Explore how 'The Prelude' and 'Exposure' depict the power of nature.

In both poems nature is portrayed as being more powerful than men. In 'The Prelude', the persona fears nature, namely the mountain, which the speaker describes as "a huge peak, black and huge". The repetition of the adjective 'huge' reflects the persona's temporary loss for words due to his immense fear of the mountain. Moreover, the adjective 'black' contrasts with the positive lexical field used earlier in the poem when describing nature, for example the speaker's description of the moon 'glittering idly'. This clearly demonstrates the power of nature in both its beauty and its ability to inspire fear in people. Furthermore, the speaker's fear of the mountain is prolonged throughout the poem, later saying 'there hung a darkness' which is representative of his fear of the power of the nature. William Wordsworth was famously quoted for saying "poetry...takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility"; this is clear in 'The Prelude' as the intense emotions experienced by the speaker in awe of the sublime in nature is clearly expressed later in the poem. Similarly in 'Exposure', nature is shown to have more power over the soldiers even than their enemy, in that nature killed more people. Nature is presented as powerful and threatening as "Her melancholy army attacked once more". The fact that Owen chooses to personify nature as a woman sets it apart from the rest of the male characters in the poem; her army is a different kind of army than the ones made up of men because hers is more deadly. Another way nature is shown to more powerful than men is by personifying nature as merciless as she attacks 'once more'. The mundanity of this phrase shows that her attacks are a regular occurrence and the soldiers are used to the suffering she inflicts. Although the poem is about a war between countries, I would argue it is more of a war between man and nature, as seen in 'The Prelude'. Both poems demonstrate the conflict between man and nature, a battle which is won by nature in both instances.