Spring Offensive And Exposure By Wilfred Owen Comparison

Spring Offensive And Exposure By Wilfred Owen Comparison

Spring Offensive and Exposure by Wilfred Owen are similar in the respect that they are both about the horrors of trench warfare in WW1. They focus upon the individual lives of ordinary soldiers who not only suffer mental anguish but are exposed to the ravages of war. In Exposure the soldiers are trapped in a living hell with no way out. The soldiers suffer from anxiety and bouts of boredom. There is a type of passive suffering as he says four times “but nothing happens”, nothing except the time of day the relentless weather and the progress of war. The men appear trapped in no man’s land between life and death. The bitter winter nights, the snow and the rain intermingle with spasmodic gunfire which plays on their minds. They become more and more confused and constantly dream of home. It is a psychological war as well as a physical war. It is not just a battle against the known enemy but a battle against the elements and themselves to survive.
In Spring Offensive the soldiers have not yet experienced the reality of war. They are marching through a valley of buttercups and are oblivious of what the future holds. They feel the warmth of the sun in May which helps to calm their nerves but they suffer pangs of anxiety of the thought of the battle to come.
In Exposure Wilfred Owen explores the feelings of the soldiers by the use of various poetic techniques. He uses rhetorical questions for example “What are we doing here?” This conveys the feeling that the soldiers are suffering from despair to such an extent that they question the very nature of the war. In Exposure the soldiers experience and are exposed to the ravages of trench warfare in the harsh winter of 1917. Although in the opening stanza there is a stillness, a tranquillity the soldiers are confused and anxious. Owen uses alliteration to show the feelings of the soldiers, “worried by silence sentries whisper”. This suggests that the soldiers are worried by the silence and they would rather...