Transcript ppt-6-exposure

Exposure
By Wilfred Owen
What do you know about World
War One?
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Create a brainstorm of all the things that
you connect to this Great War.
Trenches
Millions died
Recruitment
Heroes
Conscientious objectors
Shell shock
Arrange these words from the poem under headings of
your choice
ache
silent
confuse
worried
whisper
curious
nervous
mad
agonies
poignant
misery
melanchol
y
shivering
attacks
bullets
silence
shudders
snow
flakes
wind
cringe
Snowdazed
ghosts
dying
crisp
ice
burying
frost
shrivelling puckering
Based upon these key words, what do you think the poem
might be about?
Listen to the poem
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Audio B6 – Interactive Poetry
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What are your first impressions?
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2.
3.
What is the poem about?
How does the speaker feel?
What attitude is shown towards war?
4.
Now read the poem again while watching the slide
show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxKuAJzHvCI
Wilfred Owen
• Born 18th March 1893 in Shropshire, England
• He enlisted in the army in September 1915
• He arrived in France in late December 1916 –
right in the middle of one of the harshest winters.
• He was an officer and led his men in some
bloody battles.
• He witnessed some terrible things and was
shell-shocked himself, having to spend time in a
hospital in Scotland to convalesce.
• He felt that the war was futile and spoke out
about this in his poetry.
• He was killed on 4th November 1914, a week
before the war ended.
Background Details
• The winter of 1917 was particularly harsh for the
soldiers in France. The severe weather became
as much of a threat to their lives as the enemies
they were fighting.
• Owen was a poet and soldier during the war and
most of his poems are based upon his own
experiences of war.
• In letters that he wrote to his mother from the
trenches, he described how men literally froze to
death during this terrible winter.
Winter in the
Trenches
Imagery
Images are often created using similes, metaphors or
personification. What examples can you find in the
poem?
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9.
“winds that knive us”
“mad gusts tugging on the wire, / Like twitching
agonies of men”
“gunnery rumbles, / Far off, like a dull rumour”
“The poignant misery of dawn”
“Dawn massing in her east”
“flakes that flock, pause and renew”
“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our
faces”
Choose two images and
“Slowly our ghosts drag home”
write down what you
“All their eyes are ice”
consider the effect to be
of each.
Find evidence to show that the weather is as
deadly an enemy as the Germans
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“winds that knive us”
“mad gusts”
“rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy”
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army /
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey,”
“Less deadly than the air that shudders black with ice”
“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our
faces”
“We cringe in holes”
“Shrivelling many hands”
“puckering foreheads crisp”
Where in the poem do the soldiers think back to their
homes?
• Stanza six.
• What do you think the poet means by “on us the
doors are closed”?
• The men cannot return to the comfort of their
homes; their imaginings are short-lived as they
return to their reality.
• What could Owen be saying about people back
at home who can still “rejoice”?
• He may be criticising those who allow the
fighting to continue and do nothing about it.
How does Owen show in the last two stanzas that the
soldiers’ deaths are inevitable?
• He suggests that the men have to die for
us to continue to have the things that we
hold dear. “not otherwise can kind fire
burn…”
• What does Owen mean by “love of God
seems dying?”
• It is suggesting that within the horror that
the men endure, it is nearly impossible to
keep a love of God.
Why does Owen keep repeating
“But nothing happens?”
• It helps to reinforce the hopelessness and
pointlessness of what the men are going
through.
• The repetition also reflects the monotony
of the men’s experiences.
Words that emphasise how the
soldiers feel
Personification – brings the weather
to life as another enemy
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 memories of the salient…
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
But nothing happens.
Simile – highlights the
strength of the wind
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?
Simile – suggests that
the sound of gunfire has
become so constant,
they barely notice it
Personification – nature as the enemy
sad
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.
The grey of the clouds links to the grey
of the German uniforms
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,
Alliteration emphasises harsh
But nothing happens.
and sudden sound of guns
Repetition highlights the monotony and
pointlessness of their lives
Alliteration emphasises
quantity of snow
Alliteration makes the snow
sound sinister
They are barely conscious
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?
They feel closer to dead than alive
Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires, glozed
With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;
People back
For hours the innocent mice rejoice: The house is theirs;
home can
Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed, –
still feel
We turn back to our dying.
happiness
Metaphor to show they
are so close to death
Caesura, reflects
that they cannot
return to this life –
the punctuation is
like a barrier
They have to return from their
reminiscence to reality
The men have to fight for us to keep those
things we hold dear
Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;
Nor 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,
The men even doubt the
For love of God seems dying.
existence of God in this
environment
Tonight, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,
Shrivelling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp.
The burying party, picks and shovels in the shaking grasp,
Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
Metaphor – shows that even those
But nothing happens.
who are still alive have nothing left
inside them
Links to the other poems?
What themes does it share?
• Fear – “Our Sharpeville”; “Belfast Confetti”,
“Parade’s End”
• Pain – “Belfast Confetti”; “Catrin”
• Violence – “Belfast Confetti”; “Our
Sharpeville”
• Enemies – “Belfast Confetti”; “Our
Sharpeville”
• Protest – “Half-Caste”
Exam Practice
Explore how the poet presents ideas of suffering in
“Exposure”.
What sort of things should you include to show your
understanding?
• What kind of suffering is being experienced
• How the poet feels about it
• What methods he uses to present the above.