Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us…
Personification of the weather described as ‘merciless’ and attacking them ‘knife us’ this is unexpected as we expect the fight to be between soldiers. ‘merciless’ implies they will have to suffers as it will not stop as nature feels no pity for them. The pause created by the ellipsis creates the sense of suspending time, this suggests that the pain they’re going through is endless.
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
- Sibilance captures the noise of wind, it sounds both lonely but also biting.
- This is almost like a list making it seem very emotional and overwhelming while building tension.
Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire. Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
- The man made weapons are likened through metaphor to natural objects, showing mans war is a cheap imitation of nature.
- Their sense are confused because they say they are watching something the suddenly they hear it instead.
- It portrays an idea of how powerful the wind is. Maybe it’s tugging on it to show how weak nature thinks man’s creations are compared to it.
- The ugg sound is the sound you’d make when your exhausted.
Explain this quote and how it links to bayonet charge… What are we doing here?
- Rhetorical question highlights the hopelessness of soldiers and war.
- Appeals to the reader.
- Links to bayonet charge because the soldier in that poem also stops to think for a moment.
The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow…
- This is an oxymoron, dawn is meant to be hopeful and positive, not miserable.
- The ellipses fit with the word grow as it creates the sense of something going on.
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of gray,
But nothing happens.
- The rain is personified
- Nothing happens repeated to emphasise the helplessness of the soldiers who are beyond help.
- The tension is almost built up only to be let down, this is how the soldiers would have felt waiting.
- There is also an irony behind it because they are actually slowly dying so something is happening.
- the soldiers are trying to say that war achieves nothing.
Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.
-The sibilance creates the sense of danger as the repeated “s” sound has almost like a snake like quality making the bullets almost seem stealthy. This helps to increase tension as the reader is then worried for the narrator as they have less of a chance of defending themselves, they are more exposed.
With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause and renew,
- Now the snow is described with alliteration to emphasise the f sounds and highlight the cold heavy blanketing of the weather. The wind’s ‘nonchalance’ implies the weather sees the soldiers as beneath it and weak.
- The alliteration speeds the tempo while helping to create imagery. The soft sounds contrast with the harsh war theme of the poem which is like what the imagery is doing because snow is usually a magical things it touches you gently, however the cold is actually killing them as they are sat there being fired at.
Explain this quote and how it links to bayonet charge…
We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed,
- Man is animalised, likened to scared animals, rabbits in holes. Showing that before nature man is just an animal.
- The rabbit idea links with the hare in bayonet charge and the fact they’re in heels creates the impression they’re stuck like the hare thrashing around in the circle.
- They are disconnected now.
Is it that we are dying?
Rhetorical Question shows the confusion of soldiers. Conditions are so bad they can no longer tell what is normal anymore.
Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires glozed
With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;
- Metaphor frozen blood described as jewels, poet sees men’s lives as valuable and ultimately wasted.
- The soldiers really want to be at home and its torturing them thinking about it.
- They might not be dead but they have been tormented to the point where all humanity has been lost.
For God’s invincible spring our love is made afraid;
- So broken and hurt are the men that they feel abandoned and lose faith in God “our love is made afraid”.
- Contrasts/juxtaposes the battlefield with garden of Eden.
- Tone is one of betrayal and despair.
- Use of scattered punctuation slows the pace, we can imagine the soldier finally succumbing to exposure and dying.
- They feel life is pointless.
Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
-Metaphor ice as in cold and dead but also dead and empty, without soul (because they are dead, but also because all humanity has been stripped away.
But nothing happens.
- Repetition final line emphasises the process doesn’t end, the soldiers are frozen in time and hell.
- War achieved nothing.
Who wrote the poem?
Wilfred Owen
What is the context of the poem?
- Wilfred Owen was a soldier and officers in World War 1. He died before the end of the war but during his time he saw the full horror of conditions on the front line. He wrote a number of poems about this, published after the war with the help from fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon.
- The war itself was often criticised because of a huge loss of life for very little gain. During the Somme over 60,000 British soldiers died in one day, and in all they only gained 6 miles by the end of the war.
- Owen’s poems were often angry that the soldiers were in muddy dangerous trenches while the generals behind the lines were living in comfort. Owen’s poems tried to show the truth of conditions to people back home. He was no against fighting, but was angry about the conditions soldiers had to live with in order to do so.
Talk about the general themes of the poem…
The poem itself is based on war and so links to conflict. The poem itself is about the weather and conditions of living in the trenches rather than any fighting. It is more a poem about the conflict between man and nature. This is extremely relevant because man has created machines that can launch explosive shells for miles and destroy the landscape, and yet, nature can still do more harm than any of it.
Talk about the poems structure…
- The poem uses a large amount of ellipses, caesuras and repetition to create an on-going sense of waiting and boredom.
- The poem is made of eight stanzas with a consistent use of a half line to end. This reinforces the sense of stasis or sameness throughout the poem that nothing is happening. -There is use of para-rhyme showing words which appear to rhyme yet sound wrong when read to create the sense of unsettledness in the poem the soldiers are feeling.
- Owen also uses a huge amount of onomatopoeia and alliteration in the poem to emphasise the atmosphere and the sound of weather.
How is man vs nature significant?
Written about soldiers in a trench we expect to see a large amount of military language, however most of this is used to describe and personify the weather as if it were and army attacking them. The poem ends with the fear of tonight and the people who will lose lives and how none of this will change anything. Within the poem it is the weather that is represented as merciless and triumphant.
Key points…
- The poem defies the convention of war and looks at the weather assaulting the soldiers, not another army. This is to highlight the unknown horrors of war to people at home.
- The poet uses repetition and a consistent structure to create the static tone of the poem. The lack of change adds to the tone of despair.
- The alliteration is used to create a sense of atmosphere to the weather and to draw parallels to the violence of war and weather.
Themes..
- Power of nature
- Effects of conflict
- Reality of conflict
- Loss and absence
Key quotes…
"nothing happens" "black with snow" "fingering stealth" "eyes are ice" "dying"
Why is the poem called exposure?
- exposed to the elements
- exposed to the men they’re fighting
- exposed buy the bad choices of their leaders
