Exposure (AQA GCSE English Literature)
Revision Note
Written by: Deb Orrock
Reviewed by: Kate Lee
Each poetry anthology in the GCSE contains 15 poems, and in the poetry question in the exam you will be given one poem on the paper – printed in full – and asked to compare this given poem to one other from the anthology. As this is a “closed book” exam, you will not have access to the other poems, so you will have to know them very well from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to learn. However, understanding four things about each poem will enable you to produce a top-mark response:
The meaning of the poem
The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey
How the poet conveys these ideas and messages through their methods
How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of other poems in the anthology
Below is a guide to Wilfred Owen’s Exposure, from the Power and Conflict anthology. It includes:
Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam
Overview
In order to answer an essay question on any poem, it is essential that you understand what it is about. This section includes:
The poem in a nutshell
A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section
A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Owen’s intention and message
Exposure in a nutshell
Exposure is written from an authentic first person perspective, as Wilfred Owen wrote it in 1917 whilst he was fighting in the trenches of World War I. He was killed just before the armistice in 1918, and the poem was published after his death. The topic of the poem is war, but it specifically focuses on the sheer monotony of daily life for many soldiers, as well as the harsh conditions they were exposed to, even when not actually engaged in fighting. The suffering is made worse, in the speaker’s mind, given the fact that the war seems to accomplish nothing ultimately. Owen used simple language in this poem because he wanted people to understand the awful realities of war. Therefore, the main themes in the poem are the conflict between the propaganda and the harsh reality of war, and human versus nature as the soldiers are engaged in their own struggle to survive the bleak conditions, as well as the war itself.
Exposure breakdown
Lines 1-5
“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.”
Translation
The first stanza describes the physical conditions the soldiers were experiencing, as well as their mental state
The soldiers are physically and mentally exhausted
Their “brains ache” with the strain of being constantly vigilant in case of attack
Ironically, it is the wind, rather than the enemy, which attacks them
The silence is the thing that concerns them the most, as the soldiers have no way of knowing when or where the next attack will come from
Attempts to light up the landscape with “low, drooping flares” only serves to make the situation more confusing
But despite all of the tension and watchfulness, “nothing happens”
Owen’s intention
Owen personifies the east winds as metaphorically stabbing the soldiers with its chill
Here, the poet indicates that nature might be as dangerous to the soldiers as the enemy
This is reflected in the poem’s title, 'Exposure', which indicates the risk the soldiers face by being stuck out in the cold for extended periods of time
By opening the poem with reference to the soldiers’ “brains”, Owen is also commenting on the psychological impact of war
The line “Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,” indicates the conflicting emotions the soldiers experience, constantly on edge and watchful
The poet here begins to use the refrain “But nothing happens” which is repeated throughout the poem
The implication here is that this refrain extends beyond just this specific moment; it could just as well be referring to war itself
In other words, war is futile, meaningless and changes nothing
Lines 6-10
“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?”
Translation
While the soldiers keep a look-out, the wind rattles the barbed wire set up as a defence around the trenches
It sounds like the twitching of dying men caught on the wire
They can hear the constant gunfire from the north, but it sounds so far as if it is in a different war
The narrator questions why they are even there, if there is no actual fighting
Owen’s intention
Owen again personifies nature as angrily “tugging” on the barbed wire
He follows this up with a brutal simile, comparing the wind’s actions to the dying twitches of men caught in the wire
Again, Owen suggests that the battle to survive against nature is just as dangerous as the battle against enemy soldiers
In this stanza, Owen also introduces the idea that war is always present, even when it is not immediately visible
The use of the rhetorical question at the end of the stanza reinforces the confusion of the soldiers at the situation in which they find themselves
Lines 11-15
“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.”
Translation
The narrator observes the sun once again beginning to rise, and the only certainty in their lives is that the war drags on
There seems to be no end to this living hell
The narrator likens the dawn to a military leader gathering its army of freezing storm clouds
This army of nature then “attacks once more”, but once again there is no actual physical action
Owen’s intention
The poet here is commenting that the war is an awful, miserable, continuous cycle
This monotony is reinforced by the repetition of the refrain “But nothing happens.”
The irony is that dawn is normally symbolic of a fresh start and happiness, but here it represents nothing but continued misery
Again, Owen uses the personification of dawn as a military leader to emphasise once more that the battle the soldiers are engaged in is more than just the physical war they are involved in
War is everything
Lines 16-20
“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.”
Translation
Suddenly, the silence is broken by a barrage of gunfire
However, the speaker believes that even these bullets are not as dangerous as the snow that is falling and the freezing temperatures
The speaker gives the impression that the snowflakes are whirling around them
The soldiers watch the snowstorm, and still nothing happens in terms of the war itself
Owen’s intention
Owen’s use of sibilance at the start of this stanza reflects the sudden break in the monotonous silence
And yet, the poet is suggesting that the weather conditions still pose a greater threat to the soldiers than bullets themselves
He positions nature as the greatest enemy of men
Even the snowflakes seem to be consciously deciding who to attack and where they will fall
The poet suggests that the wind is apathetic (“nonchalance”) in the face of untold suffering and hardship
But even this short break in the silence does little to alleviate the continuous misery
The soldiers feel as though nothing new has happened
Lines 21-25
“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?”
Translation
The narrator describes the snowflakes as though they are assassins that are stalking the soldiers
Terrified, the soldiers huddle in the trenches for protection, while imagining they are lying in the warm sun, surrounded by flowers and blackbirds
They are trying to hold onto what little hope is left in their hearts
The narrator questions whether they are actually dying, perhaps of exposure
Owen’s intention
The poet deliberately describes the snowflakes as having “fingering stealth”, personifying them as malicious and cunning
The use of the word “cringe” suggests the men are now cowering from the weather
The happy images the soldiers imagine is designed to juxtapose with the reality they are suffering through
In the final line, the poet attempts to answer the rhetorical question at the end of stanza two
Lines 26-30
“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.”
Translation
After a while, the soldiers begin to imagine that their spirits have gone home
The narrator speaks of their longing for home, but the image is one of the fire having burned out, with only glowing embers remaining
The house is so empty that only the crickets and mice are left to enjoy it
Going home is something that is now closed to them and there is no hope of going back there
So the soldiers close their hearts and turn back to their depressing reality
Owen’s intention
The poet suggests that the soldiers are so exhausted it is even a effort for them to think of anywhere other than their ghastly present environment
The reference to the soldier’s “ghosts” could imply that the men are already dead
The fact that “on us the doors are closed” implies that peace is now out of their reach
What they are dreaming of is now inaccessible to them
Lines 31-35
“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 like out here; therefore were born,
For love of God seems dying.”
Translation
The speaker suggests that the soldiers no longer believe that there are any warm fires left for them, even though the sun still shines brightly on children and nature
They have lost faith in God’s promise of happier, warmer times to come
The soldiers are not resentful; they are resigned to their fate, as God seems to have abandoned them
Owen’s intention
The feeling of hopelessness and inevitability continues in this stanza
The bleakness is such that even the fact that a warm spring will follow a winter still makes them afraid, as they will probably not be alive to see it
Owen suggests that the soldiers may believe they were born to die in this situation, in order to allow those at home to live
There is the suggestion of the speaker questioning his faith, as a result of what he has witnessed and is experiencing
As his faith dies, so his heart or “love” grows more afraid
Lines 36-40
“Tonight, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,
Shrivelling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp.
The burying-party, picks and shovels in their shaking grasp,
Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
But nothing happens.”
Translation
The despair of the poem reaches a climax in this final stanza, as the speaker reveals that the temperature that night will be so cold that it will freeze the ground and the soldiers
Other soldiers have to bury those who freeze to death, their hands shaking from fear and cold
They look briefly at the faces of soldiers they vaguely recognise
Their eyes have frozen solid
The final “But nothing happens” tells us the speaker feels that this is the way life is, and it cannot be changed. The only way out is death
Owen’s intention
This final stanza is where action, should it happen, must happen. However, nothing does
The soldiers succumb to nature, freezing to death alone
The frost is personified as fastening the soldiers to the ground
Owen also uses the metaphor of “All their eyes are ice”, meaning that they are physically frozen, but also numb to the horrors
The last line shows ultimate futility of war, and that the war will go on and on
The terrible irony of this is that something did happen eventually, with the armistice, but it was too late for Owen, who died just a week beforehand
Writer’s Methods
Although this section is organised into three separate sections – form, structure and language – it is important to take an integrated approach to AO2, focusing on the main themes of the poem and then evaluating how Owen’s choice of language, structure and form contribute to these themes. In essence, how and why the poet has made the choices he has, in relation to their intentions and message.
Focusing on the poet’s main themes, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. In the sections below, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Owen’s intentions behind his choices in terms of:
Form
This poem does not fit into any traditional form. It has eight stanzas of five lines. The first four lines of each stanza share similar rhyme sounds and describe the horrors the men are enduring. The fifth line in each stanza then either repeats the poem’s refrain or makes some reference to death. Because each stanza is structured in the same way, it emphasises the theme of the monotony and futility of war. The fifth line in each stanza adding on a little more than what would normally be expected could be seen as representative of the war dragging on and on.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
The monotony and futility of war | The first four lines of each stanza follow the rhyming pattern “abba” | This serves to emphasise the repetitiveness of trench life |
The poet uses a technique called “half rhyme”, where the lines do not quite rhyme. For example, “knive us/nervous” and “silent/salient” | This serves to create an underlying atmosphere of unease | |
The reader is left anticipating a rhyme in the same way as the soldiers are on edge anticipating a battle | ||
The final line of each stanza is short and indented | These final lines hang suspended, tacked on at the end of each stanza | |
The refrain “But nothing happens” binds the poem together, and the repetition of the idea emphasises the sense of paralysis and not moving forward | ||
It also gives a sense of dread, as in it doesn’t seem right and, therefore, adds to the tension | ||
The poet uses collective pronouns, such as “our” and “we” | This gives a common voice to the soldiers and shows that the misery applies to everyone |
Structure
Exposure is structured into a single day, from dawn to night, encompassing a whole day in which nothing happens, except the men daydreaming and trying to come to terms with the futility of the situation they find themselves in, and the pointlessness of their own existence.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
Futility of war | The poem employs a cyclical structure, with the line “But nothing happens” connecting the beginning and end of the poem | The fact that the poem encompasses a day emphasises the fact that nothing has actually happened in that time |
| The refrain “But nothing happens” is also an example of anaphora | This shows that the situation remains the same despite their suffering; the soldiers don’t achieve anything, implying the futility of war |
| The use of caesura in the lines speaking of home, such as “For hours the innocent mice rejoice:” separates home from the trenches | The use of punctuation mid-line also suggests a barrier between the two places, implying that they cannot return |
| The first three lines of the first stanza end with ellipses | This creates a slower pace and indicates the waiting and the boredom of the soldiers |
Language
Wilfred Owen uses several language techniques to position nature as the main enemy of the soldiers, demonstrating the key theme of the power of nature to be just as dangerous as any human enemy.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
Man versus nature | Owen personifies the weather and nature throughout the poem | This technique depicts nature as the antagonist in the poem and an even bigger threat than the actual army the soldiers are meant to be fighting |
The weather “knives” the men and uses “stealth” to attack them. The air “shudders black with snow” | This implies that the real fight is against nature, which is shown to be deadly through the use of the colour black. Nature is literally trying to kill them | |
In the line “Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”, the normally nurturing Mother Nature is depicted as a military leader | Owen juxtaposes the normally mothering and comforting role traditionally associated with a female figure with the aggressive connotations of an army | |
Dawn is also usually symbolic of hope and new life | ||
This indicates that, despite human conflict, the natural world keeps moving. War has no effect on the dawn or the natural cycle of nature | ||
This again implies the futility and pointlessness of war | ||
Sibilance is used in “sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence” | This represents the whooshing sound of bullets whizzing through the air | |
In the poem, the snowflakes slice through the air in the same way as bullets | ||
The poet uses unusual verbs when describing the men in the final stanza, such as “shrivelling”, “puckering” and “shaking” | This is ironic, as these are young men, but the effects of prolonged exposure is to make them as if they are old and infirm |
Context
Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, context is not random historical facts about Wilfred Owen or World War I that are unrelated to the ideas in the poem. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Owen in Exposure which relate to power and conflict. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Owen explores:
The Reality of War
The poem was written in 1917 whilst Owen was fighting in the trenches in World War I
In Britain at the time, war was romanticised and seen as glorious and noble
This was reflected in much of the war poetry at the time, which focused on the honour of fighting
Owen dispelled this myth by exposing the horrific reality of war
His graphic scenes combined with description of honest emotions
In addition, World War I is known not only for its immense number of casualties, but also for its psychological effects on those who survived
The term “shell-shock” emerged from this war, referring to soldiers suffering from what would now be termed PTSD
Owen himself was hospitalised for this
Owen wrote many of his poems to convey the horrors of war to civilians who had no way of visualising what war was really like
He suggests that war can kill a man in a psychological, if not in a physical way
The line, “Slowly our ghosts drag home” demonstrates this
The Power of Nature
The majority of the fighting during WWI took place in Europe, where the soldiers faced extremities in temperature and weather over the years (1914-1918)
The use of trench warfare in WWI significantly influenced the high death toll
Life in the trenches was awful, with diseases rife
Rain would quickly accumulate in the trenches, whilst in the winter soldiers would be battered by snow, hail and sub-zero temperatures
The winter of 1916-1917 was so cold that many soldiers lost fingers and toes to frostbite
The trenches offered little to no protection
The soldiers were left exposed to the elements
During his time fighting in France, Owen experienced record-breaking cold and snow, as well as the constant fear and trauma of the war itself
In one incident, in April 1917, Owen and his men remained in an open field in the snow for 4 days and nights, with no support forces arriving to relieve them
They had no chance to change wet, frozen clothes or to sleep
This was just one incident of Owen and his men having to endure many days and nights out in the open, sheltering in shell holes
Owen makes references to God having abandoned them and nature turning against them
He thinks the cosmos seems either cruelly indifferent or else malignant
It seems that a loving, Christian God is non-existent
The narrator in the poem is overwhelmed by nature’s hostility and unpredictability
The soldiers even lose hope that spring will arrive
The poet suggests that war can lead to a loss of faith in God
In the poem, God is responsible for the suffering caused by nature. For example, in the line, “Tonight, His frost will fasten on this mud and us”
What to Compare it to
The essay you are required to write in your exam is an integrated comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems (the one given on the exam paper and one other). It is, therefore, essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about power, or conflict, in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that Exposure focuses mainly on the reality of war, and the power of nature, the following comparisons would be a good place to start:
For each pair of poems, you will find:
The comparison in a nutshell
Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences
Exposure and The Charge of the Light Brigade
Comparison in a nutshell:
This comparison provides the opportunity to compare how different poets present the experience of war. Although the experiences of war are presented differently, both ultimately underline the needlessness of war and that the experiences of the soldiers are to be taken seriously.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | Both poems serve as a mouthpiece to expose the reality of war and the resulting death that inevitably occurs | |
Evidence and analysis | Exposure | The Charge of the Light Brigade |
In Exposure, Owen depicts the soldiers as isolated in “Worried by silence” | Tennyson indirectly criticises military leaders’ decisions by stating that “Someone had blunder'd” | |
This, plus the use of rhetorical questions, imply that the soldiers feel abandoned by the authority that put them there | He also puts the emphasis on the soldiers themselves, as he instructs the reader to “Honour the Light Brigade” rather than those in charge | |
Owen repeats “But nothing happens” to suggest that the men are being forced to wait in freezing trenches for no reason | Similarly, Tennyson uses repetition to emphasise the vast number of lives lost in war and the harsh brutality of conflict | |
Owen uses the personification of the “iced east winds knife us” to suggest that the wind is violently attacking the men | Tennyson uses the semantic field of a storm to emphasise the violence and power of charging into conflict | |
This is ironic as they wait for the enemy to attack | ||
The poet Wilfred Owen ultimately returned to war, despite having lost hope in the cause he was meant to be fighting for | In this poem, the men followed their orders without question, even though they knew it would lead to death | |
Differences:
Topic sentence | In Exposure, war is presented as ultimately futile, whereas in The Charge of the Light Brigade, war is presented, at least on the surface, as honourable and brave | |
Evidence and analysis | Exposure | The Charge of the Light Brigade |
Owen was a soldier on the front line at the time of writing, so could be more openly critical of a situation he had first-hand experience of | As Tennyson was poet laureate at the time, he would not have been able to be outwardly critical of authority | |
Therefore, this poem presents a much more negative picture of the realities of war and conflict | The poem therefore reads as patriotic and contains lexis from the semantic field of propaganda, such as “glory”, “honour” and “noble” | |
Owen’s poem is characterised by silence and inaction. It is in the silence that the men feel frightened | In Tennyson’s poem, there is noise, and the men do not seem to have the opportunity to feel frightened. They are charging straight into action | |
The soldiers are waiting in the silence and cold in Exposure | This contrasts with the sound in this poem, which is loud and explosive | |
Owen’s language is much more reflective of the soldier’s lived experiences and is, therefore, more brutal, such as “merciless”, “twitching agonies” and “misery” | Tennyson’s use of euphemism and gentler language is kinder to the reader, shielding them from the true horrors of war | |
Exposure and Storm on the Island
Comparison in a nutshell:
This comparison provides the opportunity to discuss how different poets present the overwhelming power of nature as something to be feared, in order to convey their underlying messages.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | Both poems deal with the conflict man has not only with nature, but also with imposed regimes | |
Evidence and analysis | Exposure | Storm on the Island |
In Exposure, the wind is malicious and manifests itself as evil, like the evil nature of war | In Heaney’s depiction, the wind is dealt first with practicalities, as the islanders are “prepared” and they build their “houses squat” in order to withstand the oncoming storm | |
The line “the iced east winds that knife us” creates the impression that the wind has come to life and is purposefully trying to cause the soldiers pain | The wind is also personified in that it “pummels” their houses and the island offers no natural shelter | |
References to actual warfare are explicit in this poem, but suggests that nature is also on the attack, as dawn amasses “her melancholy army” | Heaney uses a semantic field linked to warfare with “strafes” and “bombarded”, creating the image of bullets hitting the houses | |
Although the speaker is trapped in World War I, in the poem the real and more imminent danger comes from nature | The real and imminent danger for the islanders is also nature which is attacking them | |
The poet highlights the power that nature has over one’s emotions and psychology | The psychological impact is also suggested in the final line of this poem, in “Strange, it is a huge nothing we fear”, as the people fear most the thing they cannot see | |
For Owen, the pain is raw, traumatic and seems never ending | For Heaney, the suffering is embedded into the culture, as something the people must endure over and over again | |
The refrain “But nothing happens” is Owen’s comment on the ultimate futility of war, and the pointlessness of the soldiers being there | With Heaney, the storm and nature acts as a metaphor for The Troubles and conflict in Northern Ireland, which innocent people had to “weather” | |
Differences:
Topic sentence | Although both poems comment on the danger of nature and its power over man, the tone of Exposure is melancholy and helpless, whereas in Storm on the Island the islanders take action to protect themselves from the oncoming storm | |
Evidence and analysis | Exposure | Storm on the Island |
The poet, Owen, was actually a soldier in World War I, so his poem is written from first hand experience | Although Heaney’s poem can be read as an extended metaphor for The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Heaney himself grew up in the countryside | |
The poem is written from a personal perspective and is, therefore, very authentic | The links in this poem to actual conflict are much more subtle and implied | |
This poem is more structured, with eight stanzas, each ending with an indented refrain or rhetorical question | This poem is written in blank verse and in one stanza, suggesting that weather and nature is unpredictable and difficult to stop | |
This emphasises the repetitiveness and monotony of war, where the fact that nothing happens for long periods is another side of the battle for the soldiers | The use of enjambment and caesura represent the constant barrage of the storm, which gives a sense of action | |
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