how Wilfred Owen uses the season and nature to illustrate his feelings about war in the poems "Exposure" and "Spring Offensive."

Before he died he realised that war is not a romantic thing but in fact is all pain and suffering. He uses nature to express these feelings in both poems "Exposure" and "Spring Offensive."

"Spring Offensive" is a poem with an ordinary, simple title that could be mimicking the attitude of the soldiers to their duty. Exposure has a different type of title that has more of a metaphorical meaning. The men are exposed to the brutality of war and nature is exposed to the evils man has exerted on it.

The tone in "Spring Offensive" changes as the poems progresses, mimicking the mood of the soldiers. In the first line of this poem it says, "Halted against the shade of a last hill." This is as if there is a sense of safety and relief but at the same time creates an immediate impact. But the poem goes on and dangers peaks in, "fearfully flashed the sky's mysterious glass." Even in quieter moments of the poem the threat of suffering is always present. "And though the summer oozed into their veins like an injected drug for their bodies pains." This is a perfect example of pain being shown in nature. In "Exposure" the tone is more one of despair and frustration, as if the soldiers are waiting for something to happen and they suffer on.

In "Spring Offensive" the soldiers have a long journey that is mimicked by the poem's form that is eight stanzas long. "Exposure" however does not mimic a futile journey but instead there is just a lack of action, nothing happens. "So, soon they topped the hill, and raced together over an open stretch of herb and heather." This is building up to an event in "Spring Offensive" and then it reaches a climax, which is its portrayal of the battle itself. In "Exposure", any hint of an event is swept aside by the last sentence of each stanza. A few stanzas end, "but nothing happens" and one ends "what are we doing here?"

In "Spring Offensive" Wilfred Owen uses rhyme and rhythm well to show his feelings and to describe the feeling of the adventure. "And thought the summer oozed into their veins like an injected drug for their bodies pains." The words veins and pains rhyme and together they combine the natural body and pain to show suffering is present at war. Wilfred of course experienced suffering during his time at war and here he has shown war includes pain and has done it in a clever way. This poem also includes words like grass and glass that are harsh "ss" words that create a feeling of distress. In the poem "Exposed" Wilfred does not really use any rhyme or rhythm to illustrate emotions. I believe this is because Wilfred does not want to create a sense of fluid movement as the men never feel this. Instead the men are static and inactive. "Slowly our ghosts drag home." They are slowly moving and not progressing and I feel this line creates a feeling of death. Once again the final line in a few stanzas, "But nothing happens," also shows there is no progress.

There is a lot of imagery in both poems. In "Spring Offensive" Wilfred introduces imagery at the very start of the poem saying, "They fed, and eased of pack-loads, were at ease." This is comparing the soldiers to animals, perhaps animals being lead to slaughter. There is also a lot of natural imagery used, with the summer restoring good health and the simile is used "like an injected drug" to describe this. The nature then changes from being the soldier's friend to being their enemy. "The whole sky burned with fury against them." Bombshells and footfalls are described metaphorically as "sudden cups" and I suspect this may be Spiritual imagery. Christ offered his blood in a cup to save our souls and believe this is suggesting the men's souls are lost. The poem ends with imagery that gives us an image of tranquillity and rest, nature has now returned to its peaceful state. There is peace but the unspoken memories of battle are ever present. In the poem "Exposure" the imagery used by Wilfred is negative throughout the poem. Every thing seems negative, it says in the third stanza "slow boots" when talking about the soldiers moving. This is an emphasis on the reluctance and perhaps exhaustion of the men. The weather conditions are used against the men in this poem. "East winds that knife us," is a great example of this imagery. They are trying to fight through the obstacle that is the wind and it is knifing them. Silence is also personified as a threat in the poem. There is also imagery of death in "Exposure." "Slowly our ghosts drag home," for example. In "Exposure" the sentences are short and stark creating an anti-climax feeling. There are rolling adjectives creating pace at the start of each stanza that are brought back down to earth with the abrupt end to each stanza. In "Spring Offensive" on the other hand a lot more sounds and words are used to create a certain feeling. With discomforting "K" sounds and the sharp sibilance a feeling of danger at war is created by Owen.

Wilfred uses nature to illustrate the destruction of man and shows of nature's power to create and sustain itself. I admire Wilfred Owen and his ability to illustrate feelings in many different ways in a poem.