Exposure by Wilfred Owen

Exposure by Wilfred Owen describes two powerful forces which conspire against the soldiers of World War I: the bitter weather conditions, and the fear and anticipation of the battlefield.

This study guide is written for students and teachers of English Literature, particularly those studying AQA’s GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Anthology. For more study guides from this anthology, check out the Power and Conflict page, or the list of poems in the series at the bottom of this guide.

Exposure

Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us . . .
Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . .
Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . .
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
But nothing happens.

Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire,
Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,
Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.
What are we doing here?

The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .
We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.
Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey,
But nothing happens.

Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.
Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,
With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and renew,
We watch them wandering up and down the wind’s nonchalance,
But nothing happens.

Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces—
We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed,
Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,
Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.
Is it that we are dying?

Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires, glozed
With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;
For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;
Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,—
We turn back to our dying.

Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;
Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.
For God’s invincible spring our love is made afraid;
Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,
For love of God seems dying.

To-night, this frost will fasten on this mud and us,
Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp.
The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp,
Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
But nothing happens.

What is 'Exposure' all about?

Summary of 'Exposure'

Exposure by Wilfred Owen speaks to the reader from the icy cold front lines of World War I. The speaker describes the desolate and harrowing experience of soldiers who wait and wait for a battle to begin.

The poem describes the bleakness of the soldiers’ existence as they endure the relentless cold and silence of the battlefield. They are waiting and anticipating violence, living in a persistently heightened state of adrenaline.

The soldiers are plagued by uncertainty and fear, haunted by the question of why they are there.

Despite the anticipation of violence, the poem emphasises a sense of numbness and stagnation—bullets fly, snow falls, but nothing significant occurs. The soldiers find themselves trapped in a state between life and death, contemplating their mortality amidst the brutality of war.

Owen portrays the soldiers as abandoned and forgotten, left to face their fate alone.

The poem concludes with a grim realisation that death is coming for them in the form of the icy weather which freezes them alive, if the violence of the battlefield doesn’t get them first.

Context of 'Exposure' by Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen's life, education and career

Wilfred Owen, born in 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire, was a British poet renowned for his brutally cynical responses to his first-hand experiences of World War I. Owen was educated at the Birkenhead Institute (1900-1907), then Shrewsbury Technical School (1907-1911). After school, Owen worked (unpaid) for the Church of England as a lay preacher and also served the community. During the two years that followed, Owen became increasingly aware of the social deprivation around him, and the weak response of the church. He had been interested in joining the church as a career, but this desire weakened the more time he spent there. In his spare time, he read and wrote poetry, and was particularly inspired by the Romantic poets.

In 1913, after a time spent at home with his parents due to an infection, Owen moved to France. He spent one year teaching in Bordeaux at the Berlitz School of Languages, and then another year as an au pair for a French family, teaching the children. During this time in France, war broke out across Europe, and Owen felt duty-bound to return home to enlist.

If you like this poem, you should read ThinkLit’s study guide for Anthem for Doomed Youth, one of Owen’s most famous poems which explores the inadequate forms of remembrance for the war dead.

Context of 'Exposure'

World War I

Enlisting in the Artist’s Rifles in 1915, Owen experienced the harsh realities of trench warfare on the Western Front. The brutality of war profoundly impacted his perspective, leading to the creation of powerful poems like “Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “Dulce et Decorum Est.”

In 1917, a gas attack left Owen hospitalised. He was sent back to Britain to recover at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. At Craiglockhart, he met another patient, Siegfried Sassoon. The two soldiers and fellow poets formed a meaningful friendship, with Sassoon encouraging Owen’s poetry and suggesting edits. After many months in hospital, and despite suffering from the physical and mental strains of ‘shell shock’, now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Owen returned to the frontlines in 1918.

Tragically, Owen’s life was cut short at 25, just one week before the Armistice, marking the war’s end. Posthumously, fellow poet and close friend Siegfried Sassoon, along with Edith Sitwell, ensured the publication of Owen’s works, solidifying his legacy as a renowned war poet. You can read more about Sassoon’s impact on Owen’s poetry in this BBC article ‘How a hospital meeting inspired Wilfred Owen’s WW1 poetry’.

Line-by-line analysis

Title: Exposure

The concise title is harsh and negative, but indefinite enough to allow for several interpretations.
Exposure could refer to the exposure of the soldiers to the harsh weather conditions of winter on the front line of WWI. It could also suggest that the soldiers are exposed to danger and vulnerable to attack. Lastly, it could suggest that the speaker is exposing the harsh realities of war for the readers back home.

Stanza 1

Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us . . .

Plural inclusive pronouns are used, creating the effect of the speaker, a WWI soldier, speaking for all of the soldiers. This reinforces the impact of this poem as a collective experience rather than just one soldier’s experience.
Personification of the wind as ‘merciless’ emphasises its hostility and brutality.
The metaphor of the winds ‘kniving us’ vividly conveys the physical pain and discomfort experienced by the soldiers, intensifying the harshness of their environment.
Assonance and sibilance work together to create the sound of the wind: ‘Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us …’
The longer opening line creates an unsettlingly extended description, giving the effect that this war with be unsettlingly long and extended too.

Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . .

Consonance in ‘Wearied … awake’ echoes through the line, creating sounds in the eerie silence of the night and emphasises the soldiers’ apprehension and unease.
Ellipsis (…) at the end of the first three lines creates an elongating effect as if these thoughts and experiences are endless.

Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . .

Assonance in ‘low drooping … confuse’ and the slant rhyme of ‘silent’ and ‘salient’ creates the effect of the disorientation and psychological strain the soldiers face, adding to the poem’s atmosphere of confusion and disarray.

Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,

Auditory imagery continues in this line with descriptions of the terrifying silence of the front enhanced with the eerie sibilance of ‘silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,’
The list structure of this line creates a sense of urgency which is ironic when the next line is read: ‘But nothing happens’. This also is unsettling in the contrasting nature of adrenaline and waiting.

But nothing happens.

The short final line of the verse contrasts with the opening, longer line, giving an overall sense of abrupt incompleteness.
This line is repeated as a refrain at the end of verses 3, 4 and 8, adding structure but also frustration and a sense of the pointlessness of the wait the soldiers endure.

Stanza 2

Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire,

The verb tense of ‘watching’ is continuous/progressive, suggesting action and movement, which is ironic given the lack of action and movement of the soldiers ‘watching/
Personification gives human-like qualities to the wind, ‘mad gusts’ which are ‘tugging’, suggesting its ferocity and hostility.

Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.

The simile ‘like twitching agonies of men’ compares the sound of the wind on the wire to the twitching movements of trapped, suffering men. This vivid comparison emphasises the soldiers’ agony and distress, as well as the eerie, unsettling nature of the sounds they experience.

Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,

The consonance of the ‘f’ and ‘r’ sounds creates a harsh, repetitive rhythm that mirrors the relentless rumbling of distant gunfire. It reinforces the sense of constant threat and violence faced by the soldiers.

Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.

Simile (‘like a dull rumour of some other war’) compares the distant sound of gunfire to a faint rumour, suggesting its detached and remote nature. It is too far to suggest it will make any change to their current situation.
The caesura at the comma after ‘off,’ creates a pause, before the speaker adds the simile. The pause allows the last words ‘far off’ to echo for a moment, mirroring the echo or the gunnery rumbling in the distance.

What are we doing here?

This rhetorical question sums up the disillusionment felt by the soldiers. With only waiting and more waiting, what is their role or purpose in this war?
The shorter line is disconcerting after the longer, more descriptive lines. Readers are perplexed that men are freezing to death while serving very little purpose.

Stanza 3

The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .

Imagery of dawn in poetry usually suggests a new day, new possibilities, fresh hope etc. But here, there is a sense of sadness and despair associated with the arrival of dawn, portraying it as a symbol of the soldiers’ suffering and hardship.
The abstract noun ‘misery’ offers no room for positivity. The tone is sombre, concerning and demoralising.

We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.

The triplet structure here (‘war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy’) emphasises the seemingly never-ending and cyclical nature of the soldiers’ existence, where war, rain, and stormy clouds are constant companions.
Phrases of ‘noun plus simple present tense verb’ (i.e. ‘war lasts, rain soaks’) creates a monotonous and predictable pattern of life on the battlefield, reinforcing the sense of futility and despair felt by the soldiers as they endure the relentless hardships of war; it seems like nothing will ever be any different.

Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army

Personification of dawn as female is interesting here, as there is very little to suggest anything feminine about the description. Nonetheless, dawn is portrayed as a human entity capable of leading an army and expressing emotions such as melancholy.
The metaphor of the icy weather as a ‘melancholy army’ which dawn is ‘massing in the east’ emphasises its imposing and formidable presence, using the language of war to emphasise its brutality.

Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey,

Alliteration of the ‘r’ sound in ‘ranks on shivering ranks’ emphasises the sound, creating a sense of rhythm and reinforcing the image of the soldiers’ shivering in the cold.
Imagery in ‘shivering ranks of grey’ creates a visual of the soldiers, dressed in their grey uniforms, trembling with cold and fear.
Repetition of ‘ranks’ emphasises the militaristic language. The weather attacks the ranks of soldiers in its own ranks, again emphasising the idea of the weather as an attacking army.

But nothing happens.

Repetition of this refrain emphasises the recurring theme of inaction and futility throughout the poem, reinforcing the sense of disillusionment and hopelessness experienced by the soldiers.

Stanza 4

Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.

Assonance and sibilance in ‘successive flights of bullets streak the silence‘ create a sinister sound and emphasise the swift and continuous motion of the bullets.
Imagery is both auditory and visual in the phrase ‘bullets streak the silence’, depicting the sudden and disruptive nature of gunfire, contrasting with the previously quiet atmosphere.

Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,

The simile ‘Less deadly than the air’ tells us that gunfire is less lethal to these soldiers than the cold, emphasising the pervasive danger and threat posed by the weather.
Imagery of the ‘air that shudders black with snow’ creates a stark visual contrast between the dark, ominous sky and the white snow.

With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and renew,

Alliteration of the fricative ‘f’ sound in ‘flowing flakes that flock’ creates a smooth and flowing rhythm, mirroring the movement of the snowflakes.
The snowflake imagery contrasts with the violence of the gunfire, emphasising the tranquillity and beauty of the natural world amidst the chaos of war, highlighting the juxtapositions all around them, particularly between life and death.

We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance,

Personification of the ‘wind’s nonchalance’ reminds us the weather doesn’t care about the soldiers, and emphasises how isolated and vulnerable they are.
Imagery of ‘wandering up and down’ creates a sense of aimlessness and unpredictability, emphasising the randomness of the snowflakes’ movement, and perhaps even the randomness of the war itself.
The speaker here seems detached and resigned, creating a tone of helplessness.

But nothing happens.

This line is repeated from the final line of stanzas one and three, and here it is again in stanza four, reminding the reader once again of the speaker’s sense of being trapped, frustrated, helpless and vulnerable.

Stanza 5

Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces—

The image of ‘fingering stealth’ is uncomfortable and intrusive, making it seem as though the frost and snow are evil and sinister, and the soldiers are trapped and unable to move away from their reach.
Personification in ‘come feeling for our faces’ emphasises the weather’s role as an active participant in the soldiers’ experience.
Alliteration of the fricative ‘f’ sound in flakes/fingering/feeling/faces builds an impactful sound here which is sinister and unnerving.

We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed,

‘Cringe’ is an odd but apt verb choice, creating the image of soldiers hiding and wishing to be made smaller, perhaps for warmth, perhaps due to fear.
With their backs to their dreams, there is a strong sense of brokenness here; the soldiers have nothing left to dream of or hope for. They are completely defeated by the soul-destroying cold.
The pauses at each comma create a fracturing of the fluency of the line, mirroring the brokenness of the soldiers’ spirits.

Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,

Alliteration of the slow and heavy ‘d’ sound in ‘drowse, sun-dozed‘ mirrors the lethargic state of the soldiers and their monotonous surroundings. The lines here mean that the soldiers are so exhausted that they begin to imagine it is spring, and that the ground is green and grassy rather than snow-covered, and (in the next line) that the signs of spring are visible. These cruel hallucinations are not real.
The ‘s’ and ‘z’ sounds in ‘sun-dozed’ highlight the warmth and comfort associated with sunlight, contrasting with the harshness of their snow-covered reality.

Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.

The ironic imagery of ‘blossoms trickling’ and the blackbird that ‘fusses’ are simply hallucinations in the soldiers’ minds. These imagined signs of spring are used to juxtapose the dream of the beauty of nature with the reality of the brutality of nature, and indeed, the brutality of war.
Even in the hallucination of spring, the blackbird seems concerned or agitated as it ‘fusses’.

Is it that we are dying?

The rhetorical question in this line is haunting. The speaker asks if these signs of spring are simply hallucinations of men on the verge of death. The reader knows the answer, but the speaker doesn’t.

Stanza 6

Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires, glozed

The metaphor ‘Slowly our ghosts drag home’ compares the soldiers to ghosts, highlighting their physical and emotional detachment from the world. The comparison also reminds the reader that these men are almost dead, almost ghosts.
Enjambment is used to run the image of the fires into the next line without a punctuation break, creating a long, slow sentence which mirrors the soldiers’ state of exhaustion and hallucination.

With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;

The simile ‘glozed With crusted dark-red jewels’ compares the embers of the fire to jewels, suggesting a fleeting beauty amidst the harshness of war (‘glozed’ means glossed over or covered with).
Assonance is used in ‘crickets jingle’, giving a lightness to this image and adding to the otherworldliness of this verse in which the soldiers dream of home and its comforts and familiarities.
The semi-colons add pauses and a sense of a list of snapshots of life at home. These images flit in and out of the soldiers’ minds, giving them brief respite from the horrors they are experiencing.

For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;

The juxtaposition of ‘For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs’ placed next to ‘Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,—’ emphasises the soldiers’ exclusion from the comfort and safety of home, highlighting the tragedy of war and their isolation.

Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,—

The hyphen after “closed—” emphasises the finality of their exclusion and the harshness of their reality.
Repetition of ‘closed’ drives home the isolation and exclusion of the soldiers.

We turn back to our dying.

This line echoes but isn’t the same as the final line of the previous stanza. The echo of ‘dying’ stands out strongly to the reader, emphasising the futility of trying to live. In this case, the change from the question of stanza 5 to the matter-of-fact tone of stanza 6 emphasises that it is too late; memories, images, dreams of home are all too late to give any cheer or hope to these men.

Stanza 7

Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;

This verse uses cause-and-effect language (‘Since…therefore’) to establish the connection between the loss of faith and the soldiers’ sacrifice. Their loss of faith has been caused by the brutality of their experiences of war.
The speaker has throughout the poem used plural, personal/inclusive pronouns, giving the effect of one speaking for the many. This is made clear in this line, in ‘we believe’, as the speaker voices the thinking of the whole group.

Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.

The speaker lists the innocent elements of home on which the warm sun shines: ‘child, or field, or fruit’ which contrasts starkly to the bitter cold that beats down on them.

For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid;

The speaker mentions God for the first time. This is not an abstract being or power, but the capitalisation of ‘G’ tells us that the speaker refers to the Christian God. But the meaning is clear: God may promise spring and hope, but not for us. We are doomed to die here in winter.

Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,

The speaker’s acceptance of abandonment happened a long time ago, so there is nothing for him to be angry about: his tone is one of resignation, and perhaps duty.
Frequent punctuation fractures this line, adding pauses to a complicated syntax and slowing the pace, which emphasises the tone of resignation.

For love of God seems dying.

This line echoes its counterpart lines in stanzas five and six with the keyword ‘dying’. This time, it is God’s love for them, or their love for God, or both, which is dying.
This conclusion, that ‘love of God seems dying’, is perhaps the ‘exposure’ that the speaker is revealing. The speaker exposes the truth of war: that God has abandoned these men to the cruellest death imaginable.

Stanza 8

To-night, this frost will fasten on this mud and us,

Repetition of ‘this’ and the definite verb ‘will’ gives this final stanza a tone of acceptance.
Alliteration of the ‘f’ sound in ‘frost’ and ‘fasten’ creates fluency which further adds to the speaker’s acceptance of his fate.

Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp.

The verbs ‘shrivelling’ and ‘puckering’ are very visual. Right to the end of this poem, Owen refuses to back away from the brutality of his descriptions, making it clear to his readers how brutal war is.

The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp,

Another haunting image is conveyed here, as soldiers are sent to bury the dead. This ‘buring-party’ has hands which shake, perhaps due to the cold, or perhaps due to the experience of digging graves for comrades.
Alliteration moves across this line, from ‘party’ and ‘picks’ to ‘shovels‘ and ‘shaking grasp’, adding haunting sound effects to the haunting visual image.

Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,

The full stop mid-line (caesura) creates a long pause, slowing the pace right down and mirroring the slowing down of the action here, as the soldiers are dead and frozen.

But nothing happens.

Despite everything, the suffering, pain and trauma experienced by the soldiers in this part of the battlefield, still nothing happens. In this final refrain and echo the tone of the futility of it all is reinforced.

Analysis of form and structure

Verse structure

Exposure is composed of eight five-line verses (quintains). Each verse feels more like a quatrain due to the ABBA rhyme scheme in the first four lines. The fifth line of the verse is a refrain which varies between ‘But nothing happens’ and a version of ‘Are we dying?’ This shorter line disturbs the structure and creates an unsettling tone.

Rhyme

“Exposure” by Wilfred Owen uses a rhyme pattern which can be written as ABBAC. This means that the first four lines of each verse form an enclosed rhyme, with the two ‘B’ lines enclosed by the two ‘A’ lines. The fifth line of each verse stands alone as a ‘C’ line.

Despite this regular pattern in each verse, the rhymes are rarely full rhymes, but slant rhymes. Full rhymes (for example, ‘bare’ and ‘hare’) are satisfying for the listener, giving each sound a complete echo and a sense of closure. In contrast, slant rhymes have similar consonant sounds but different internal vowel sounds. For example, ‘wire’ and ‘war’, and ‘brambles’ and ‘rumbles’. These slant rhymes contribute to the poem’s raw and realistic portrayal of war, emphasising the chaos, uncertainty, and brutality faced by the soldiers on the battlefield.

Owen also incorporates occasional instances of consonance and alliteration to create sound effects and enhance the poem’s mood. For example, phrases like “merciless iced east winds” and “deep into grassier ditches”. These phrases use assonance and consonance to add texture and internal rhyme to the language.

Rhythm

Exposure is written in free verse, which means it does not adhere to a specific metrical pattern.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the rhythm in the poem is its irregularity. Owen’s use of enjambment, where lines flow seamlessly into one another without punctuation, contributes to a sense of continuous movement and tension. This lack of punctuation reflects the soldiers’ experiences of uncertainty and anxiety on the battlefield.

Owen also employs repetition throughout the poem, particularly with phrases like “But nothing happens.” This repetition emphasises the soldiers’ sense of monotony and futility, reinforcing the poem’s themes of waiting and inaction.

Themes in 'Exposure'

The power of nature

Nature is portrayed as vindictive and hostile in the poem. Nature is harsh, serving as a constant threat to the soldiers’ well-being. The merciless winds, freezing temperatures, and snow symbolise the uncaring and relentless forces that the soldiers are exposed to.

The horrors of war

The poem depicts the brutal realities of war, including the physical and psychological toll it takes on soldiers. Owen exposes the suffering, fear, and despair experienced by those in the trenches, highlighting the senselessness and brutality of warfare.

Isolation

The soldiers in the poem are depicted as isolated and alone, cut off from the world and trapped in the desolate landscape of the battlefield. Their sense of isolation is exacerbated by the silence of the night and the icy, cold conditions around them.

Quiz

Exposure by Wilfred Owen

Test your knowledge of the poem 'Exposure' by Wilfred Owen

Comprehension Questions

How does Owen describe the weather conditions in the poem? What effect does this have on the soldiers?
What is the soldiers’ reaction to the silence of the night?
Describe the soldiers’ perception of time and their surroundings as portrayed in the poem.
What is the significance of the phrase “What are we doing here?” in the context of the poem?
How does Owen convey the sense of futility and despair experienced by the soldiers?
Discuss the imagery used by Owen to depict the dawn and its impact on the soldiers.
What is the soldiers’ reaction to the sudden flights of bullets? How does this contribute to the overall mood of the poem?
How does Owen portray the soldiers’ physical and emotional state during the snowfall?
Analyse the significance of the refrain, “But nothing happens” throughout the poem.
Which poem from your anthology would you choose to compare with ‘Exposure’? Make a mind map to compare and contrast these two poems.

Other poems from the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology to pair with 'Exposure'

Storm on the Island by Seamus Heaney

Exposure and Storm on the Island both explore the themes of the power of nature and the impact of conflict on individuals. In “Exposure,” Owen portrays nature as relentless and hostile symbolising the harshness of war, while “Storm on the Island” presents nature as a direct threat that the inhabitants of the island must contend with. Both poems convey a sense of isolation and vulnerability. In “Exposure,” the soldiers are isolated on the battlefield, while the inhabitants in “Storm on the Island” are isolated on their remote island. In “Exposure,” Owen directly addresses the horrors of war and the senselessness of violence, while Heaney’s poem indirectly alludes to conflict through the depiction of the storm, suggesting broader themes of human resilience and the enduring struggle against natural forces.

The Prelude (Boat Stealing) by William Wordsworth

Both The Prelude and Exposure depict nature as a formidable force. In Exposure, Owen portrays nature as hostile and relentless, while in The Prelude, Wordsworth explores nature’s power through the lens of awe and wonder, focusing on the beauty and grandeur of the natural world, with the lake embodying both the allure and danger of the natural environment. Exposure is written in a stark and haunting style evoking the bleakness and desolation of the battlefield. The tone is sombre and reflective, conveying the soldiers’ sense of despair and resignation. In contrast, The Prelude has a more lyrical and introspective tone, with rich descriptive language and a sense of wonder and awe at the beauty of nature.