exposure

• who wrote Exposure?

  Wilfred Owen
• what is the function of the poem?

  focuses on the misery of WW1 waiting overnight in the trenches.
• what is the tone of Exposure?

  deliberately provoking and emotive language
• what is the form of Exposure?

  the last line of each stanza is noticeably shorter and intended and emphasises its importance.
• why did Wilfred Owen write Exposure?

  to make the public aware of trench conditions.
• how did Wilfred Owen die?

  killed in action 1 week before armistice, age 25.
• what was Wilfred Owen exposed to?

  the brutalities of trench warfare.
• how long was Wilfred Owen fighting for?

  spent 4 months fighting, 5 weeks on the front line.
• “shutters and doors, all closed"

  the metaphorical doors are shut, meaning they are trapped, there is no escape.
• “our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us”


  personified: making the reader feel like theyre present. The weather is just as much of a threat as the weaponry. Both are fighting them.
• “is it that we’re dying?”


  repetition and rhetorical question, they’re realising their fate.
• “Sudden successive flights of buckets streak the silence”


  sibilance: cuts through the silence and highlights the words. The weather is more deadly than this.