Exposure - Wilfred Owen

What is the poem about

war can be exhausting and the freezing conditions and the boredom are the real enemy

Key quotes

• “merciless iced east winds that knive us”

• “sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”

• “is it that we are dying”

• “slowly our ghosts drag home”

• “but nothing happens”

Form And Structure

• Consistent rhyme scheme allows every fifth line to stand out which emphasises the overall messgae

• consistency of the rhyme scheme and the stanza siz reflects the monotony of war

• underlying feeling of unease created by the pararhyme

• cyclical structure - but nothing happens

• refrains throughout

Themes

• Fear

• effects of conflict

• reality of conflict

• nature

• loss and suffering

• conflict in wartime

Poems for comparrison

the charge of the light bridage