4.1.1

Summary

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Summary and Context of Exposure

The poem is written from the point of view of a WW1 soldier describing living through the misery, boredom and icy weather conditions during a night in the trenches. The weather is presented as the real enemy of the soldiers.

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Title

  • The title could refer to the weather that the soldiers are ‘expos[ed]’.
  • However, Owen is also “expos[ing]” the harsh, undignified aspects of conflict that are never portrayed in propaganda or poems glorifying war.
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Poet

  • Wilfred Owen is one of the most well-known WW1 poets who was famously anti-war.
  • He fought in the war and this poem is a realistic, unheroic portrayal of fighting.
  • Owen went to war on two occasions and was killed on the second.

Key Ideas in Exposure

Owen portrays a soldier freezing in the trenches as he waits for an attack. Through this, he reveals the brutality of war that is less well-publicised. The poem explores the agony of waiting and the pain and suffering inflicted on soldiers by the elements.

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Misery in war

  • As with other poems by Owen, the poem focuses on aspects of war that are not glamorous.
  • Unlike the propaganda materials that focused on the glory, that war would bring to the soldiers and the heroes they would become, this poem reveals the horrific day-to-day misery experienced by those who went to war.
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Loss of humanity

  • There is a sense that the men lose their humanity and dignity. This is suggested through phrases such as “Slowly, our ghosts drag home” and “we cringe in holes”.
  • This depiction is the antithesis (opposite) to images of heroism soldiers would have seen before the war.
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Pointlessness of war

  • The pointlessness of war is emphasised throughout. The speaker in the poem seems to have lost sight of what he is fighting for.
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Weather and boredom

  • The weather and boredom are presented as the real enemy of the soldiers.
  • The soldiers are anxious and afraid and each new day brings no hope but more misery and despair.
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Lasting effects of war

  • The speaker hints at the fact that war changes the soldiers irreversibly as they no longer fit in when they return home.
  • The negative consequences of war are lasting.

Jump to other topics

1Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

2London - William Blake (1757-1827)

3Storm on the Island - Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

4Exposure - Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

5War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955)

6My Last Duchess - Robert Browning (1812-1889)

7The Prelude - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

8Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred Tennyson

9Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes (1930-1998)

10Poppies - Jane Weir (Born 1963)

11Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker (Born 1954)

12The Emigree - Carol Rumens (Born 1944)

13Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland (Born 1938)

14Checking Out Me History - John Agard (Born 1949)

15Remains - Simon Armitage (Born 1963)

16Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons

16.1Grade 9 - Themes & Comparisons

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