Analysing the Poem "Exposure"

Exposure to War

Wilfred Owen is a complex poet. His wartime poems have proven to be influential to those seeking to view conflict from an insider’s perspective. Unfortunately that perspective is anything but pleasant. In his poem Exposure, he explains the horror of war and the effects on those involved. In order to properly dissect the meaning of Owens poem, one must refer the ideals of New Criticism. By analyzing the word usage, imagery, figures of speech and those connotations (Bressler 62), Owens motivation behind the writing of Exposure can be clearly outlined. Key phrases and continued themes create a means of connection throughout the piece. With this the connotations referred to relate to the loss of one’s self. Throughout the poem the mind of a soldier is lost to his experiences. The death of men becomes second to the death of the mind. As explained through the fear of the elements rather than the fear of the enemy, in war a soldiers body is sent back to the earth, but each man’s soul has already long since passed. The poem begins with soldiers waiting for a fight. The silence of the night and chill of the air are the cause for the phrase “Our brains ache.” Almost as though the psyche of each man is slowly decaying as they wait for action. The end of the first stanza states “ But nothing happens.” Being the first concluding line, the reader begins to realize the anxiety of the simple action of waiting.
As the poem moves forward, the men continue to wait. “Mad gusts tugging on a wire” being juxtaposed to soldiers watching and hearing fighting in the distance. The use of the word tugging in this instance creates a deep sense of struggle among those being watched but also in the minds of the watchers. The constant tension of silence allows for the phrase “What are we doing here?” which asks the question, if we aren’t fighting, why are we away from home expecting to die? The poem begins to deepen in meaning as images are strewn together to represent different aspects of war as well as a soldiers mind. This ongoing depth brings about a loss of reality within the men who are fighting. As “Poignant dawn” approaches the break of the night’s silence lies in mystery. Yet as the soldiers unwillingly anticipate the break of day, Owen reveals a comparison of night and day. Day as it has in the past forms “in the east her melancholy army.” Melancholy is connected with what most would think of as a pleasant site; the break of day. But in wartime a new day means yet another possible fight or another possible death. As the cycle of day and night passes a droll is created within the mind of a soldier. This droll is constantly negative, never showing signs of peace. This is yet another contribution to the deterioration of a soldier’s sanity. Suddenly what seems to be fighting ensues as “Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.” What is interesting about this sentence is the use of streak and silence. It is known that the soldiers have waited for a fight, but it doesn’t explain a sense of startled adrenaline, its as almost the routine fighting leaves the soldier un-phased because he knows it doesn’t last long. The shots fired are then compared to the stunned silence that the reader has seen thus far. The bullets seem to be less deadly compared to the cold air and the insensate snowfall. Alliteration is also used when Owen writes, “flowing flakes that flock” which emphasizes not only the strength of the storm but also how repetitive it has become. Again until this point in the poem, most stanzas have concluded with the phrase “But still nothing happens.” At this point the reader understands that each soldier isn’t necessarily waiting for a fight as seen previously. Because each moment of silence and each elemental aspect of war’s surroundings are emphasized, a conclusion can be made that the soldiers are in fact waiting for death. As fighting ensues, men of war continue to lose themselves. “Pale flakes with lingering stealth come feeling for our faces. We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed.” As men dig their foxholes, they hide from snowflakes. Flakes that not only represent the conditions of warfare, but the incessant exposure to the fatalities of war continue to haunt soldiers. The lay out of the final sentence above creates a sense of lost innocence and lost love. They are cringing on forgotten dreams. Dreams of home and of who they once were fade, as the soldiers are lost in the daze of war. War that is waiting, suffering, and the unknown. When the words “stare” and “snow-dazed” are used in brings about thoughts of insanity. Thinking of a mental patient, staring into a white distance with no feelings of past or future in ones eyes. The color white itself is also connected with asylums; all white rooms and straight jackets restraining the deranged, lost souls of damaged humans. The final realization comes to a head. “Is it that we are dying?” Thus the mind of a soldier is lost. The concluding stanzas of the poem relate earlier themes and images to a more dreary, offset group of ideas. The line “Ghosts drag home,” explains that once all is said and done only a shadow of ones self may remain, weary of its experience. “Shutters and doors all close,” explains that house, the life and the domesticity that once resided in the minds of those fighting has now left the psyche. The negativity continues, relating back to the treachery of dawn, God and light all together become images of death. Owen writes, “Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn.” Kind fires remind the reader of a hearth, and the warmth of a nuclear family; the break of dawn and the warm of the sun’s rays waking all that is. Now non-existent in those minds tainted by war. God is often connected to the sun. Sun creates life thus God lives through the sun. “Gods invincible spring our love is made afraid.” Thus spring, which the sun created, is now set to shame by the fear of fire and the fear of life. The mental incapacity to recover what positive connotations were lost within the life of a soldier renders life useless. The final stanza of the poem sends the dead soldiers back to the earth, that from which they came from. Owen connects the death of a man in battle to the natural order in life. “His frost will fasten on this mud and us.” Looking back to the snowflakes representing death, it has finally taken over, sending soldiers back to the mud. The final sentence states, “Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice, But nothing happens.” Again a recurring image appears. That snow-dazed look in a soldier’s eye is now iced. Insanity has taken over. Even though a man may have died, his soul was lost in the bowels of war amidst the silence and in the depths of the trenches long before his body was killed. The final statement that has reoccurred throughout the poem refers to the lack of life residing in the eye of man during wartime. Wilfred Owens has created a dismal outlook on the life of a soldier. Similarly, the renowned poet Edward Thomas creates images of wartime strife. In his work, Head-brass, he explains the view of war from a citizen’s perspective. Both poems share similar images, linked through nature and looming conflict. The insights of New Criticism allow both poems to share influential meaning. In Head-brass, there are two particular images that can be directly related to ones found in Exposure. The first being the blizzard. A storm of deadly proportion lays ruin the farm owned by working men. “In France they killed him. It was back in March, the very night of the blizzard, too.” Here the blizzard represents the death of a friend as well as the beginning of war. As in exposure where the frost and the flakes fallen with stealth represent the death of man. The blizzard also relates to the clouds represented in Exposure. The clouds are the silence and looming doom. The create loss amongst those fighting and bring about fear in those fighting beneath them. Similarly the blizzard hangs over the farmer’s head like a long waited judgment day, waiting for men to die. The second image draws parallels between both poems is that of the “stumbling team” and the word “we.” At the end of Thomas’s poem he writes, “The horses started and for the last time.” The horses upon which the team rides and relies on have now gone out for their last ride. The fraise “stumbling team” implies that the men who once represented consistent work now began to stumble and break down. The horses have plowed their last field as the men who drive them begin to wash away in the bowels of war. Owens also talks about a team of men. “We” are the soldiers who fight and die; yet as the war goes on they slowly break down until they have dissipated into nothing. What once was a loving, working, respectable man is now replaced by the travesties of war in both instances. Both poems serve to explain how war not only tares apart the lifestyle of those inhabitants, but the souls of all those involved; domestic or violent.