Analysis of Exposure by Wilfred Owen

Analysis of Exposure by Wilfred Owen

1. Vocabulary

   • merciless - cruel
   • poignant - sadness and strong feelings
   • glozed - make excuses for
   • burying party - those who bury the dead
   • puckering - wrinkled, creased
   • salient - area of France
   • brambles - blackberry bush
   • incessantly - over and over
   • gunnery - a place where guns are

2. Interpretations of the poem

   • Being exposed to the extreme weather conditions is a different kind of suffering
   • Exposing the actuality of the war in the trenches
   • Perhaps Owen 'exposes' himself to public criticism, he is now against the war
   • Religion - is war because we don't love God, or because God does not love us?
     • God does not care if we die
   • The soldiers dream of home
     • Juxtaposition of trenches and images of British countryside
     • They are more likely to die from the conditions than the enemy

3. Poetic techniques

   • Assonance - brains ache
   • Ellipsis ... - want us to ponder on the idea
   • Personification - dawn is a cruel female
   • Alliteration - flowing flakes that flock
   • Sibilance - streak the silence
   • Half-rhyme - drowse/doze leaves us dissatisfied reflects the idea that his idea of war is not what it should be
   • Repetition
     • Closed - not letting them into the warmth
   • Rhetorical questions - 'What are we doing here?'