Exposure and Disabled are two poems written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War. How do they portray the powerful expression of the horror of war?

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Vicky Hayward 10T

“Exposure” and “Disabled” are two poems written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War.  How do they portray the powerful expression of the horror of war?  

Wilfred Owen used poetry to show his opinion of war.  Owen said, “My subject is War, and the pity of War.  The Poetry is in the pity.”  Both “Exposure” and “Disabled” show different aspects of War, however, both come to the same overall conclusion and show Owen’s feelings on the brutality that is War.  

These poems have strong contrasts, especially in the subjects.  “Exposure” shows the consequences of war and “Disabled” gives a detailed account of a situation that was commonly found in the First World War.  Also, the time periods are different.  Both are written in the present tense but it is the time period that the piece is set in that separates the two.  “Exposure” is written actually during the war.  “Disabled” however, talks of a man that is a survivor of the war and it describes an event that occurred as a result of the war.  Both pieces are different in content but both show how Owen conveyed the true horror of war through his poetry.

“Disabled” is a poem about a man who has survived the war yet has lost both legs and has lost at least one arm up to the elbow.  It shows the consequences of war and even though not traditionally a subject of Owens’ it helps him explain why war is such a tragedy.

The poem is written in the third person and this allows Owen to be entirely forthright about the situation and describe the feelings of the man easily, which couldn’t be done very well if the man wrote the poem himself.

The tone of the poem is melancholy as this man is waiting for death to come to stop the pain he is being put through.  “Disabled” shifts tone throughout the piece – it changes from depressing to reflective to bitter to solemn and then finally to melancholy.  The melancholy tone is expressed in the very first line – “He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark.”  Dark can be interpreted as night but can also be seen as death, which in this poem is more likely.  There are other examples that prove the overall meaning of the poem – the man has no real life left, he is just waiting for death to come.

 The poem consists of five verses, the first is six lines long, three are seven lines long and there is a large verse consisting of 16 lines. This structure of similar line lengths and number of syllables corresponds to the fact that everyday is the same for the man and once again, he is simply waiting for his end.

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Finally, people don’t really care for him anymore; even the hospital chaplain doesn’t seem to pay any real attention to him and the carers are paid to look after him.  He has nothing left to live for and is waiting for his time to come.

The language in “Disabled” is very clever and is quite contrasting to itself in some places.  For example, “blood - smear down his leg” implies that he was full of life and liked to play football, not caring about losing a bit of blood from a scratch.  However, “poured it down shell - holes till ...

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