches.
The enemy is nature.
Line by line analysis
Exposure
Could reflect the soliders' exposure to the weather conditions or the enemy soliders, but could also
reflect the exposure of the truth to the British public of the reality of war - it is awful, not honerable:
as portryayed by the propoganda in WW1 which glorified combat.
It could be said that Owen's intension is to expose the public to war, in order for them to realise that
it is not the solution to differences in opinion.
TITLE ALSO REFLECTS HOW THE SOLDIERS' BELIEF IN GOD HAS BEEN EXPOSED DUE TO THEIR
SUFFERING: at the time, mostly everybody belived in God, but the devistating effects of war caused
many to doubt his existance, as he is supposedly omnibenevolent.
Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds
that knive us . . .
Use of personification: in the harsh conditions of war even the weather is attacking them. This links
with the immense power of nature, and the conflict of nature vs man.
'knifes' suggests REPEADEDLY stabbing, suggesting that the wind is determined to harm the soldiers.
,'Our' gives a collective sense of experience and shared pain [similarly to 'Storm on the Island].
Wearied we keep awake because the night is
silent . . .
As well as the structure of the stanzas (see below), the elipsis builds tension reinforces the idea that
the soldiers are waiting for something to happen. The elipsis also slow down time, conveying the
sense of the emptiness and adding to the fear of waiting.
Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the
salient . . .
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious,
nervous,
A list of negative emotions like "worried" and "nervous" emphasises the effect of war on soldiers, it
messes with their heads: this helps to explain why their "brains ache" (line 1) due to the emotional
rollacoaster that the terrible conditions are causing them to ride.
But nothing happens.
//
Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the
wire,
Use of personification to imply that the the wind is furious: mad could mean both crazy and angry. It
is letting out its anger by physically pulling on the wire - scaring the soldiers.
Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
Using a simile, Owen suggests the agony of the men reflected in the wind. The imagery of men
struggling with the ‘brambles’ — a tough, prickly, wild shrub — gives the reader an idea of the
appalling conditions. They cannot escape, and in attempting to do so they become more enmeshed.
Everything, artificial and natural, causes the soldiers pain.
The fact that they cannot escape the brambles without getting cut reflects how they cannot return
home from war without being dishonoured by their families.
. ‘Wire’ is man-made and barbed wire often used as a visual symbol of the First World War.
Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery
rumbles,
Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.
,This is a direct reference to the Mathew 24:6 : biblical writing concerning the end of the world -
Jesus talks about the end of the world and whether people will be able to predict its end, and Jesus
says ''you will hear of wars and rumours of wars". This gives the impression that Owen feels as if it is
the end of the world, clearly due to the tragic conditions of world war 1.
What are we doing here?
Rhetorical question to show that nothing is acomplished by war: the soldiers are trying to
understand the point of doing what they are doing.
The question could mean both that they do not know what is going on - they are losing their ability
to think properly due to the freezing weather causing them to hallucinate, or it could be general by
asking what is the point of being here.
//
The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .
Owen uses the ironic phrase "the poignant misery of dawn" to present the soldiers' negative outlook
on life due to being at war. Dawn marks the start of a new day, and therefore is supposed to be a
happy time as it is a metaphor for renewal - a time to start afresh. Yet, the soldiers view dawn as
"poignant", which means marking regret or sadness, which gives the impression that they are tired
of the Sun rising each morning and still being stuck in the trenches. It could even be said that they
are tired of living all together, as they now view a daily, routine part of life as a "misery".
We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag
stormy.
Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army
Use of personification - at this point there are multiple cases of personification which present nature
as destructive and powerful, giving the idea that Owen finds nature to be more deadly than the
human soldiers he is fighting against.
"Dawn massing in her melancholy army" personifies nature by presenting the different aspects of it
as soldiers who make up the army of dawn. Comparing dawn to an army gives the reader the
impression that the soldiers find the natural world to be just as, if not more, dangerous than the
actual army against whom they are at war. Furthermore, melancholy is a feeling of sadness - some
could interpret this as meaning that even nature is tired and sick of watching of humans fighting
against each other: in which case the narrator shares his own views with the reader by personifying
dawn.
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of
grey,
, Personification and military language to compare the rain and elements of the weather to soliders:
negative choices such as ''attacks'' and ''shivering'' give the impression that he finds the weather to
be more harmful and destructive than the human soldiers. Nature is the true enemy for the soldiers.
But nothing happens.
//
Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the
silence.
Sibilance -the repeated s sound creates sinister sounds: this could be the passing of bullets
overhead, or prehaps the shivering of the soldiers, who lay freezing in the trench: it creates a sinister
atmosphere which reminds the reader of the constant threats of the soldiers' environment.
Less deadly than the air that shudders black with
snow,
With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and
renew,
We watch them wandering up and down the wind's
nonchalance,
But nothing happens.
//
Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for
our faces—
Personification of the snowflakes touching the soldiers, combined with the idea that the flakes are
stealthy and sneaky, gives the impression that they are sly and manipulative: despite the gentle
action of 'feeling', the soldiers still feel threatened by the flakes.
We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and
stare, snow-dazed,
