Exposure

• The war itself was often criticised because of a huge loss of life for a very little gain.. Owen’s poems were often angry that the soldiers were in muddy trenches while the generals behind the lines were living in comfort.
• Owen‘s poem is yo show the reality of war. There is a feeling of injustice running through the poem that the soldiers may die due to being ‘expoed’ to brutal weather conditions. The poet’s tone is provoking and emotive language is used to upset the reader.
• The poem is written in first person plural in order to present the collective suffering of the soldiers. The fifth (and final) lines to each stanza are shorter - this is deliberate its acts as an anti climax because despite all the nervous anticipation, this is a poem in which “nothing happens”. The line leads nowhere - just as the men were going nowhere and seem to have lost purpose.
• “..the merciless iced east winds that knife us..” - The long vowels of the openly three words which suggests tiredness - followed by sibilance to create a cutting and bitter edge to the elements that ‘knife’ the men.
• Owen uses a metaphor related to the war to describe heavy rain clouds that are grading their way : Dawn is “massing.. her melancholy are my” - the ‘army’ of clouds is like German army uniform: “grey” and “stormy” and lined up in “rank upon shivering rank”, ready to attack. “shivering” further highlights the misery of the soldiers in the freezing weather conditions.
• “slowly our ghosts drag home” The word ‘ghosts’ convey that they are trying to spirit themselves away from their current environment but the though brings little hope as the house belongs to the crickets and the mice.
• During the night some men will die of hypothermia - ”all their eyes are ice”. The sounds of ‘eyes’ and ‘ice’ provides a haunting, ghostly image highlighting the tragic, awful, deadly weather conditions
• It end: “nothing happens” - which serves to highlight the sheer boredom of waiting for something, anything to happen and questions repeatedly what the soldiers are doing there. In terms of power / conflict, it is not the war but the weather (nature) which seems all powerful
• Nature is also seen at war / attacking the soldiers. “Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army / Attacks once more in ranks of shivering ranks of grey” The poet has subverted the idea of dawn which is usually symbolic of hope to being symbolic of despair. The colour ‘grey’ could also be linked to the German army as their uniforms were grey.
• Feelings and attitudes

  Suffering and isolation

  Hopelessness
• THEMES

  War and reality of war conflict

  Political
• COMPARE

  ’Charge of the light brigade’ - representation of a group of soldiers / representation of war / battles

  ’Bayonet charge’ - representation of a soldier

  ’Remains’ - representation of a soldier

  ‘Kamikaze’ - exploration of ‘duty’ in war
• KEY QUOTES

  “..in the merciless iced east winds that knife us”

  ”Slowly our ghosts drag home”

  ”All their eyes are ice”

  ”Nothing happens”