Exposure

What happens?

This narrative poem tells the first hand perspecitve of trench warfare in WWI. The conditions that the soldiers are in are clearly desperate showing signs of exhaustion and frostbite. We are told about the endlessness and torment of the silence and lack of anything actually happening. The weather is presented as the true danger to the soldiers, creating an ironic tone given the peril they are in.There is a loss of faith towards the end of the poem as the emotional and spiritual torment of war is seen as equally, if not more, devastating than the physical impacts. Finally, we see the gruesome reality of war as the frozen bodies of soldiers are dug out of the earth.

What is it about?

The poem is meant to give a true depiction of WWI, something that the poet - Owen - had first hand experiences of. It shows the brutal conditions…