Exposure commentary by Priyanka

Wilfred Owen’s “Exposure” expresses what young soldiers’ minds and bodies were ‘exposed’ to in the mindless manslaughter of trench warfare in the First World War. Owen also looks to convey the tyranny of nature to an extent where it surpasses even that of war. Imagery and anthropomorphism, therefore, play a great role in bringing nature to life. In this essay, I hope to explore the literary techniques that Owen employs to highlight themes such as bewilderment, hopelessness and man versus nature.

The first stanza establishes the setting of the poem and its general mood: a kind of stillness and numbness. This is ironic as in a battlefield for a setting the last thing the reader would expect is stillness. The very first phrase, “our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us” has the connotation of being an experienced army that has been subjected to so much that it is now too numb to even react. Diction such as “wearied” and “low drooping flares” adds to the effect of tiredness and stillness. Most importantly, the first stanza ends with “but nothing happens”. This makes all the actions described previously in the stanza seem senseless and almost foolish for they have no real end or result. Owen clearly presents the bewilderment and tiredness of the soldiers and the mindlessness of war.

Apart from the mood and setting, the first stanza also reveals the man versus nature theme in which lies the true meaning of the title “Exposure”. The first line describes the east winds as “merciless” and “iced” and they “knife us [them]”. There is a connotation of familiarity and thus the conclusion that the soldiers are tired and almost unreactive now that they have experienced the same thing for so long. It is ironic that the soldiers are “worried by silence” of the night because usually, a silent night is a sign of peace and quiet. This worry is expressed in the form of whispers amongst sentries which is brought to life by sibilance. Diction such as “merciless”, “iced”, “east”, “whisper”, “curious”, “nervous”, etc facilitate the success of the literary technique.

As we proceed into the next stanza, the man versus nature theme takes better form. Owen uses the combination of a rather disturbing simile and imagery to express the force of the wind the soldiers are exposed to. The “mad gusts tugging on the wire”, that is, barbed wire, is compared to the “twitching agonies of men among its brambles”. With this unsettling visual image, Owen expresses the sentiment of being trapped in this war where soldiers have no choice but to be continuously exposed to the nature’s antics. The image of the barbed wire makes the attack of nature seem more torturous and horrific. At the end of this stanza, Owen once again slips back into simply discarding all that has just happened and asking the simple question: “What are we doing here?”. The reader begins to experience the poem as a refrain where, like a chorus, Owen seems to return repeatedly to the senselessness of war.

Once more, ironically, like the night the dawn is a source of weariness for the soldiers. Anthropomorphism is used to personify Dawn as a commander of an army whose aim is to defeat the soldiers. Dawn is referred to as “massing in the east of her melancholy army” and attacking once more “in ranks on shivering ranks of gray”. Here, Owen toys with an interesting idea. By calling the opposition a “melancholy army” and also referring to them as “ranks”, he implies that the opposing army is also tired and depressed by war. Since neither side want to truly be involved in war, it is an unnecessary activity.

While the reader begins to reach some conclusions, the action of the setting is changed entirely and the man versus nature theme becomes more aggressive. As “sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”, it begins to snow. However, the army find bullets less deadly than the snow. “The air that shudders black with snow” shows the army’s real disdain towards nature and the hyperbole of preferring bullets over snow flakes accentuates this emotion. “Pale flakes with lingering stealth” is again, an anthropomorphism that makes the snowflakes seem scheming and intentionally vicious.

The powerlessness of the soldiers against these vicious snowflakes is seen as they “cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams”. The terms “snow-dazed” and “sun-dozed” seem to be a play on the word “bulldozed” that imply the equal deadliness of nature. As they try to save their faces from the biting cold, they are “littered in blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses”. This is an example of contrast. Usually, the visual and auditory imagery of blossoms and blackbirds is pleasant but inserted into this context, they show exactly how disenchanted and blind soldiers are to the beauty of nature anymore.

Finally, the tragedy of the poem is made more explicit as the soldiers state, “Is it that we are dying?”. From this point, the theme of hopelessness becomes most apparent. As their “ghosts drag home”, they are aware that they must stay outside of the safety of the trench and fight both nature and the enemy. “Shutters and doors are closed: on us all the doors are closed” is extremely saddening. The reader can almost feel the desperation of the soldiers to get out of the cold and bullets and into the relative comfort of their trenches. As this fails, “ we turn back to our dying” shows a submission to circumstances and the ultimate loss of hope.

The concluding stanzas of the poem continue with the same streak of submission to a hopeless situation. Even faith in God is lost as the soldiers claim that the “love of God seems dying”. Once this truth is established, the poem then takes a casual tone towards death. “His frost will fasten on this mud and us, shriveling many hands and puckering foreheads crisp” appears, like the beginning lines of the poem, to be the words of soldiers that have rehearsed discomfort and death repeatedly.

Having skillfully explored the inhumanity of war, Owen dabbles in how emotion is slowly sucked out of even soldiers over a long period of service. As men bury other men with a “shaking grasp” and pause over “half-known faces”, “their eyes are ice”. They are slowly being rid of the ability to feel.

Emotionally, Owen’s “Exposure” travels from numbness to exhaustion to hopelessness and a pure submission to the hopelessness of circumstances. Each stage is accentuated by the Man versus Nature theme. Using powerful imagery, diction and most importantly, anthropomorphism, Owen emotionally engages the reader in the struggles of soldiers such as himself that were ‘exposed’ to the mental and physical torture of the First World War.