In ‘Exposure’, Owen uses aural imagery to convey the horrors of war, whereas Hughes has used visual imagery to do this in ‘Bayonet Charge’. Owen effectively creates a sense of danger and chaos when he uses sibilance to describe gunfire: “sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”. The repetitive “s” sounds create a sound similar to that of the wind whistling or something flying past you, causing the reader to imagine the scene with more depth and immersion. The metaphor “streak the silence” implies that the silence is being permanently marked and destroyed by the bullets, as the verb “streak” has connotations of leaving something behind, or of changing something so much that it cannot be undone. This reflects the permanent damage
