Exposure

• 'Our brains ache,'

  First person plural suggests a collective voice.
• 'in the merciless iced east winds that knive us. . .'


  The wind is personified as an attacker, stabbing the soldiers in a relentless and ruthless attack.
• 'Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . .'

  • Irony: The night is supposed to bring peace and sleep, however for the soldiers, darkness equals vulnerability and uncertainty.
  • The soldiers cannot afford to let their guard down at any time, therefore they get no respite from war.
• 'Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . .'

  Double Meaning: Their ability to think on what is important (life, family, home, honour, loyalty, patriotism) is hazy because the flares have dulled their priorities, as well as their sense of direction and sight.
• • Repetition of ellipsis: connotes the exhausting repetitiveness of facing one’s mortality; after every sentence, whether they have been knived, attacked or confused, there is a pause to symbolise a period of “unknown” – the soldiers don’t know whether they are going to die.
  • As if holding their breath in anticipation of death.
• 'Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,'

  • Sibilance; harsh spitting sounds – mimics the whispering of the sentries whilst on guard. They are trying not to be heard or detected.
  • The soldiers are experiencing a range of different emotions; this could contribute to their brains aching.
• 'But nothing happens.'

  • Anticlimax: The first 4 lines are one long and continuous sentence that has been building tension, however this is then juxtaposed by a 3-word sentence and a full stop.
  • This mimics daily life for soldiers whereby the suspense of attacks sometimes amounted to nothing.
• 'Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire'

  • The wind is so strong that is is personified as an unstable and aggressive force, violently pulling on the protective barbs around the trenches.
  • Nature (the real enemy) is determined for the soldiers to be defenseless and exposed. Against this, the soldiers are in fact helpless and can do nothing except stand back and watch it happen to them.
  • They are nothing but passive victims.
• 'Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.'

  Simile: The sound from the wind is so powerful that it makes it seem as if men are entangled in the wires and their bodies, writhing and twisting in agony, are shaking the structure.
• 'Northward, incessantly,'


  Adverb: There is no escape from the sounds of war. They are constant and unrelenting so the soldiers get no release or peace from it all.
• 'the flickering gunnery rumbles,'

  Verbs and Sound Imagery: Even in the distance, the sounds of war plague the soldiers, like a constant reminder. The lights from bombs and weapons flash on and off like a light switch and create booming sounds.
• 'Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war'

  • Simile + Biblical reference: Matthew 24:6, where Jesus foretells the end of the world. He says “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars”.
  • There is an apocalyptic feel to this line which gives insight into how the soldiers would feel, so far removed from society and the normality that comes along with it.
  • War exposes the dark side of human nature, therefore Owen refrences the end of the world, where humanity and decency ceases to exist.
  • When man and nature turn against you, it would signal the end of civilization.
• 'What are we doing here?'

  • Rhetorical Question: The soldier feels that he and his comrades are futile, fruitless and worthless.
  • He completely doubts and sees no value in the war effort.
  • The soldier begins to question his purpose and function in the war effort; it seems like he and his comrades regret their decision to sign up to the war.
• 'The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .'

  • Juxtaposition: whereas the dawning of a new day is supposed to symbolise hope, possibility and opportunity, for the soldiers it represents only a continuation of their suffering.
  • Ellipsis: As if the ‘poignant misery’ has no ending. It is ongoing and all the soldiers can do is wait and endure through it.
• 'We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.'

  • Hyperbole: The elements and their effects have overwhelmed the minds of the soldiers; they have lost all other knowledge and intelligence other than this.
  • They are robbed of the nuances of life; the normal uncertainties and unpredictability of life which make it interest are gone. As such, their fates are sealed.
  • Full Stop: limiting and restricting. The soldiers cannot have access to anything other than suffering at the hands of nature and time.
• 'Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army'

  • Personification: Dawn is described as the soldier’s enemy, despite them (ironically) being at war with men; what the new day brings is what the soldiers are truly killed by: the elements and the exposure.
  • The natural world has marshaled against them and attempts to strike them down.
• 'Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey'


  Military language is turned on its head in this stanza and is used as a weapon against the soldiers.
• But nothing happens.'

  • Repetition: The last line from stanza 1 reappears, however with a different meaning.
  • Unlike the first stanza where everything was speculation and truly, “nothing happened”, this third stanza does report of occurrences (rain soaking, clouds sagging and dawn’s army).
  • Therefore, “nothing happens” takes on a more political role; perhaps it refers to the lack of government aid and intervention, in order to prevent the soldiers being so exposed to the elements.
• 'Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence'

  Sibilance; harsh spitting sounds mimics the whistling sound of bullets flying– builds tension.
• 'Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,'

  • Comparative sentence & irony: Despite being at war and therefore vulnerable to streams of constant weapon-fire, this is not comparable to the destruction and fatality that the cold air brings.
  • Personification & Verb: This subverts the idea of purity and whiteness that is associated with snow. Innocence has been lost and turned into something sinister; almost a grim reaper character.
• 'With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and renew'

  • Consonance: the repeated ‘f’ sounds mimics the relentlessness of the snow.
  • The snow cruelly teases the soldiers and ceases the attack, only to come back stronger.
  • It’s a sick game and the soldiers have no choice but to play, knowing they will lose.
• 'We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance,'

  • Consonance: the repeated ‘w’ sounds creates quick successions of breath. This mimics the cold of the soldiers, trying to warm themselves amidst the ‘snow’, or it symbolises the whipping motion of snow in a blizzard-like frenzy.
  • Verb: echoes the first line where the soldiers were “watching” the wind. They are bystanders; an audience to the horror show that the nature performs.
  • Noun: the wind is indifferent to the suffering it is putting the soldier’s through; it is merciless, unapologetic and unsympathetic.
• 'But nothing happens.'

  Repetition: Bullets, deadly air and snow and still the soldiers have to endure and suffer.
• 'Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces'

  • Personification: The snowflakes are portrayed as assassins with missions to attach the soldiers.
  • There is an image of a dark, villainous character with their hands stretched out in front of them, trying to catch their victim.
  • It is like the snowflakes seek out the soldiers and have them as their desired prey.
  • Consonance: The repetition of the ‘f’ sounds creates a violent, teeth-baring movement of the mouth; a
  • spitting the words resembles the harshness with which the snow is attacking the soldiers.
• 'We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare,'

  • Verbs: The idea of passivity and helplessness reoccurs through these verbs; ‘cringe’ suggests that the soldiers are bending before the flakes, out of fear or apprehension.
  • They have cowered and recoiled before their supreme master.
  • On another level, they ‘cringe’ in a servile manner whereby they shrink and wince underneath the tyrannical force of nature, whom they must obey.
• 'snow-dazed'


  Verb: the soldiers have become senseless; they are helpless to the snow’s whims and like bewildered fools, are now ignorant and numb.
• 'Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,'

  • It seems as if the soldiers have conceded the fight.
  • The deep, grassy ditch foreshadows their fate, as it resembles a grave.
  • For them, there is comfort in the setting of death and they are ready to surrender.
• 'Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses'

  Contrast: In their stupefied slumber, the soldiers are able to dream about the beauty of nature and, half frozen by hypothermia, imagine themselves covered in flowers and listening to the music of birds.
• '—Is it that we are dying?'

  • Rhetorical Question: The only certainty in life is death and yet the soldiers are exempt from drawing comfort from this bleak inevitability.
  • Even in their dazed state, they cannot relish imagination and are forced to come back to their grim reality.
  • The question also lends itself to the speaker drifting in and out of consciousness and yet maybe attempting to answering his first question of “what are we doing here?; they are there to die.
• 'Slowly our ghosts drag home:'

  • Adverb: connotes a long, excruciating process of dying, where there is no end in sight, only perpetual suffering.
  • Verb: after snapping out of their imagination, the soldiers force themselves to return to the trenches, which have now (ironically) become their home. They are reluctant and hesitant and yet, they have nowhere else to go.
• 'glimpsing the sunk fires, glozed'

  Verb: the soldiers are exposed to the warm fire but for a fleeting moment; it has died out before they returned home, showcasing the cruel and harsh reality of war.
• 'With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;'

  Caesura: The pauses could signify the speaker reflecting, now that he and his comrades are “ghosts”, on how people back home had lost interest in their fate as the war dragged on.
• 'For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;'

  Irony: how vermin such as rats have take over the trenches. This exposes the true reality of war.
• 'Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed'

  Assonance: the elongated “oh” sounds forces the reading to move in slow motion, mimicking the physical action of their ’ghosts’ dragging themselves back to the trenches.
• 'We turn back to our dying'

  • Declarative Sentences: suggests that the soldiers feel rejected by the rest of the world and therefore, with no choice left, return to their deaths, which have become, in some twisted sense, their comfort.
  • With no other options available, they subsequently look forward to death and therefore return to it, like an old friend.
• 'Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;'

  • The soldiers have lost their faith in the elements, specifically the warming quality of fire and the sun.
  • The only ‘fire’ the soldiers are exposed to are explosions from bombs, cannons and artillery.
• 'Nor ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit'

  • Personification: suggests that the sun is deceitful and untrustworthy, even towards the most vulnerable.
  • The use of the specific nouns are symbolic of organisms that need nourishment from the sun to survive, and yet the speaker feels as though the sun purposely evades them, lending itself to the idea of the sun’s cruelty.
• 'For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid'

  • Hosea 6:3: “Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”
  • Spring, symbolic of life’s natural blessings and a renewal of the natural world, and yet the soldiers fear this, as it represents a renewal of their torture and suffering.
• 'Therefore, not loath, we lie out here;therefore were born,'

  • Verb: Reminiscent of the soldiers ‘watching’, the speaker conveys how he and his comrades are simply passive receivers.
  • Their only function is to patiently await death; they have learnt not to hate, but only to accept.
  • The speaker feels as if the soldiers only function are to sacrifice
  • their lives for the war effort.
  • They were born to die.
• 'For love of God seems dying.'

  • Religious Imagery: In addition to losing their faith in the elements, the soldiers have also lost their trust for religion and God.
  • The soldiers feel that God no longer loves them and has abandoned them.