In the Prelude, Wordsworth portrays nature’s power by presenting it to humble the arrogance of mankind through the fear that it instills in the writer. Similarly, in Exposure, Owen illustrates nature to be a sinister entity with no compassion for humanity and presents it to be a more dangerous enemy than the opposition in war. In both poems, nature is portrayed as a threat to humanity as it is presented as conscious, ruthless and calculating, not excusing any being from its wrath. In the extract from the Prelude, Wordsworth creates an arrogant persona for mankind through the sense of entitlement he felt in the poem using the quotation “I unloosed her chain”. Through this, Wordsworth establishes a sense of dominance within mankind, insinuating that we have the power and authority to do whatever we please. This vividly illustrates how the imperious mature mankind and hints that unchecked arrogance will almost always result in devastating consequences. The pronoun “I” is particularly interesting as it can possibly denote severe self interest through only having concern for yourself and what you’re doing, thinking that anybody or anything is too beneath you to he worthy of notice. This is reflective of tyrannical demeanour of the human race once given a glimpse of authority. This can be seen in many civilisations where the monarchs and leaders meet their inevitable downfall for example the French and Russian revolutions where the French and Russian monarchy were overthrown by the people because of the severe mistreatment that they faced. This shows how nature is even so powerful that the same way it traumatised the poet has been done multiple times in history by humans themselves. In addition the use of the other pronoun “her” personifies nature as an concious being rather than an inanimate and insignificant part of our world. Through this personification, Wordsworth creates an impression of nature rather than just referring to it as anything else that we may come across. The initial impression he creates of nature is submissive that allows anyone to domineer it. He constructs nature to be weaker than inferior mankind. By doing this, it makes the fear that nature instilled him come as more as a shock which could have possibly been to reveal how when humans feel in power they have no regard for anything that happens around them which always causes us to be unaware and unprepared when we finally meet our downfall. In addition, it teaches us not to underestimate nature as in reality it’s an omnipotent force. Perhaps Wordsworth’s intention was to reveal how supercilious mankind really is and show how in reality we’re actually small and insignificant to the universe. Similarly, in exposure Owen creates an ominous and disturbing atmosphere through the description of how nature constantly attacks the soldiers. He does this in the first line when it says “the merciless iced east winds that knive us”. This presents nature as brutal but very powerful force through the way it assaults the soldiers completely unprovoked. This portrays nature as brutal because it seems to have no compassion or mercy. The fact that this was said in the first line indicates desperation to be freed from the claws of nature and the anguish that the soldiers feel as the reader has been given no other context on the situation. Through this, the soldiers are essentially begging us to be rescued from nature’s wrath which shows the magnitude of nature’s power because even men that are trained for combat have been subject to suffering at the hands of nature. The choice to use sibilance in the phrase “iced east” is interesting because it personifies nature as a sinister entity which instills fear in the reader. This attempt to make us cower before nature shows us how powerful nature really is as it possibly signifies that we truly don’t understand the abilities of nature and the extent of it’s power. Owen may have done this to present nature as an evil but unstoppable being and suggest that all we can do is submit to it. Moreover, the word “knives” initially indicates the use of brute force and has connotations of insanity and psychotic behaviour. But this word is more intriguing than it seem because it may actually articulate ideas of precision and calculating behaviour. This is because in reality “to knive” requires extreme skill to be able to generate suffering in your victim. This reveals to us how powerful nature really is because it can easily be the cause of man’s agony and pain. Perhaps Owen intended to urge us into fearing nature and what it’s really capable of due to the pain and suffering that it inflicts on the soldiers.