1. Exposure

3. What are the connotations associated with the word exposure?

4. How are these men ‘exposed’?

7. Context: WWI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zDnzb06Kfc
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 criticized 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.
Does it change our view that the poet was writing from personal experience?
Note down ways the soldiers were ‘exposed’ to the elements/conflict.
How is life in the trenches at times idealised?
(Think Sainsbury’s 2014 xmas ad.)

9. Exposure - Poem by Wilfred Owen
Use of the first person plural shows the suffering of all the soldiers. It is a shared experience.
Personification creates the sense that Nature is dangerous, possibly a killer. It emphasises how penetrative the winds are.
Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us ...  Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ... Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ... Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, But nothing happens. Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire. Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles. Northward incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles, Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war. What are we doing here?
Repeated phrase is like a refrain. It reflects the monotony that the soldiers endure.
The half rhymes underline the disharmonious experience of the soldiers. The use of ellipses implies that the soldiers are waiting endlessly for something and conveys their emptiness.
The present tense creates immediacy and makes the war seem never-ending.
Rhetorical question emphasises the pointlessness of war.
Echoes the words of Jesus, who predicts the end of the world with: ‘You will hear of wars and rumours of wars.’

10. Dawn, normally a symbol of hope, represents misery
Dawn, normally a symbol of hope, represents misery. The military metaphor creates the sense that the weather relentlessly attacks the soldiers.
The triplet is matter-of-fact, implying the inevitability of suffering
The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow ... We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy. Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey, But nothing happens.  Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow, With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause and renew, We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance, But nothing happens.
The lack of colour reflects the lifelessness of the battlefield. The German soldiers’ uniform was grey, creating a parallel between the German army and the weather as enemies.
Alliteration emphasises the unrelenting drive and gathering of snow.
Owen subverts the usual symbolism of snow (white=purity) to suggest that is represents evil and danger.
Personification underlines the indifference of Nature to man’s suffering.

11. Assonance and long vowel sounds make the movement sound sluggish
Assonance and long vowel sounds make the movement sound sluggish. The metaphor ‘ghosts’ implies that the men are forgotten or that death is inevitable.
Personification implies that the snow is sinister, targeting the soldiers.
Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces-- We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed, Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed, Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses. Is it that we are dying? Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires glozed With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there; For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs; Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed-- We turn back to our dying.
The half-rhyme of these compound phrases contrasts the reality of the present with their dreams of the past.
The repetition of ‘closed’ reflects how it is impossible for them to return home. The caesurae in each line of this stanza creates division, creating the sense that the soldiers are excluded from their own homes.

12. Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn; Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit. For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid; Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born, For love of God seems dying. To-night, this frost will fasten on this mud and us, Shrivelling many hands and puckering foreheads crisp. The burying-party, picks and shovels in their shaking grasp, Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice, But nothing happens. 
The difficult syntax and frequent punctuation reflect the tortured nature of the soldiers.
Ambiguity: it might suggest that the soldiers’ hopeless situation has caused their loss of faith in God, or God and his love are neglecting these men.
Short vowel sounds create a clipped sound to emphasise the harsh effect on the men. The focus on certain body parts dehumanises them.
The metaphor implies the soldiers’ death-like and frozen state. Links with ‘iced east winds’ in the opening stanza to show the unchanging nature of their suffering.

13. Form
Each stanza follows a regular ABBAC rhyme scheme to reflect the monotonous, unchanging nature of the men’s existence.
The use of half or part rhymes reflects the unsatisfactory and disharmonious experience of the soldiers.
The first person plural voice, plus the use of the present tense, creates a sense of collective and continuous suffering.
Each stanza ends in a half line which might reflect the lack of hope for the soldiers.

14. Structure
The poem’s focus changes very little to reflect the unrelenting monotony of the soldiers’ lives.
The shift in focus to home is unsatisfactory. The lack of presence of people makes it seem as though they have been forgotten.
The last line of the first and the last stanza contain the same words to show that life in the trenches is unvaried and mechanical.

15. Model Paragraph
“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…” Owen uses personification to give the wind the human characteristic of being “merciless”. In showing the wind as being “merciless” Owen is showing the weather to be another enemy or opponent for the soldiers to face. The use of the adjective, “iced” and verb, “knive” gives the reader the impression that the weather is physically attacking the soldiers, it makes the reader feel sympathy for the soldiers who are stuck in the trenches unable to escape the harsh conditions. Owen starts the poem with “Our brains ache” this could be read literally, the soldiers have headaches caused by the cold winds. It could also refer to the mental and emotional pain the soldiers are experiencing as a result of being forced to fight in World War One which is something Owen will have experienced himself.