Comparing poems Exposure and Anthem for Doomed Youth

Comparing poems – ‘Exposure’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’

Both these poems are similar but also different in many ways. Although they both explain about the hardships of war, they do it in different contexts.

‘Exposure’ is about how the weather in a war situation can be like an enemy, with its sly winds and harsh ice which kills like the enemy ,the weather is as cold and bitter as war, acting like ‘…merciless iced east winds’. While ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is more of a warning poem, showing how war really is behind all the propaganda and how war is not how it seems and how each life is worth less than the first, most soldier’s seem to ‘…die as cattle’.

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Both poems also have different tones when compared. The tone and mood of ‘Exposure’ is very sombre, and dull almost melancholic due to the weariness of the soldier’s, how they stand defeated by Mother Nature. For example in the poem Owen uses the phrase ‘but nothing happens’ 4 times, showing the mood to be dull and weary. While the tone of ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is very bitter and scornful, as it is about how underappreciated the soldiers are, and I think it reflects how he feels about war, and his warning for the future generation. The tone is showed, on lines 4-5 were it is written, ‘Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;’ especially on line 5, as it is almost sinister, and has a very scornful as he describes choirs which are normally very beautiful in sound, and he turns them into the sound of wailing shells fresh out if the guns, which is not a very nice comparison.

However different, the poems are also quite similar, both poems use personification a lot. In ‘Exposure’ the poem personifies the weather in different ways, it explains how the ‘…winds knive us [them]’ and how pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling’, showing how the weather is as harsh as a gun bullet, it even says in the poem on lines 16-17, that the cold id more deathly than the bullets. Showing just how bad the weather conditions were during the war. In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ there is also use of personification for example ‘ the monstrous anger of the guns’ showing how fast and deadly the guns are, as well as how horribly loud they have become and how lots of lives are being taken by these ‘angry guns’.

Another similarity would be that they also are similar in the fact that the message of both poems is that war result’s in death. For example in ‘Exposure’ though the poem talks about the effects the weather has at war, it also talks about how so many soldiers die and are forgotten like online 30 ‘we turn our backs to our dying’ showing the solider’s survival of the fittest ideal. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ also has a similar theme with the opening line ending of ‘die as cattle’ meaing that the solider’s die like animals are slaughterd for their meat. But these solider’s die for no reason, as cattle they are seemed worthless underneath the ordinary person, as their lives are taken so recklessly with no funeral or any type of remembrance, like cattle.

To conclude, when comparing the two poems: ‘Exposure’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. Both poems were had differences in subjects, but also corresponded through themes. Through comparing the poems I have found there are more similarities than differences. Making the poems more similar to each other, in my opinion, due to the fact they have themes on war and death.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

sydneyhopcroft

6th of Sep 2012

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication is questionable. By no means is it illegible, but there are moments where it slips and errors filter through the grammar checks all students are encouraged to carry out in finals works. No matter how confident you may feel about your QWC, we, as humans, always make mistake and sometimes we make them without even realising, be it something as small as a misplaced apostrophe or something bigger like poor grammar - these are not acceptable at GCSE level and must be rectified.

Level of analysis

The Level of Analysis is broad but rarely very deep, meaning the answer falls neatly onto a B/C boarder for GCSE. The candidate should learn to draw more comments fro what they pick up on. Some of there points are good but need to go that little bit further, and the style in which they compare one poem to another is a little slapdash, switching from poem to poem whenever they feel, often repeating themselves whilst doing so. It's not a bad answer, but it doesn't feel planned. Set aside 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the exam time to plan your answer- they are an invaluable practise. It may seem like a waste of time when you're itching to get writing, but it really honestly helps and saves time if you've already pre-planned where you're going to go and what you're going to write about.

Response to question

This candidate demonstrates a fairly adept ability to analyse poetry. The response is balanced, nicely-structured and the analysis included is in parts insightful, particularly the language analysis. There is no question really set here, and so it is hard to gauge whether or not the questions asks for exclusively language analysis or perhaps a bit more. Either way, the candidate focuses mainly on the language and does so well. I would argue that some analysis seems to be made quite carelessly, which leads to perhaps a miscommunication of ideas as the candidate rushes to the next point e.g. - "the opening line ending of 'die as cattle' meaing that the solider's die like animals are slaughterd for their meat (sic)". This is slightly dubious as the soldier's certainly weren't "killed for their meat", so I recommend just watching how you phrase you comparisons because, to me, I understand what you want to say, but the examiner deliberately will not accept ambiguity like this and so clarity is of the highest importance.

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