Exposure (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Each poetry anthology in Edexcel GCSE English Literature 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 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

To answer an essay question on any poem, you must understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell
• An explanation 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 focuses specifically 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, by the fact that the conflict seems to accomplish nothing. 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 humans versus nature, as the soldiers are engaged in a struggle to survive the bleak conditions as much 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 memories of the salient…

Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,

But nothing happens.”

Explanation

• The first stanza describes the physical conditions the soldiers are 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, that attacks them
• It’s silence that concerns them the most; they 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 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, exposed to the weather, 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 soldiers’ mental state of being constantly on edge and watchful
• The poet here begins to use the refrain “But nothing happens”, which is repeated throughout the poem
• The implication is that this refrain extends beyond this specific moment; it could be referring to the war in general
• In other words, Owen is showing that 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?”

Explanation

• 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 away, it’s as if it is in a different war
• The narrator questions why they are even there, when there is no actual fighting

Owen’s intention

• Owen once more personifies nature as angrily “tugging” on the barbed wire
• He follows this up with a brutal simile, comparing the wind’s movement to the dying twitches of men caught in the wire
• Again, Owen suggests that the battle 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 so distant that they can only hear it
• The use of the rhetorical question at the end of the stanza reinforces the soldiers’ confusion about their situation

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.”

Explanation

• The narrator observes the sun rising, as it always does, but the only certainty in their lives is that the war drags on:
• There seems to be no end to this living hell
• The narrator compares 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 personifies dawn as a military leader to emphasise that the soldiers’ battle is greater than just the military conflict they are fighting

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.”

Explanation

• Suddenly, the silence is broken by a barrage of gunfire
• However, even these bullets are less dangerous than the snow and the freezing temperatures
• The speaker gives the impression that the snowflakes are being driven “sidelong” by the wind
• 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 pose an even greater threat to the soldiers than bullets:
• He presents nature as the greatest enemy of the soldiers
• Even the snowflakes seem to be consciously deciding who to attack and where they will fall as they “flock”, “pause” and “renew”
• The poet suggests that the wind is uncaring (“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?”

Explanation

• The speaker personifies the snowflakes as assassins that are stalking the soldiers
• Terrified, the soldiers huddle in the trenches for protection, and imagine they are lying in the warm sun, surrounded by flowers and blackbirds
• The speaker questions whether they are actually dying, perhaps of exposure

Owen’s intention

• The poet describes the snowflakes as having “fingering stealth”, personifying them as malicious and cunning
• The use of the word “cringe” suggests the men are cowering from the weather
• The happy images the soldiers imagine are 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.”

Explanation

• 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 now feels impossible
• 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 soldiers’ “ghosts” could imply that the men are already dead
• The fact that “on us the doors are closed” implies that comfort is now beyond their reach
• What they are dreaming of is now inaccessible to them

Lines 31–35

“Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn; 

Nor 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.”

Explanation

• The soldiers believe that they are there for a reason: to preserve the “kind fires” of home
• Only by fighting the war can they ensure that the sun still shines brightly on the children, fields and fruit of their homes
• They feel they must fight, in order to preserve the natural order of things, like the return of spring; it’s what they were born to do and they cannot resent it
• They are resigned to their fate, even though God seems to have abandoned them

Owen’s intention

• The feeling of hopelessness and inevitability continues in this stanza
• The soldiers can only endure their suffering by believing that there is a reason for it
• Owen’s use of the negatives “not otherwise” and “Nor ever” makes it sound as though these lines mean their opposite:
• This deliberate complexity suggests a strong element of doubt in the speaker’s assertion
• Owen suggests that the soldiers 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 his experiences

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 the shaking grasp,

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

But nothing happens.”

Explanation

• 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, their hands shaking from fear and cold, have to bury those who have frozen to death
• They look briefly at the faces of soldiers they vaguely recognise
• The eyes of the dead have frozen solid
• The final “But nothing happens” confirms the speaker’s feelings: this is the way things are, and they cannot be changed. The only way out is death

Owen’s intention

• This final stanza is where some kind of resolution should happen, but nothing does
• The soldiers succumb to nature, freezing to death alone
• Even God seems to be attacking them, as “His” frost clings to everything, freezing men and mud alike
• Owen uses the metaphor, “All their eyes are ice” to convey that they are physically frozen, but also numb to the horrors
• The last line shows ultimate futility of war, because “nothing” 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

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
• Structure
• Language

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. Using exactly the same structure in every stanza emphasises the theme of the monotony and futility of war. The fifth line in each stanza adds a little extra emphasis on the fact that the war drags 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 creates an underlying atmosphere of unease, because the expected rhyme doesn’t quite happen
		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: This reflects the way that the soldiers are also held in suspense, waiting for action that never comes
		The refrain “But nothing happens” binds the poem together: The repetition of the idea emphasises the sense of paralysis
		It also conveys a sense of dread, as in it doesn’t seem right: This adds to the tone of tension in the poem
	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 equally

Structure

'Exposure' is structured over a single day, from dawn to night, 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 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 whole 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: This reinforces the sense that they cannot return
	The first three lines of the first stanza end with ellipses	This creates a pause, slowing the pace and indicating the boredom of the soldiers’ situation

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, which presents as much danger 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: It presents nature as an even bigger threat than the enemy soldiers
	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”, nurturing Mother Nature is depicted as a military leader	Owen juxtaposes the conventional comforting role traditionally associated with a female figure with the aggressive connotations of a female leader gathering her arm. Dawn is usually symbolic of hope and new life: Despite the human conflict, the natural world continues as usual War has no effect on the dawn or the natural cycle of nature, underlining its futility
	Sibilance is used in “sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”	This represents the sibilant whooshing sound of bullets whizzing through the air: In the same stanza, the snowflakes slice through the air in the same way as bullets
	The poet uses unusual verbs to describe 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 makes them seem old and infirm

Context offers you a different perspective on a poem and can enrich your engagement with it. However, you should aim to only use your knowledge of context to support your analysis of Owen’s ideas. Examiners don’t want to see chunks of information about Owen’s life or World War I (WWI) unless they are linked to the themes of the poem. The best way to understand context in relation to 'Exposure' is to explore Owen’s ideas about power and conflict. This section has therefore been divided into two of Owen’s most important themes:

• The reality of war
• The power of nature

The reality of war 

• The poem was written in 1917 whilst Owen was fighting in the trenches in WWI
• 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 are combined with description of honest emotions
• World War I is known 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 condition

• 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 destroy a man psychologically, even if it doesn’t kill him physically:

• 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 soldiers on both sides faced extreme temperatures over the years (1914–1918)
• The use of trench warfare in WWI significantly influenced the high death toll
• Life in the trenches was terrible, and disease and death were commonplace:
• Rain would quickly accumulate in the trenches, whilst in winter the 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 soldiers little to no protection:
• They 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 four 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 example 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 nature seems cruelly indifferent, or even malignant
• It seems that a loving, Christian God is non-existent
• The poet suggests that war can lead to a loss of faith in God:
• In the poem, Owen blames God for the suffering caused by the weather. For example, in the line, “Tonight, His frost will fasten on this mud and us”

In your exam, you are asked to compare the ideas and themes explored in two of the poems in your anthology (the one given on the exam paper and one other). That means it’s a good idea to revise pairs of poems together, to understand the similarities and differences in how each poet presents their ideas about conflict in relation to each other. In 'Exposure', Owen’s main themes are the reality of war and the power of nature, so the following comparisons would be a good starting point:

• 'Exposure' and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
• 'Exposure' and 'Extract from The Prelude'

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:

A comparison of these poems enables you to analyse how two different poets present the experience of war. Owen focuses on the futility of the soldiers’ experience, while Tennyson promotes a sense of the bravery and heroism of the fighting men. Despite these differences, both poets ultimately highlight the needlessness of war and emphasise the experiences of the soldiers they depict.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems expose the horrifying reality of war and the resulting suffering and death that inevitably occurs
Evidence and analysis	'Exposure'	'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
	In 'Exposure', Owen emphasises the isolation of the soldiers by their leaders when he states they are “Worried by silence”: This, plus the use of rhetorical questions, implies that the soldiers feel abandoned by the authority that put them there	Tennyson indirectly criticises military leaders’ decisions by stating that “Someone had blunder’d”: 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 knive us” to suggest that the wind is violently attacking the men: This is ironic, as they are waiting for an enemy attack, but practically the only hostile force they encounter is the weather	Tennyson uses the semantic field of a storm to emphasise the violence and power of charging into conflict: Language like “thunder’d” and “storm’d” are repeated in different stanzas
	Wilfred Owen ultimately returned to war, despite having lost hope in the cause he was meant to be fighting for: This reveals his sense of duty, to his comrades and his country	In this poem, the men followed their orders without question, even though they knew it would lead to death: Their sense of duty is emphasised by Tennyson throughout the poem
	Both poems use language that dramatises the brutality and hopelessness of war, but Owen is more openly critical of the decisions that lead to suffering in conflicts

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 he could be more openly critical, due to his first-hand experience of the conditions suffered by the soldiers: Therefore, this poem presents a much more negative picture of the realities of war and conflict	Tennyson was the poet laureate at the time, so it was problematic for him to be outwardly critical of authority: The tone of this poem therefore seems 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: The extreme silence and freezing temperatures are what frighten the men	The sounds in Tennyson’s poem are loud and explosive: The men do not seem to have the opportunity to feel frightened, as they are charging straight into action
	Owen’s language is much more reflective of the soldiers’ lived experience: Language like “merciless”, “twitching agonies” and “misery” convey the brutal reality of trench warfare	Tennyson uses euphemism to disguise the reality of the conflict:  Language like “horse and hero fell” shields readers from the true horrors of war
	Tennyson’s descriptions are intended to make the men seem more heroic, while Owen’s language emphasises the soldiers’ suffering

'Exposure' and 'Extract from The Prelude'

Comparison in a nutshell:

This comparison gives you the opportunity to discuss how Owen and Wordsworth highlight the overwhelming power of nature, and humankind’s inability to control it. Both poems present nature as something to be feared, and use it as a vehicle for their underlying messages about external and internal conflict. 

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems deal with conflicts between humanity and nature, as well as the futility of attempts to control the natural world
Evidence and analysis	'Exposure'	'Extract from The Prelude'
	In 'Exposure', the soldiers’ inability to control nature increases their fear and suffering	In “The Prelude”, the speaker’s inability to control the power of nature is the source of his fear and anxiety
	Owen depicts nature as an all-powerful force, which is in conflict with humanity: 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	Wordsworth depicts his speaker feeling that he is part of nature, until its overwhelming power is revealed: The mountain “Upreared its head” and “like a living thing, / Strode after me”, personifying nature and presenting it as deliberately trying to terrify the speaker
	The speaker describes how the experience of nature has made it feel like a hostile, alien force: The “deadly” air, that “shudders black with snow” makes the soldiers “cringe in holes”	The speaker describes how his experience has made him feel alienated by nature:  He no longer sees “familiar shapes”, but instead is haunted by “huge and mighty forms” that give him nightmares
	Owen shows how the experience of being continually attacked by nature disempowers the soldiers: When the speaker says that “on us the doors are closed”, he conveys the sense that the soldiers are powerless to do anything, except “turn back to our dying.”	Wordsworth also shows how his speaker ends up feeling completely disempowered by his experience: The speaker describes how “o’er my thoughts / There hung a darkness”, demonstrating his inability to control even his own mind
	Both poems show how the experience of nature’s power results in fear, alienation, and a sense of disempowerment

Differences:

Topic sentence	While both poets explore how the power of nature is far greater than human power, they present this in different ways
Evidence and analysis	'Exposure'	'Extract from The Prelude'
	In 'Exposure', the speaker clearly identifies the aspects of nature that oppress the soldiers: The “merciless iced east winds”, the “mad gusts” and the “pale flakes” are real and definable, even when they alienate him	In “The Prelude”, the overwhelming power of nature leads to the speaker’s inability to express his feelings:  He feels a “blank desertion”, and becomes unable to define his world
	Owen’s speaker personifies nature as a female force when he describes the dawn:  The image of her gathering her “melancholy army” presents her as a threatening, foreboding entity	Wordsworth’s speaker also personifies nature as a female force: His description of being “led by her” suggests she has the power to control him, but that her power is benign and nurturing
	The structure of 'Exposure' is cyclical:  The poem ends where it began, with the soldiers in a situation where “nothing happens”, emphasising their sense of stasis	The structure of “The Extract from the Prelude” is also cyclical:  However, when the speaker returns the boat to the “covert of the willow tree”, he has experienced a dramatic psychological change
	Owen uses the semantic field of violence to emphasise his theme of suffering:  The winds “knive” the soldiers, and the weather is shown “tugging” and “shrivelling”	Wordsworth uses the semantic field of magic to describe nature as a mystical force:  The patterns of water on the lake are “glittering” and “sparkling”
	For Owen, the deadly force of nature emphasises his theme of suffering, but for Wordsworth, nature’s power can be overwhelming but is ultimately benign