Exposure Poem Summary

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

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