BACK TO WORKSHEETS
For this activity, you will need your Power and Conflict poetry anthology to refer to the poem' Exposure' by Wilfred Owen.
If you can, grab some paper and a pen so that you can make notes as you work through to use for revision later!
The poem is written in the form of eight even stanzas.
The speakers in the poem are the soldiers who are waiting in the trenches in awful conditions.
Wilfred Owen was a soldier and officer in WWI. He died the week before the end of the war, but during his time, he saw the full horror of conditions on the front line. He wrote a number of poems about this, published after the war with the help of fellow soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon.
World War I is often criticised because of the huge loss of life for very little gain. Wilfred Owen's poems often show anger that the soldiers were in muddy, dangerous and freezing trenches while the generals behind the line were living in comfort. Owen tried to reveal the truth of conditions to people back home. He wasn't against fighting, but was angry about how the soldiers had to live.
You might need to come back to this Introduction while working through the activities to remind yourself of the contextual information.
When you're ready, let's begin.
