8th March 2018

Exposure-Wilfred Owen

Exposure by Wilfred Owen

The poem exposure is a poem about surviving the elements and the pointlessness of war also the 

The first stanza give the reader an image of soldiers in the winter trying to advance through the war zone always on edge as they don’t know if enemies will find them”silence, sentries, whisper curious, nervous.”this creates the image of the allies advancing behind enemy lines always on edge in case they are spotted.

In stanza 2 the soldiers whilst braving the icy conditions question their authorities “why are we here?.”this suggests that the soldiers could be elsewhere helping innocent people instead of fighting what seem pt like  a worthless war.

In stanza four personification is used to convey an image of the wind blowing snow up a mountain “we watch them wandering up and down the wind’s nonchalance”this may also be interpreted as them seeing the enemy ignorant and unaware of the advancing team

Throughout the poem Owen says that the men have lost hope and see their dying as just a matter of time “is it that we are dying,””we turn back to dying,””for love of god seems dying,”this sense of hopelessness reiterates the idea that war achieves little and uses substantial resources,the soldiers realize this and it destroys their effort and hope it also pushes the end further away.

Owen also uses repetition n the endings of stanzas 1348 stating,”but nothing happens,” this may mean that shear boredom is playing a role in the slow deaths of the men not just the weather.it again gives the reader of a never seeing end and an unachievable  victory.

 

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Writing