Nitya Narayanan
English SL
18/04/16
TPSESO – (Exposure)
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Title.
Pre-Reading
I think that the poem ‘Exposure’ is about the mental torture that soldiers had to go through during war. The overlying idea of this poem is death, and that once you are caught in the vicious cycle of war, God can’t even save us from death because death is inevitable. At the end, nothing but death takes place in war.
Post-Reading
After further research, I learnt that this poem was about the soldiers getting exposed to several hardships during World War I, which were diseases, environmental disasters, poor sanitation facilities, and most importantly fighting enemies.
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Plot. This poem is about soldiers facing harsh natural conditions
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Northward incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles’(lines 7 and 8)
‘Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent...
Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient…’(lines 2 and 3)
‘Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of gray,’(lines 13 and 14)
Personification
‘The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow…’(line 11)
‘For love of God seems dying’(line 35)
‘For God’s invincible spring our love is make afraid’(line 33)
Diction
‘Merciless’(line 1)
‘Agonies’(line 7)
‘Forgotten dreams’(line 22)
Symbols
‘Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of gray,
‘(line
It illustrates when troops are back from the war their are considering taking their lives because their feel like murders since; they took someone else’s life and all the killing that happens within the war. For example, when one of their comrade’s is killed they feel guilty, and it will lead them to feel like their should have done a better job protecting each other. As a result, what they experience during the war can cause trauma to the brain, trigger the memory system and every man’s life
Death is always associated with the occurrences of wars. No matter what, there is no escaping the fact that people will die in battle. Throughout the book The Things They Carried there are scenes of extreme violence, and heart crushing deaths. Witnessing someone you know being killed, or even killing someone you do not know is very traumatizing to a person and their life, but it's war and that is just how it is. Tim O’Brien uses many examples from the war for his story to emphasise the theme of Death, and violence and that no matter what it is no one's fault, and everyone fault.
If war and death are closely associated, then it shows how soldiers in the war must have not only been in situations where they could die, but also that in the war, many people suffered and died. War couldn’t be death, if there weren’t a plethora of causalities. This shows how death is physical. While the quote is quite literary, the implicit meaning is that there were thousands of people dying, and that there were many bodies that had to be carried to safe territory, to the hospital and ultimately to their graves. O’Brian implements the theme of death to quantify the number of those who suffered and have their lives in the Vietnam war.
The soldier himself is frightened on why he could not save him which haunts him in his dreams as he says “In all my dreams/ before my helpless sight” is how every time he dreams he sees the soldier and he cannot control it causing him to think of it every night frightening him everyday. Soon he will feel that the dead person wants revenge for his death as the soldier states “he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”, The dead soldier always comes into the narrator's dream wanting revenge as he chokes him as how he was being choked by the gas clouds and then drowning as how the dead soldier drowned in the green sea of chlorine gas. The horrors of war is what scares the soldier even after the war. At first soldiers imagine themselves as heroes creating them eager and excited they are until they finally get to the front and see no man's land. No man's land is usually bumpy with shell holes and dead trees that are either broken or burnt.
Basically everything in a war could look beautiful in humans eyes, but every soldier hates war at the same time. The truth reached by the reader from this contrast is that why some might like going to war and what makes soldiers to keep going in
This metaphor displays his uncertainty as per his crucial part in that moment in time. The soldier pictures himself as the hand on a clock, subject to the inevitable force of a clockwork motor that cannot be slowed or quickend. He realises that he does not really know why he is running and feels “statuary in mid-stride”. However, towards the end of the poem, all moral justifications for the existence of war have become meaningless- “King, honour, human dignity, etcetera Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm”, which is extremely dismissive of all the motives people provide for joining the army, explicitly stating that those motives do not justify and do not withstand the war. Disorientation is also highlighted in the line “Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge That dazzled with rifle fire” where the confusion between the natural world and man-made world is expressed.
The 1970s were a rough year for African-Americans, still fighting for social and political rights in the United States. Consequently, women still did not receive equal rights. However, in 1972, “Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which reads: ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex’ (History.com Staff).” Out of the thirty-eight necessary states only twenty-two ratified it right away, it was relieving for the moment because the feminist advocates had been trying to be ratified since 1923. The First African-American woman elected into Congress was Shirley Chisholm.
No training? No problem, I’m Australian NO hook sorry Columns “Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell”. Australians are known internationally for our hardened culture, the bush battlers raised against all odds into an incredible mix of strength and boldness.
The literary device that seems ubiquitous in this poem is alliteration. The first one found in lines 633-634, “ still brave, still strong/ And with his shield at his side, and a mail shirt on his breast.” The “S” sound is repeated. Another example of alliteration shown is on lines 717-718.
The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.
After the soldiers return home, they have to fight a war between their consciousness and the disorder. In addition, they have to deal with the guilt and death of others. A poem that can relate to this is called, Hurt, by Nine Inch Nails. In the poem, the character has to deal with the pain and memories of others. The poem states, “Try to kill it all away
This is different to the other poems already mentioned in this essay as it refers to the innocent citizens killed as opposed to the soldiers or upper class ranking officials at the time. A theme throughout the poem is that the first line of each verse contains the person who survives and the second line contains the person of is dead or about to die. “One man shall wake from terror to his bed. Five men shall be dead”
To create an attitude of disapproval towards dying for one’s country, Owen used elevated diction. He begins the poem by portraying a picture of exhausted soldiers. He uses descriptive phrases such as “blood-shod” and “drunk with fatigue”. This elevated diction draws in the reader’s attention and causes them to feel sympathy for the soldiers who are risking
Firstly within the poems, both Owen and Harrison present the horrific images of war through use of visual imagery. “And leaped of purple spurted his thigh” is stated. Owen describes the immediate action of presenting the truth of war as horrific and terrifying . The phrase “purple spurted” represents the odd color of the blood which was shedded as the boulder from the bomb smashed his leg in a matter of seconds. The readers
The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…”