Exposure

Exposure

Context
1. Wilfred Owen went to the frontline of the Somme in the winter
  1. Bitterly cold and killed many
2. January 1917, letter to his mother
  1. 'My platoon had no dug-outs, but had to lie out in the snow under the deadly wind'...'hideous landscaped, vile noises,'...'everything unnatural, broken, blastered; the distortion of the dead.'
What Wilfred Owen is trying to do
1. Emphasizes futility of war ('But nothing happens')
2. Subverting/falsifying positive messages prevalent in propaganda ('on us the doors are closed- we turn back to our dying')
  1. Not sweet/honorable to die for country
3. Questions the mass death of innocent lives due to war
4. Conveys loss of faith
5. Suggests constant anxiety of having multiple enemies
6. Suggests that war generates a society that sees a suffering soldier as a coward
7. Portray juxtaposition of positive and negative to suggest that pleasant imaginations are short-lived
What happens in the poem
1. Describes feelings of soldiers gradually freezing to death in trenches
2. Soldiers huddle against gusts of wind and snow waiting for something to happen
3. Phrase 'nothing happens' is repeated = refrain
4. Men are without hope
5. Dream of comfort of home,but know they won't return
6. Despair has destroyed their faith in God
7. Resentfully and stoically accepting their miserable fate and await their death
Words
1. Dangerous
2. Tedious
3. Unfresh

Resource summary

	Created by alanah.sarginson over 8 years ago