What Is Wilfred Owen's Use Of Figurative Language In Exposure
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Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 and became known as one of the foremost outstanding poets of the first warfare. He himself fought on the battlefront and witnessed the terrible conditions troopers experienced. Owen felt that war was pointlessly inflicting nothing but pain and suffering and this is expressed in his poems. I will be exploring how Wilfred Owen brings alive the experiences on the front-line using poems Dulce et decorum Est, Futility and Exposure.
In the poem ‘Exposure’ Owen portrays the awful, extreme state of affairs the troopers are in by the exploiting, descriptive and powerful imagery of nature and weather. Within the title alone ‘Exposure’ Owen is referring not solely to the males being out at war, but, conjointly to how they're…show more content… Through the dramatic use of imagery, metaphor, and diction, he clearly states his opinion that war is futile and harsh. The employment of compelling figurative language helps to reveal the truth of war. The alliteration of 'rapid rattle' helps to create an aural image in the reader's mind of constant gunfire. Within the initial line, "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks," The comparison to ‘old beggars’ is attention-grabbing because it highlights how the boys have been aged prematurely by their experiences. Also, it implies to us that the troops are so tired that they are being compared as 'old' and beggars' also the analogy to 'old beggars' sharply contrasts with wartime propaganda posters which all portray an image of soldiers all of whom are fit, strong and happy out on the battlefield. Another use of a simile, "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin," implies that his face is maybe coated with blood that is the colour symbolising the devil. A really powerful metaphor is the comparison of painful experiences of the troops to "vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues." This metaphor emphasizes that the soldiers will always remember these horrific experiences on the