exposure - wilfred owen

• context

  → A soldier killed in battle one week before Armistice

  → Inspired by poets such as Siegfried Sassoon

  → War writer who critiqued patriotism & jingoistic attitude

  → Wrote poetry to express the horror of war as opposed to internalising it

  → Written in trenches in 1917, creating an impression of salience on the reader

  → Contrasted jingoistic and glamourised portrayal of war by Jessie Pope

  → Dispelled myth, exposing the harsh realities and violence of war
• reality of war- topic sentence

  Owen contrasts the high octane and noble portrayal of war with the nervous boredom that engulfs the soldier
• reality of war- passage of time

  → Passage of time – “snow-dazed” to “sun-dozed”

  → Passage of time and changing of seasons is contrasted with the stagnation of the soldiers’ position, nothing changes, war simply goes on

  → Bliss and wonder associated with spring is subverted

  → no new beginning or respite for the soldier - suffering transcends seasons

  → Brutality of war are a far cry from the jingoistic portrayals in poetry

  “the call” by Jessie Pope
• reality of war- “on us the doors are closed“


  → metaphor

  → Show how the homefront have ignored the soldiers’ plight and turned back

  → Lexis “closed” creates an idea of finality – ending of life is final, fate sealed
• reality of war - title

  → Exposure – possible dual meaning

  → Physical and mental exposure of the soldiers to the merciless weather

  → Exposing inhuman treatment that superior officers subject the men to
• fear - topic sentence

  Throughout Exposure there is a sense of inevitability felt be it in the soldiers’ suffering, the power of nature or the passage of time
• fear - “our brains ached“

  → First line – “our brains ache”

  → link to John Keats – Ode to a Nightingale: “my heart aches”

  → The war was a battle on brain + mind

  → Plural “brains” shows collective camaraderie and how they all suffered together

  → Stem from soldiers’ fear and simultaneous resignation to fate
• fear - “wearied, we stay awake because the night is silent”


  → Fear of peace highlights soldiers have been subject to such barbarity and belligerence, they do not seek comfort in silence and peace

  → lead up to impending doom
• fear - semantic field of death

  → Emotive metaphoric language: “we turn back to our dying”

  → Sense of resignation

  → Unnerving absence of fear, rather just just grim acceptance

  → learn not to fear death when constantly faced with the prospect

  → Sentiment of dying reiterated in “For love of God seems dying”

  → Disillusioned with idea of religion when subject to such dehumanising conditions

  → Inconsistent triad of religion

  → Previous indoctrination of sacrifice for your country seems meaningless

  → No longer fear repercussions or blasphemy

  → They would not be subject to belligerent torment if there was a God of such
• form - rhyme scheme

  → Consistency of rhyme scheme means fifth line stands out

  → Serves to communicate Owen’s poignant insight on how his life is reduced to nothing

  → Communicates monotony of war – minimal change/variation

  → Quintets are poetic and ironic

  → The fifth line is always an anti-climax to the eventual realisation of nothingness
• structure - cyclical structure

  → “But nothing happens” frames and intercepts poem

  → Continuous, viscous cycle of war

  → No true end to soldiers’ plight

  → Relentless cycle waiting for one’s death
• form - pararhymes

  → Discomfort and unease with half rhyme – “nervous” / “knive us”

  → Mirrors how soldiers expect conflict and live in nervy anticipation, playing on their mind

  → Unease to communicate emotion of war

  → Utilised to expose the unease and torment of war – war is more mentally torturous than the battle

  → A deterioration in trench life rather than imminent, quick death
• structure - caesura

  → Separates home / freedom from trenches

  → “Slowly our ghosts drag home; glimpsing the sunk fires”

  → Barrier showing soldiers’ desire for release