Exposure - Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Power & Conflict, topic 17.1.4
Key Quotations in Exposure
Here are key quotations to remember for your exam:
“…But nothing happens”
- Repetition of “but nothing happens” throughout the poem gives the readers a sense of the boredom caused by waiting.
- It also hints at the pointlessness of war.
“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
- Personification and sibilance.
- The weather is personified to make it sound menacing and deadly. This also characterises the weather as the real enemy of the soldiers.
- The sibilance here highlights the intensity of the pain and the brutality of the weather.
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army..."
- “Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army / Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey.”
- Personification.
- Dawn, usually associated with ideas of light and hope is here hostile and brings even more suffering.
- Colour imagery.
- The colour imagery “grey” conveys ideas of despair and boredom.
- Military vocabulary.
- “Ranks” is a military term and is repeated, reminding the reader that the weather is the soldiers’ enemy.
“Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow”
- Nature is presented as more damaging and deadly than the bullets.
- The contrasting images of “black” and “snow” are unsettling. They highlight the horror of being exposed to the elements.
- They also highlight how close to death the soldiers are.
“Slowly, our ghosts drag home”
- Metaphor.
- This metaphor suggests that war has sucked all the life out of the soldiers and further reminds readers that they are on the brink of death.
“All their eyes are ice”
- Metaphor.
- This metaphor describes the extreme effects of the weather that have overcome the soldiers.
- It also implies that the soldiers have lost their humanity and could suggest they are close to breaking point.
Test yourself on Exposure - Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
Which one of these key quotes from Exposure is personifying the weather?