The poem "exposure" by Wilfred Owen is written in Winter of 1917. It portrays the message of the real enemy of the soldiers being the cold and icy conditions. Moreover, it provides us with a lively description of the persistent cold and awful conditions during one of the worst winters in the first world war. It shows that most of the soldiers were exposed rather than shot by enemies. The poem portrays all the opposing facts to make young men not join the war as it is nothing heroic. Owen uses all his senses to describe the frosty atmosphere and sets a lamenting and descriptive tone. The rhyme scheme is ABBA and the stanzas are continuous, emphasizing the continuous suffering of the British. It is written in first person plural, which makes us feel with the soldiers and put ourselves into their position.
The poem starts off with "Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us...". The assonant al "i" sounds in the words "brains", "merciless", "iced", "winds" and knife" evoke a hushing sound of the cold wind blowing around the trenches. Furthermore, these sounds are very sharp
Analysis - "Futility" by Wilfred Owen
In "Futility", Wilfred Owen describes the grievances of losing a companion as well as the worthlessness of war. He provides a sorrowful and desperate tone throughout the poem, which takes place within the battlefields of France during World War I. The speaker is unidentified but is believed to be one of the soldiers mourning over the lifeless body of their associate. Throughout most of the poem, the speaker questions the sun's ability to provide energy as well as breathe life into the motionless soldier. Owen's aims throughout the poem are to introduce one of the several possible sorrows of war and effectively define war as a pointless act that will lead to devastation.
The poem is made up of one stanza consisting of fourteen lines all of which deal with the agonies of the soldiers after