Exposure

• Exposure


  Poem by Wilfred Owen describing the terrifying experience of a night in the trenches in the first world war, showing the trauma experienced by soldiers
• Nature in Exposure


  • Personified in a sinister way to create fear in the listener
• The opening "our brains ache in the merciless iced winds" closely resembles the opening of Keates' poem "Ode to a Nightingale"
• Reference to "brains"


  Establishes the poem's focus on the psychological impact of war, could refer to physical or mental suffering
• Religious references


  Present the soldiers as carrying out their moral duty to protect the innocent people at home, showing their suffering is for a greater cause
• Caesura


  Punctuation used by Owen to separate home from the trenches
• Caesura


  • "slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires"
• Ellipses


  Used by Owen to emphasise the waiting and boredom of the soldiers
• Ellipses


  • "east winds that knive us..."
  • "the night is silent..."
  • "our memory of the salient..."
• Ellipses


  • Slow the pace of the poem to force the reader to experience the same frustration as the soldiers due to their suffering being stretched out with time
• Religious references


  Owen presents the soldiers as carrying out their moral duty to protect the innocent people at home
• Religious references


  • "for love of God seems dying"
• Sibilance


  Used by Owen to position nature as the enemy, mirroring the sound of gunfire
• Sibilance


  • "sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence"
• Personification of nature


  Nature symbolises the antagonist throughout the poem, juxtaposing the nurturing role traditionally associated with a female nature figure with aggressive connotations
• Personification of nature


  • "dawn massing in the east her melancholy army"
• Actual battle


  Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow
• Auditory imagery


  Used by Owen to present the ongoing battle as insignificant
• Auditory imagery


  • "gunnery rumbles"
  • "like a dull rumour of some other war"
• Passage of time


  Represented by the description of the season changing
• Metaphor


  Used by Owen to convey the despondency felt by the soldiers who believe they are being forgotten
• Metaphor


  • "On us the doors are closed"
• Negative personification


  Used by Owen to describe the environment, indicative of an individual in great pain
• Negative personification


  • "mad gusts tugging on the wire like twitching agonies"
  • "brambles"
• Fear


  Soldiers are unable to sleep due to their fear driven constant state of alertness
• Fear


  • "wearied, we stay awake because the night is silent"
  • "dull rumour of some other war"
• Similarities between Exposure and The Prelude

  Nature is presented as an inescapable force in both poems
• Differences between Exposure and The Prelude

  Wordsworth gives nature power due to its great expanse, while Owen's nature's power comes from its sheer aggression
• Similarities between Exposure and Charge of the Light Brigade

  Both poets are critical of military leader's decisions and repeat phrases to criticise how violence and military mistakes continue to repeat themselves
• Differences between Exposure and Charge of the Light Brigade

  Tennyson was restricted in his criticism due to his role as poet laureate, while Owen was more outwardly critical as a soldier on the front line
• Similarities between Exposure and Bayonet Charge

  Both depict soldiers who have reached the battlefield and realised it is largely different to what they have been 'sold', and address the psychological element of fighting
• Differences between Exposure and Bayonet Charge

  The soldier in Exposure seems relatively prepared to fight, while the soldier in Bayonet Charge is extremely reluctant