Wilfred Owen's Exposure focuses on the harsh, relentless conditions faced by soldiers in the trenches during World War I. Owen highlights the deadly power of nature as the true enemy. Themes of suffering, hopelessness and futility run throughout the poem.
Futility - serving no useful purpose; ineffective
Trench - a long, narrow ditch used in warfare
Personification - representation of a thing or abstraction as a person
Suffering - a pain endured
Despair - utter loss of hope
Wilfred Owen examines the concept of the dehumanisation of soldiers in World War One by deglamourising and dethroning war, and graphically depicting the debilitating effects of nature's 'melancholy army' on their chances of survival.
Owen was aware that his generation was living through horrors. It was so horrific that poetry was needed to describe the realities of war. He reinforces that 'nothing happens', highlighting that nothing is achieved by them being there. There is no honour in death. Instead, soldiers experience a slow, excruciating death, inflicted upon them by the power of nature.
Owen opens with an image of utmost brutality. It has connotations of stabbing and extreme pain. The enemies in the east are on a more metaphorical level. 'Us' is placed on a new line to highlight the vulnerability of the soldiers.
Owen's consistent use of ellipsis creates a sense of foreboding. It could be argued that it symbolises a sense of urgency felt within the soldiers. They are trained for war but they are waiting, fighting the cold.
This is a personification of snow. Owen hints that nature itself is targeting the soldiers. They don't even realise the extent to which the cold is killing them. It draws attention to the excruciating pain that the delicate flakes can actually cause.
War shatters the faith of the men. They have mentally and physically changed. In the horrors that they have seen, there is an absence of goodness. The cold is ageing them and they are unable to recognise themselves.
Representative of the unimaginable suffering they are expected to endure. It demonstrates how their lives have been snatched from them. The soldiers are dying and yet 'nothing happens' as a result. They are left to follow the orders of those deemed superior.
The irregular ABBA rhyme scheme creates a sense of stasis to emphasise their unchanging lives.
Repetition is used to emphasise the futility.
Para-rhymes unsettle the reader.