Compare how two poets present the effects of conflict on individuals

Edexcel-style question (20 marks):

Compare how poets present the effects of conflict on individuals in two poems from the Conflict cluster.

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Model comparison: "Exposure" (Owen) and "Poppies" (Weir)

Introduction: Both Owen and Weir present the individual cost of conflict, but from contrasting perspectives: Owen writes from within the experience of the soldier, presenting conflict as a state of passive, physical suffering; Weir writes from outside the conflict as a mother whose domestic grief embodies the private cost of war that public commemoration obscures.

Point 1 — Perspective and suffering: Owen's soldiers suffer collectively: "our brains ache" in the opening line positions the speaker as part of a group, using the first-person plural throughout. AO2: the plural "our" creates solidarity and universalises the experience — this is every soldier's condition, not one individual's. Weir's speaker, by contrast, suffers alone: the poem is saturated with first-person singular experience ("I pinned," "I smoothed," "I ran"), the pronoun accumulating to create acute isolation. AO2: the domestic detail of "smoothed down" her son's blazer makes the grief physical and private — the opposite of Owen's collective military endurance.

Point 2 — Form as suffering: Owen's para-rhyme ("knive us" / "nervous") creates a sense of resolution almost achieved and withdrawn — the sonic equivalent of the soldiers' perpetual waiting. Weir's poem has no regular rhyme scheme and drifts in and out of iambic rhythm — the form is as loosely structured as memory itself. AO2: both poets use disrupted form to enact psychological states: Owen's near-resolution mirrors suspended action; Weir's loose form mirrors the incomplete, circular nature of grief.

Point 3 — Context: AO3: Owen was a serving officer on the Western Front when he wrote "Exposure" in 1917–18 — the cold, mud, and inaction he describes is autobiographical. Weir wrote "Poppies" in 2009 for a contemporary anthology, consciously addressing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both poems resist official narratives (heroism for Owen, public commemoration for Weir), privileging instead the felt experience of those caught in conflict.

Conclusion: Both poets humanise the individual cost of conflict but through opposite perspectives — Owen from within military experience, Weir from the domestic civilian perspective that official narratives of war tend to exclude.