Exposure

'Passive suffering is not a theme for poetry', wrote Yeats, attempting to justify his distaste for
Owen. 'Exposure' gives a worm's-eye view of the front line, based on Owen's experiences in the
winter of 1917, and passive suffering is what it is all about. 'Nothing happens', as he says four
times - nothing except tiny changes in the time of day, the weather and the progress of the war.
The men appear trapped in a No Man's Land between life and death, and the poem's movement is
circular. When it ends, they are exactly where they were in the first verse.

'What are we doing here?' the poet asks in verse 2. The real cause of their suffering is that they
are lying in the open under freezing conditions, with some psychological force forbidding them
to get up and walk away. The parallel is with hanging on a cross, and verse 7 examines the
possibility that they are suffering for others.

Two literary influences are present. 'Our brains ache' echoes 'My heart aches', the first words of
'Ode to a Nightingale', by Owen's beloved Keats. But he was aware that his generation was living
through horrors which the Romantics had not dreamed of, and that in order to describe them,
poetry had to change. He also has in mind Ivor Novello's song, 'Keep the home fires burning ....
though your lads are far away they dream of home'. But in his dream of home, the fires are
almost dead. 'Crusted dark-red jewels' is an example of the care Owen takes with small phrases;
the fires are beautiful but, like jewels, offer no warmth or comfort. The house has been deserted
by its human inhabitants and verse 6 suggests that if the young men went home they would not
be welcomed. 'Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed', the poem laments, with
the emphasis on us. They are compelled and expected to stay where they are.

Verse 7 appears to suggest that the men are Christ-figures, dying willingly - 'not loath' - for the
sake of others, but Owen is not prepared to state this categorically and the words 'we believe'
must be heavily stressed. 'Love of God seems dying'; the simple Christianity which he had once
believed seems inappropriate. The last verse suggests that one more night in the open will finish
them off.

The final version of this poem belongs to September 1918, and it is mature and brilliant work.
There are some daring half-rhymes - 'knive us/nervous', 'nonchalance/happens' - which come off,
as does the short, simple, hanging line at the end of each verse.
http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/poetry/exposure
In Verse One, O wen starts by explaining how he and the people around him are feeling. He
writes that their brains ache by the winds that are blowing. This shows that the cold is physically
hurting them by giving them sore heads. We can assume that they are in a trench during World
War One and there are flares going off around them. They are all awake because of the silence,
as this is abnormal due to them normally hearing artillery bombardment. One of the techniques
that Owen uses in this paragraph is personification, in the first line. He writes "the merciless east
winds that knife us". This helps to show the pain that the wind was causing to the men, and
comparing it to the pain that would be caused if it was a knife that was being stabbed into them.
In this sentence, a knife isn't really 'knifing' them, so this shows that personification is used. Also
in Verse One, consonance is

http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/47623.html

The poem also "exposes" the lies of the government propaganda which promised the young men
who enlisted to join the army a thrilling life of adventure and glory. In truth there is no adventure
or glory: "nothing happens" in the trenches except that they wait to freeze to death in the biting
cold.

It is a completely hopeless situation. The freezing soldiers can only dream of the comfort of their
warm homes but they cannot ever hope to enter them: "on us the doors are closed --/We turn
back to our dying." They are so miserable that they have lost all faith in a benevolent God who
also created the season of spring and the sun which shines "true on child, or field, or fruit." So
they cynically and stoically accept their unhappy fate and await their death.

http://www.enotes.com/wilfred-owen/q-and-a/attempt-critical-appreciation-wilfred-owens-poem-
55585

The poem Exposure was written by Wilfred Owen. It was set in World War 1 and most probably in a
bad conditioned trench it is from a soldiers point of view (Wilfred Owens). There is a link to the title
Exposure and to the soldiers that are being exposed to such bad weather, and they were dying of
exposure it also gives you a rough idea of what the poem will be about. Wilfred Owen could also be
exposing some information about the war that most people did not know about, the truth is being
exposed. The weather was freezing, we know this because he uses personification to explain iced
winds merciless iced winds, he distracts himself by thinking about dying and asking himself what he is
doing here. Most people did not always die by getting shot, but by suffering from the coldness of the
weather. This poem is about the misery that the soldiers were feeling. The soldiers did not know what
they were doing there and that nothing happens except for shooting, continuously. There are ways that
Owen conveys (make an idea, feeling etc known or understandable to someone) his ideas by saying
what peoples feelings are and things happen so fast, he also wanted to die. He conveys these by using
images.

In the poem Exposure Owen uses compelling personification of the weather to show that war is all
around them. Weather is something of which no man can control. This poses a question of whether they
could escape war. We don't control war, therefore the circumstances and results of these mens
destinies are not in our hands.
The use of ellipses i.e. Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent..." causes the reader to
reflect on what is being said. Usually silence is a beautiful tranquil state of mind. Yet, here it is
something that creates, "nervous" and "curious" soldiers. This truly creates pathos for the soldiers- do
they ever have a chance to relax?
In the second stanza Owen uses a compelling similie "mad gusts tugging on the wire like twitching
agonies of men among its brambles." This reiterates that the men are similar to the weather. The
weather is contolled by God , and what happens to them is God's fate -" For love of God seems dying."

The connection to "Ode to a Nightingale" is significant - "My heart aches" - "Our brains ache".
As well as this the lines - there are several light/dark colour contrasts - "shivering ranks of grey", "dark-
red jewels, etc.
The "house" which is said to belong to the "innocent mice" with "Shutters and doors, all closed" could
perhaps be being used to refer to the dead bodies of the soldiers - as well as a reference to their old
homes - being more empty when they are away and so more prone to visitors?
The line "kind fires burn" is a use of pathetic fallacy, as well as the line "war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds
sag stormy. Although it could be argued that the first is a use of personification - it is hard to distinguish
between the two.
I think that metaphor is not used "sparsely" - it is used a GREAT deal - perhaps even more than simile.
As well as this the poem also perhaps highlights a relapse in religious faith as people start to question
how an 'all-loving God' could allow this to happen. Perhaps as well "love of God seems dying" because
everything seems dying - everything is soon to be dead.

The description of the dawn as an army is possibly an allusion to the clouds which gather like a
regiment preparing for battle, although in reality they are merely heralding more snow. Throughout the
fourth stanza Owen introduces us to the danger of bullets; however we are informed that theses are
less dangerous than the cold. Bullets will kill you quickly; however the cold merely provides long
suffering. As the poem continues night turns into day, although the cold is still ever present and the
soldiers start to question whether they are already dead, Owen raises the idea that men were only born
to die, it is inevitable that death will soon be upon them. The theme of nothing happening continues
to the very last line of the poem, giving the impression that for the soldiers life will continue in this vain
until something happens, and when the something happens it will be the end of their life.

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