Exposure Analysis

Exposure depicts a true vision of what the war was like for the soldiers fighting in it, and how much it differentiated from the propaganda used to motivated and recruit new young soldiers on this new life that they will have abroad fighting in 'The Great War' for their country. The poem constantly repeats "But nothing happens" which indicates how the soldiers such as Owen himself spent most of their time waiting for something to happen in the trenches to help the time pass and save them from the insanity of boredom; creating a contrast between the constant fighting and battles they were told they would be apart of. Alternatively this could mean that this relates to the weather set in the poem "Our brains ache, in the merciless east winds that knife us." and how this cold has almost made them frozen in time, like they are already dead. Waiting for something to make them come to life and be human once again. Owen suggests that the weather is more dangerous than the war itself through his use of language. "Shrivelling many hands and puckering foreheads crisp." suggesting that each night the men are exposed to these harsh conditions more and more die just from the weather alone, slowly being withered away to death by the cold that is personified to be Death.