Reality

‘Owen’s intent is to confront the reader with as much reality as he is able to create’ - How Owen achieves his purpose

Owen used poetry as a means of communicating the realities of trench warfare to the masses, contrasting the propaganda of the time.  Through Owen’s use of visceral imagery, sensory language, personas and various rhetorical and literary devices, he is able to confront the reader with a variety of realities related to the war. This is also done by his naming the poems in a particular way.

By using ellipses in his poetry, Owen allows the reader to continue imagining the different forms of realities he talks about and to develop their own responses to them. In ‘Exposure’ for example; “The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow…”; the ellipses add a sense of foreboding and creating a pause so the reader can reflect upon the how the soldiers must have felt at the start of each day; and; "Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent..."; Usually silence is a beautiful tranquil state of mind. Yet, here it is something that creates "nervous" and "curious" soldiers. This truly creates pathos for the soldiers- do they ever have a chance to relax?  This technique is also used in other poems, such as ‘Disabled’; “He thought he’d better join. He wonders why...” This line causes the reader to reflect on what is being said and they begin to think of reasons why soldiers would sign up, which is the effect Owen wanted to create, putting the readers in the position of the soldiers.

The title of ‘Exposure’ indicates that Owen will be ‘exposing’ the truth to us and that there is no form of physical protection for the soldiers, they are ‘exposed’. It also introduces a sense of nakedness and vulnerability. This implied agenda lets the reader know what to expect from the content of the poem. All of his poems are named in order to convey the reality of war to those reading them. For example, ‘Insensibility’ is rightly named to describe the feelings or indeed lack of, that the soldiers have to deal with while fighting in the war. ‘Mental Cases’ and ‘Disabled’ are further examples where Owen tells the reader of the harsh realities; the ones no one at the time would have talked about; that he will go on to talk about in his poems.

‘Exposure’ is a war poem, written from a soldier’s point of view. From the first line, personification is used effectively to introduce us to the harsh weather conditions the soldiers faced “merciless iced east winds”; as such the feeling is created that everyone and everything is against them. This is continued throughout the poem, becoming pathetic fallacy as “the rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy” reflects the seemingly hopeless nature of their situation. “the wind’s nonchalance” is another implication of uncaring austerity from nature. The unceasing actuality of war and the harsh weather conditions is repeatedly referred to through phrases such as “successive” “incessantly” “war lasts” and “pause and renew” . This idea of never-ending hardship contrasts the shortness of the soldier’s lives, made evident by allusions to “dying”. Owen appeals to humanity and makes the shortness of the soldiers’ lives more poignant as we are reminded that they are people, like us, who “lie out here; therefore were born” and are not unfeeling killing machines. The use of pathetic fallacy and personification is also present in poems such as ‘Miners’, ‘Futility’ and ‘The Last Laugh’. Owen uses pathetic fallacy to recreate the harsh elemental conditions of war and reflect the mood of the soldiers. Personification is used to address the reality of a crisis of faith in most of the soldiers and to expose to the reader the inner turmoil most of them had to face during the war.

“Our brains ache” helps us imagine what it felt like for the men; a reassuring sense of solidarity is conveyed by “our”. The cold, noise, exhaustion or feeling generally overwhelmed that could have caused the soldier’s brains to “ache” means the line conveys more of the harsh reality of war than the patriotic image “our” may have. This links with feelings of disorientation later in the poem when they “drowse, sun-dozed” and dissociate themselves from “a dull rumour of some other war” as it all gets too much for the soldiers.

Owen builds tension throughout the poem, using interrogatives “What are we doing here?” and “Is it that we are dying?” so the reader considers the poem more deeply and searches for an answer. He has opted to use repetition to reinforce the feeling of anticipation. The more we are told that “nothing happens” the more we expect something to occur. This mirrors the soldiers’ feelings as they anticipate going over the top.

We are brought back to Owen’s aim (“Exposure”) to convey the reality of war when “The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow…”. The light revealing reality in the same way Owen is ‘exposing’ the truth. “Misery of dawn” is a very effective oxymoron, as it inverts our expectation of dawn being a new start, bringing hope. Owen continues to describe the effects of war on men “All their eyes are ice”, showing the truth of the emotional turmoil the soldiers went through as well as earlier references to the physical hazards “men among its brambles”. We empathise further as it has now been illustrated how like us the soldiers were and how much they suffered.

In the poem ‘Insensibility’, Owen uses an inverted sentence structure along with biblical references as well as using Horace’s poetry, using it ironically to portray his differing viewpoint on the war. “Happy the lad whose mind was never trained”. It is clear that Owen believes that the ‘lads’ who have never been mentally trained are better off than the older soldiers perhaps because their natural instincts are to shut down and stop feeling. Using ‘lad’ makes the reader think of a young boy at war rather than a fit older soldier. This plays on the reader’s sympathies as it reminds them that many of the soldiers are only young boys. He also does this in ‘Arms and the Boy’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ where he describes the soldiers as children. This conveys the reality that many young boys lied about their ages and snuck into the armed forces hoping for glory and victory.