Both 'Remains' and 'Exposure' exposes the after-effects of war on individuals who participated in it. However, in 'Remains' people are affected by their own conscience and guilt after war, whereas in 'Exposure' people suffer from the deadly nature of the brutal winter during war. In 'Exposure', Owen has written about his own personal experience as a soldier in World War I, being trapped in trenches, forced to endure the brutal weather. He describes "merciless iced east winds". As this personified description of the weather is at the beginning, we are immediately confronted by the violent weather. This use of personification suggests that the danger of the wind is comparable to an actual human army, highlighting the effect on the soldiers. This is reinforced by the assonance of "i" which slows down the rhythm, perhaps mimicking the exposure that Owen is feeling. This is also reflected through the long length of the lines throughout the poem, with around 13 syllables per line, mirroring the long length of time that the soldiers are being exposed to these terrible conditions. Through this, Owen emphasizes the suffer of soldiers in war due to nature. This is reinforced by the adjective "east" as the opposing enemy is from Germany - east is the direction the Germans are approaching. This implies that eventual conflict is inevitable as the German military is suggested to be an unstoppable natural force. Alternatively, Owen could be emphasizing the deadly wrath of winter as its effect on the soldiers can be compared to a physical army; however, "east" also connotes imagery of sunrise as the Sun rises from the east. Sunrise connotes warmth and safety, creating a stark contrast to the danger the soldiers are in due to the brutal weather. This suggests the absurdity of the senseless loss of life in war. In war propanganda in World War I, men were encouraged to fight for their country as heroes, while being completely blindsideded by the reality of war. Owen critiques criticises this idea of the need of human sacrifice for the purpose of war and victory. Furthermore, Owen reveals that not only do soldiers suffer during world war I, they also suffer after the war and even in their afterlives. Owen describes "For love of God seems dying," suggesting that through the sins committed during war, God has essentially given up on humanity as a whole and tries to use nature as a destructive force against the soldiers to seek justice and retribution. The "love of God" is often seen as grace, mercy, and unconditional love from a Christian perspective. The earlier description of "merciless wind" juxtaposes the mercy "love of God", implying that soldiers believe they are beyond salvation and will be punished by the eternal damnation in the afterlife, through the death of the "love of God." While in "Remains," Armitage contrasts Owen's idea that people are affected by brutal nature and argues that they are affected by their own guilt. He describes "I see every round as it rips through his life." Armitage may have deliberately moved from using the collective pronoun "we" at the start, which suggests collective responsibility, to the personal pronoun "I" in order to imply that the soldier starts to blame himself. This is emphasized by the harsh alliteration of "round" and "rips." This metaphor is in present tense which may suggest that when the soldier imagines it in retrospect it stays in his mind and he cannot get rid of these memories when he is performing this monologue. This is reinforced by the noun "round" which suggests circularity and reminds us that this is a memory the soldier keeps coming back to in a circular form. Moreover, Armitage describes the soldier in Basra coming back to the present where the soldier is back at home and tries to get rid of his guilt and memory. Armitage describes "And the drink and the drugs won't flush him out". The repetition of "and" implies he keeps turning back to drink and drugs. We are not sure whether they are for depression or for self-medicating with class A drugs, but either way, he has built an addiction based on trying to escape this memory and his guilt which represennts the memories about the war. Although Armitage is describing one individual experience in detail, he suggests that this is a collective experience by pointing out "on another occasion" at the beginning which implies this is only one of many incidents that has had a great effect on soldiers. This is reinforced by the use of collective pronoun "we" at the beginning which suggests the soldiers that patrol with him may have the same experiences. This implies that this one soldier symbolises all the soldiers. ALternatively, the phrase "on another occasioin"may also imply that the soldier has been building up to this occasion which is the one he has not wanted to face as it has had the most psychological effect on him. In addition, Armitage ends the poem with "his bloody life in my bloody hands". Armitage does not end the poem with a rhyming couplet, instead the rhyming couplet is with"land" and "sand" describing the dead looter which perhaps suggest that death is a better ending than his own ending, in which the soldier is troubled by his guilt and horror. This is reinforced by the "s" in "hands" which makes it a half rhyme with "sand" and "land". This perhaps highlights his lack of control over his mind. His guilt is further emphasised by this last sentence which is an literary allusion referring to the bloody hands of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In Macbeth, blood symbolises guilt at committing regicide. This could imply the looter's life was just as precious as a king's life and the consequence of letting him go was as tragic as it was for the death of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This is reinforced by Armitage writing "Remains" in the form of free verse which perhaps reflects the soldier's desperate desire to escape the consequences of his actions and the nightmares which are destroying his sanity. The use of colloquial language also creates an effect of speech and for the persona to connect with the reader, making us sympathetic towards the guilty soldier, especially because we understand that "Remains" is from "The Not Dead" and a response to the testimonies of ex-soldiers in past featured in a Channel 4 documentary and allows us to sympathise with a real person more. Armitage may have done this in order to expose the damaging psychological effects of war. In conclusion, both "Remains" and "Exposure" reveals the damaging and long-lasting after effects of the war on people. However, "Remains" exposes soldiers who are haunted by their memories due to their guilt, whereas "Exposure" criticizes the meaningless suffer and senseless loss of life caused by nature in war.