2. A01 (12 marks) A02 (12 marks) A03 (6 marks)
Clear and intelligent interpretation of the poems
Clear and precise comparison of the poems
Select a wide range of quotations which justify your points
A (12 marks)
Analyse the poets’ use of language
Analyse the poets’ use of structure
Clearly explain the effects on the reader
Use subject specific terminology
A (6 marks)
Relate the poems to their historical and social contexts

3. What is Owen’s ‘Exposure’ about?
Knowledge
Wilfred Owen was a soldier in WWI and wrote his poetry about his first-hand experiences.
Skills:
Close reading of the poem, focussed on meaning and content.
Understanding:
Annotate your anthology to demonstrate your understanding.

4. What dangers would you expect the men to be facing?
The poem ‘Exposure’ describes a night spent by soldiers in the trenches during World War One.
Predictions
What dangers would you expect the men to be facing?
What do you think the men are exposed to?
Who is the enemy the soldiers are likely afraid of?
Presumably they’ll expect a poem about gunfire, German soldiers, artillery bombardments etc.
A01
Clear and intelligent interpretation of the poems
Select a wide range of quotations which justify your points

5. The poem is called Exposure
We would expect the soldiers to be in danger of being killed by the Germans. They are ‘exposed’ to enemy gun and shell fire.

6. Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us
Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife 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? 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 gray, 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.
Pale flakes with lingering 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. 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, His 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.
Listen to the poem here.
A01
Clear and intelligent interpretation of the poems
Select a wide range of quotations which justify your points

7. Annotate the poem to show you understand it.
The poem ‘Exposure’ describes a night spent by soldiers in the trenches during World War One.
What dangers are the men really facing?
What do you think the men are exposed to?
Who is the enemy the soldiers are afraid of?
How does this match up to your predictions? What is Owen’s point about soldiers’ lives during WW1?
They need to get their head around the idea that it’s a poem about monotony, fear, and adverse weather conditions.
Annotate the poem to show you understand it.
A01
Clear and intelligent interpretation of the poems
Select a wide range of quotations which justify your points

8. How is Owen’s ‘Exposure’ written?
Knowledge
The rhythm, metre, stanza length and language devices are all used here to evoke the experiences Owen is describing.
Skills:
Close reading of the poem, focussed on language and structure.
Understanding:
Annotate your anthology to demonstrate your understanding.

9. What literary device does Owen repeatedly use, and why?
Owen is trying to depict the weather as a powerful and frightening enemy. Identify some interesting language use which helps him achieve this, and explain the effect on the reader.
“Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous”
“…war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy…”
“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.”
What literary device does Owen repeatedly use, and why?
“…black with snow, With sidelong flowing flakes that flock…”
The alliterative ‘fl-’ just keeps coming: what does that imply about the snow? How does it make a reader feel for the soldiers?
A02
Analyse the poets’ use of language
Clearly explain the effects on the reader
Use subject specific terminology

10. Is there any more language you’ve spotted you’d like to share?
‘Our brains ache‘
'We cringe in holes‘
'…on us the doors are closed‘
The poem features a lot of first person plural personal pronouns.
What does that suggest about Owen’s relationship with the war? What is the effect on the reader? What does it suggest about how the men in the trenches felt about each other?
Is there any more language you’ve spotted you’d like to share?
A02
Analyse the poets’ use of language
Clearly explain the effects on the reader
Use subject specific terminology

11. Why was Owens’ ‘Exposure’ written?
Knowledge
Owen is trying to convey the horror of WWI to the people back at home, and readers in the future.
Skills:
Link contextual factors to textual details.
Understanding:
Annotate your anthology to demonstrate your understanding.

12. The stanzas are all the same length and it is very predictable.
What is Owen suggesting about trench warfare in WW1?
The poem almost has an ABBAC rhyme-scheme, but there are lots of half-rhymes – silent/salient, snow/renew, faces/fusses – and the pattern doesn’t quite work perfectly.
What is Owen suggesting about trench warfare in WW1?
The stanzas all end with a line ‘cut short’ based on what we’d expect.
What is Owen suggesting about trench warfare in WW1?
A02
Analyse the poets’ use of structure
Use subject specific terminology
A03
Relate the poems to their historical and social contexts

13. How are ‘Exposure’ and ‘The Prelude’ similar?
Knowledge
Both writers believe the nature is a powerful force.
Skills:
Make connections between the two poems.
Understanding:
Write a thirty minute essay response to the comparison question.

14. Compare the power of nature as portrayed by the Romantic poet Wordsworth in ‘The Prelude’ and by the war poet Owen in ‘Exposure’.
A01
Clear and precise comparison of the poems