Remains VS Exposure Annotations

example of enjambment in Remains

“But I blink/and he bursts again”

“But I blink/and he bursts again”

re-enforces how he’s unable to put an end to this memory/experience and helps to convey the adrenalin and brutality of war as the aftermath of killing someone evidently haunts him

the term for when a poem begins in the middle of a scene

media-res

Opening line of Remains

“On another occasion”

“On another occasion”

gain confusion from the reader as they initially are unsure what is going on in the poem, mirroring that the soldiers don’t initially know the horrors of killing someone which they will face, shows the unfortunate truth that soldiers experience this on a day-to-day basis

writer’s purpose for Exposure & Remains

focus on the hardships of war which are dehumanizing and experience conflict as something traumatic, tries to gain the readers sympathy for soldiers and show the reality of war contrasting from the patriotic idea.

summary for Exposure

written during World War one when Owen was a soldier, describes soldiers in the trenches fighting the brutal weather conditions during the first world war

summary for Remains

focused on a soldier haunted by the violent memory of his involvement of shooting a looter during a war in Iraq

repeated quote in Exposure which is the anticlimax of multiple stanzas

“But nothing happens”

“But nothing happens”

the adrenalin and shellshock the soldiers had developed during war as they were built highly strung, expecting and preparing for something to happen but the poem highlights on the agony of waiting and how their suffering is endless

structure in Exposure

each of the eight stanzas contains an identical structure where a build-up occurs in five lines and it ends with an indented anti-climax in the final line to emphasize its importance

lack of enjambment in Exposure

intended to make the poem slower paced to emphasize the agony of waiting for the soldiers

quote using the element of nature showing the trauma soldiers endure during WW1 in Exposure

“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”

“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”

makes the weather appear SINISTER and suggests the men are FEARFUL and are VICTIMS OF THE WEATHER. use of ALLITERATION in the “f” sound re-enforces how nature is like a quiet killer

quote in remains using the feeling of guilt to further show the dehumanizing conditions which caused trauma for soldiers

“his bloody life in my bloody hands”

“his bloody life in my bloody hands”

intentionally written last in order to emphasize his intense feelings of guilt which is further seen in the repetition of the graphic word “bloody” which gives weight to those feelings of regret which are permanent.

“merciless iced east winds knive us…”

personification: the weather is the enemy: portrayed as a killer, deadly and brutal

sibilant sounds: makes the wind sound aggressive and harsh

“our ghosts drag home”

metaphor: “ghosts” - suggests they already see themselves as dead; they dont think they’ll survive the winter and have lost hope

“all their eyes are ice”

image of death: graphic & deliberately shocking/disturbing to show the fatal effect on the weather on the men.

“the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out”

alliteration/plosives: emphasis the struggle to escape the effects of ptsd - he is unable to

“sort of inside out” and “tosses his guts back into his body”

informal language: matter of fact tone makes it more graphic & brutal description of the body

• cause of the soldiers trauma - he’s done this - explains why its still on his mind

• shocks the reader - horrifically violent and disturbing - shows the reality of war

“all of the same mind”, “three of us”, “three of a kind”

repetition of “three” “same mind” shows how their training takes over: they react identically

• they do their duty w/o questioning if it is morally right to kill the looter

“hes probably armed, possibly not”

repetition from stanza 1 shows how hes haunted by guilt this thought keeps repeating itself in his mind