Stanzas: The Dominant Elements

Exposure - Language, tone and structure
A reading of 'Exposure'
Wilfred Owens poem focuses on the misery felt by World War One soldiers
waiting overnight in the trenches. Although nothing is happening and there
is no fighting, there is still danger because they are exposed to the extreme
cold and their wait through the night is terrifying. The eight stanzas are
gripping because the speaker describes the trauma of living and struggling
in such poor conditions. There is a sense of despair and of lost hope.
The immediate and repeated use of the pronouns our and we show that
Owen is describing a situation he was part of. The individual is sharing in the
collective suffering and horror of the war. The poet has a sense of injustice
about the way the soldiers are being treated. If being exposed to gunfire
does not kill them, then exposure to the brutal weather conditions might do.
Alongside the more obvious meanings of the title, there is also the idea that
Owen has set out to expose the conditions the soldiers have experienced to
the world.
By repeating the phrase But nothing happens, the poem emphasises the
agony of waiting and that war is not all about action. By the end of the
poem there is a sense of hopelessness and despair where the men see their
deaths as inevitable. The poets tone is deliberately provoking and emotive
language is used with the intention of involving and even upsetting the
reader.
Language in ExposureThe dominant elementsAlliteration and

personificationAssonanceToneStructure and versification in
ExposureRhymeRhythm
Language in Exposure
The dominant elements
Owens choice of words in Exposure powerfully, but simply, describes the
extremes to which he and his men were exposed for two days. The poem is
dominated by words from the semantic field of the weather, most of which
are qualified by terms with negative associations:
iced east winds l.1
mad gusts l.6
rain soaks l.12
clouds sag stormy l.12
Dawn massing in the east l.13
ranks of grey (cloud) l.14
air .. black with snow l.17
flowing flakes (snow) l.18
the winds nonchalance l.19
Pale flakes (snow) l.21
snow-dazed l.22
frost l.36
ice l.39
Alliteration and personification

Owen heightens our awareness of the conditions under which the men suffer
by his use of alliteration, further emphasised by his personification of the
elements.
The east winds are merciless and icy. The sibilant ss combined with hard
consonants d and t create a cutting, bitter edge to the elements which
knife the men, leaving us in no doubt about the pain they intentionally
inflict l.1. In l.6 the gusts of wind are personified as mad, their auditory
quality conveyed by the short g sound of tugging on the wire, suggesting
the catching action. The wind is also human in its indifference, its
nonchalance in the face of suffering l.19.
In much fiction, the coming of dawn is a motif for the arrival of hope. Here
however, Dawn only brings another day of poignant misery l.11. It is
personified as a weary female war commander, massing her melancholy
army l.13, the alliteration creating a sense of oppression. The army
of clouds is like German army uniforms and German tanks: grey, stormy
and lined up in rank upon shivering rank, ready to attack.
Owen demonstrates how even the snow-flakes appear to make conscious
decisions about where they will settle / whom they will attack - they flock,
pause and renew l.18 their advance. The flakes have fingers which feel for
the faces of the men l.21. Collectively, the wintry elements are as much an
enemy on the attack as are the Germans.
As with the opening of the poem, in lines 12-14 Owen again combines
sibilance with hard consonants to create a desolate atmosphere, with
lasts, soaks, clouds sag stormy, massing, east, attacks, ranks
and shivering. This continues in the next stanza as:
Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. l.16
and the air shudders with snow l.17. Both are deadly.
Owen juxtaposes the sibilance of the bullets with the light yet lethal f
sound of the flakes of snow in stanzas four and five. Though gentle, the
penetrating cold of the snow sends the men into dazed reveries that also
torment them Shutters and doors all closed: on us l.29 where Owen
re-employs the harsh sibilance technique.
Assonance
Owen frequently uses assonance to emphasise the mood of the narrative. In
l.11-12, the long oh of grow, only know and soaks draws out the painful
process of the days awakening. The same long sounds in l.26 Slowly,
ghosts, home and glozed convey the extended effort required by snownumbed spirits to engage with a world beyond their current environment,
such slow reactions being typical of the onset of hypothermia. The effort
wasnt worth it everything was closed l.29.
By contrast, Owen links positive words by an expansive long I sound in
kind fires l.31, smile and child l.32, for which the men lie in their
defence l.34.
Tone
Like so many of the later poems, Owens tone in this poem is one of
helplessness and despair. Suffering appears to be pointless.
Owen presents us with a picture of communal endurance and courage. He is
one with his men: our brains ache l.1, we keep awake l.2, we cringe in
holes l.22. He also shares in his comrades dream of home and spirit of selfsacrifice: not loath, we lie out here l.34.
Yet he also questions what on earth they are achieving: What are we doing
here? l.10, Is it that we are dying? l.25. Nothing is being achieved by the
mens sacrifice, Nothing happens. l.5,15,20,40.
Investigating language and tone in Exposure
Owen describes the weather as the enemy in Exposure. Make a list of

the words and phrases Owen uses about the weather
in Exposure which are linked directly to war.
How does Owen use the contrast between cold and warmth to create
the pity of war in this poem?
Structure and versification in Exposure

Each of Owens eight stanzas ends with a short half line. In the first, third,
fourth and final verses Owen creates the burden: But nothing happens.
Each of the short, last lines in the remaining stanzas has a story of its own
to tell. When written or read out these lines read:
What are we doing here?
Is it that we are dying?
We turn back to our dying.
For love of God is dying.
The first question is answered by the second, which prompts the action of
the third. The penultimate verse ends poignantly and perhaps ambiguously.
Here on the field of battle the men make Christ-like sacrifices for those they
love. Yet Owen suggests the love of God for them, and their faith in God,
seems to have died.
Rhyme
Owens use of pararhyme is clearly developed in Exposure. The sounds

create discord and challenge our expectation, yet Owen uses a regular
pattern of ab ba, which creates the sense of stasis. Nothing changes in the
rhyming pattern, nothing happens on the front.
The action is all in the rhymes:
knife us / nervous l.1,4: The attack of the wind may mask the
attack of the human enemy, causing fear
silent / salient l.2,3: The sleepless anxiety caused by the utter quiet
of the night makes the men forget the important features of the battle
field
Wire/war l.2/l.3 Owen pulls together the minutiae of conflict - the

barbed wire l.6 with the collective noun war l.9 which consolidates
the whole horror
Brambles/rumbles l.7/l.8 Owen takes his image from nature but

succeeds in showing us the barbs on the wire. Again a small detail is
set against the distant booming of artillery fire
Dawn is seen to grow and also become grey l.11,14 and in an

almost comic rhyme her clouds sag stormy l.12 which constitute her
melancholy army l.13.
Silence l.16 half rhymes with good effect with nonchalance l.19 and
emphasises the carelessness of nature
Snow feels the faces l.21 and from this Owen makes the transition to
dreams of warmth and an English late Spring as snow dazed men
become sun dozed where the blackbird fusses l. 24
The fires of home are glozed l.26, a mixture of the words glazed
and glowed but only lead onto doors that close. These fires burn
but not for the men who were born to die.
Finally the collective pronoun us become the eyes of ice l.36,39. Notice a
half pun within this line: the eyes are ice which almost sounds as if each
was interchangeable - a symbol of the nihilism of death where everything
becomes nothing. The onomatopoeic crisp and grasp of lines 37 and 38
tell of the final actions of the weather and of the burial party.
Rhythm
Within each stanza, four lengthy lines set the scene and tell what story there
is to tell. Often they are hexameters but Owen frequently adds extra
syllables or whole metrical feet, and does not use a consistent metre,
perhaps representing how snow-dazed minds struggle to stay orderly.
One short line punctuates the narrative with the reality: but nothing
happens l.5. This serves as a contrast to the huge events which are to do
with dying: the death of men, of hope, of belief and of the love of God.
Investigating structure and versification in Exposure
The burden of Exposure is carried by the short half line at the end of
each stanza. How does the pathos of each hanging line contribute to
the pity of war expressed through the poem?
How does Owens use of pararhyme in Exposure contribute to the

poems power?

Stanzas: The Dominant Elements

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Stanzas: The Dominant Elements

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Exposure - Language, tone and structure

Language in ExposureThe dominant elementsAlliteration and

iced east winds l.1

mad gusts l.6

rain soaks l.12

clouds sag stormy l.12

Dawn massing in the east l.13

ranks of grey (cloud) l.14

air .. black with snow l.17

flowing flakes (snow) l.18

the winds nonchalance l.19

Pale flakes (snow) l.21

Alliteration and personification

Owen describes the weather as the enemy in Exposure. Make a list of

Structure and versification in Exposure

What are we doing here?

Is it that we are dying?

We turn back to our dying.

For love of God is dying.

Owens use of pararhyme is clearly developed in Exposure. The sounds

Wire/war l.2/l.3 Owen pulls together the minutiae of conflict - the

Brambles/rumbles l.7/l.8 Owen takes his image from nature but

Dawn is seen to grow and also become grey l.11,14 and in an

How does Owens use of pararhyme in Exposure contribute to the

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