Exposure

• Exposure by Wilfred Owen describes the poet's World War One experience in trench warfare
• In the opening stanza, the poet explains how the soldiers' brains are aching in the freezing cold wind, they're tired, flares flying through the air confuse their memories of the position they're in, they're worried by the lack of sound, they whisper, they're scared but nothing happens
• Owen's poetry often focused on the futility or pointlessness of war
• Owen wants readers to understand the intensity of waiting during battle and the anticlimactic letdown that comes when nothing happens
• Owen structures each stanza in the same way, with a three-part structure found in each stanza
• The rhyme scheme of the poem is a b b a c, reflecting the repetitive and futile situation the soldiers are in
• Owen uses pararhyme in the poem, giving a permanent sense of being nervously on edge
• Owen uses personification to highlight how weather is more dangerous than the less deadly bullets
• The ending of the poem repeats the phrase "but nothing happens," creating a cyclical structure and highlighting the futility of war
• Exposure can be compared with other poems like "Bayonet Charge," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "Remains," and "War Photographer" for themes of war and its futility