A Comparison of Wilfred Owens' Disabled and Exposure

A Comparison of Wilfred Owens' Disabled and Exposure

Tension and disability. A comparison between two poems, all of which

are about war and the effects on the mind. Owen talks about World War

1 and how it can affect different people in different ways, his

feelings are echoed in the form of characters. Both poems show how

companionship almost ends due to war, all the old friends either die

or never see you again. The endings and startings in each poem have

the same effect; they leave the reader with a question; is war

necessary? This question is very important, every soldier at the time

must have been thinking why the war actually began, why did Britain

get involved? Owen never answered this, but poems were still very

emotional.

'Disabled' is about a young man, which went to war, and was sent off

like a hero. When he came back a year later, he realised that if he

kept in one piece he would have been loved still, but with arms and

legs missing. 'Legless, sewn short at elbow', shows the physical

implication on the young man, this is like 'Exposure', the first line

'Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…' the

soldiers were exhausted from waiting for something to happen, while

the cold winter winds were slowly exhausting them. 'Voices of boys

rang saddening like a hymn', the shouts of the boys in the park

depress the disabled boy, as he used to be one of them, in the

alternative way 'Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious,

nervous', the soldiers make some noise as it is so quiet, albeit it is

still disappointing as they are bored, on the contrary wake as 'the

night is silent'. The mood for each po...

... middle of paper ...

...how helpless he was, the weather is

cold, and he is all alone and the workers of the institute do not take

him inside. This also shows how insignificant he was, as his not

remembered. This line can be linked to the recruiting poster of 1914,

'Will they never come?' The soldiers were always expecting

reinforcements to come and help them in the war. This soldier is also

fighting a war, not against the Germans, but against himself, the

mental scars that have been inflict upon him, at the loss of his

limbs; the help his is expecting at the time are the nurses. The last

image in Exposure is horrifying, as you can see men frozen in ice,

while Disabled creates a mournful ending, with him sitting alone,

surrounded by complete strangers. The metre in both poems seems to

slow down, to almost a stop in both poems towards the end.