Exposure Analysis

• 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
• Wilfred Owen


  • 1893-1918, originally pursued a career in the church but became a soldier and was killed in battle one week before the armistice in 1918, war poetry was a new form at the time as there hadn't been a major war in more than 100 years, inspired by the work of John Keats and Siegfried Sassoon who acted as a mentor to Owen whilst he suffered from shellshock
• The poem was written in 1917 whilst Owen was fighting in the trenches which creates an authentic first person narrative
• In contemporary Britain, war was romanticised to the point that it had gained mythical status, this was reflected in most other war poetry at the time which focused on the honour of fighting, Owen dispelled "the old lie" by exposing the horrific reality of war
• Nature


  • Personified in a sinister way to create fear in the listener
• Use of asyndetic listing

  Creates a rushed, panicked pace and contrasts with the content of the poem
• Rhetorical question "What are we doing here?"


  Implies that the speaker is questioning his motivation to fight
• Nature


  • Further personified to be evil
• Religious reference


  Implies that there is a lack of religiously imposed morality remaining in the situation, highlighting the cruelty of it
• The opening "our brains ache in the merciless iced winds" closely resembles the opening of Keates' poem "Ode to a Nightingale" which shows his influence on Owen
• Reference to "brains"


  Establishes the poem's focus on the psychological impact of war, could refer to the physical brain or the mind
• Rhyme scheme


  • The consistency of the rhyme scheme allows the fifth line to stand out, emphasising its message, the consistency of the rhyme scheme shows the monotony of war
• Pararhymes


  • Owen creates an underlying atmosphere of unease through the pararhyme between "winds that knife us" and "curious, nervous", leaving the reader unsatisfied to mirror the soldiers' feelings of unease
• Structure


  • Chaotic to mirror the chaos and panic of war, cyclical structure with the repeated "but nothing happens", anaphora with the repeated "but nothing happens" to emphasise the futility of war, caesura to separate home from the trenches, ellipses to emphasise the waiting and boredom of the soldiers
• Religious references


  Present the soldiers to be carrying out their moral duty to protect the innocent people at home, could also show the soldiers losing their love for God as it is difficult to reconcile the theory of a benevolent God with the reality of conflict
• Sibilance


  • Used to position nature as the enemy, the sibilant consonants mirror the sound of gunfire and show that the snow is the real threat
• Personification of nature


  • Nature symbolises the antagonist throughout the poem, implying that nature is an even bigger threat than the actual enemy, the ongoing battle is presented to be insignificant
• Boredom


  The passage of time is represented by the description of the season changing, showing how long they are in the trenches for just waiting
• Soldiers are forgotten


  The metaphor "On us the doors are closed" implies that those at home in safety forget about the soldiers dying for them, the soldiers are depicted as indistinguishable from mud
• Suffering


  The description of the environment is indicative of an individual in a great deal of pain, the wind is negatively personified and the wire is referred to as "brambles"
• Fear


  The soldiers are unable to sleep due to their fear driven constant state of alertness, they are scared to sleep even though "nothing happens"