Senior Poetry: Exposure

"Although many writers have glanced at Wilfred Owen's ideas of poetic truth, no one has fully defined and documented them; no one has followed him through the profound mental and spiritual struggles in which he was led to reject the kind of poetry which he had once most admired; no one has succeeded in fully correlating his final concept of truth, arrived at through agony and disillusion, with the concept found in his earlier poems. . . ."

"For many generations now, Wilfred Owen has been held up as the archetypal war poet, a compelling protester against the inhumanity of World War One and civilian delusions about it, who at 25 was tragically cut down a week before the armistice was signed. In his famous "Preface" to his poems, Owen assigned himself the role of witness to "the pity of War," providing a warning of war's truth for the next generation; to a large extent he succeeded since our perception of World War One, and perhaps of all war, has been indelibly impressed by his truth. Owing to his success, his poems have typically been read as personal only insofar as they convey experience directly related to the battlefront ... "

"In the early months of 1918 Owen decided on the subject of his poetry, stating it in his Preface in the spring as 'War, and the pity of war'. In settling on the subject of 'pity' he was returning to the beliefs of the Romantics, although he was no doubt also influenced by Hardy and the new direction in Sassoon's work ... "

"Wilfred Owen enlisted with the Artists' Rifles and began his army training in October 1915. He had recently returned to England after two years teaching in France, first at the Berlitz School in Bordeaux and then as a free-lance tutor. In 1915 he was twenty-two and he already thought of himself as a poet, though he had published nothing. In a letter in June he mentions having found in Belloc a quotation from Alfred de Vigny: 'If any man despairs of becoming a Poet, let him carry his pack and march in the ranks' (Collected Letters, p. 342).1 It was an ambiguous piece of advice ... "

"The name and the genius of Wilfred Owen were first revealed by the publication of his finest poem, “Strange Meeting,” in the anthology Wheels a year ago. I still remember the incredible shock of that encounter, the sudden, profound stirring by the utterance of a true poet. Since that time other fragments of Owen's work have been made known, and if none so evidently bore the impress of poetic mastery as “Strange Meeting,” they were a part of that achievement. We could be sure that when the promised volume of his poetry appeared it would be single, coherent, and unique ... "

"Like many of the poets and artists of his time, Wilfred Owen professed a strong interest in the theater and supposedly drafted a play while recovering from shell shock in Craiglockhart military hospital in 1917, although no manuscript has appeared. Owen’s letters, which have been collected, deserve mention for two reasons. First, the style reflects both the poetic temper of the man and the adherence to detail reflective of an age of correspondence that will probably never return. Second, and perhaps more important, Owen’s letters record the transitions typical of most British soldiers who survived on the front for a long time: from resolve to do the soldier’s duty, to disgust, fear, and depression, to the solemn acceptance of fate that extended service produced ... "

"“Exposure” examines the sensations of soldiers slowly freezing to death in the trenches of World War I in a poem of forty lines divided into eight stanzas. The persona of the poem adopts the identity of all the soldiers as they huddle against the wind and snow on the war front waiting for something to happen. As the cold sets in, sentries and ordinary soldiers watch confusing flares in the frontline fortification from which they have withdrawn for the night. Gusts of wind moan on the barbed wire of no-man’s-land like dying men, while guns rumble in the distance, apocalyptic portents of other possible wars. The numb soldiers ask, “What are we doing here?” but nothing happens ... "

""Exposure" is a poem written by the English poet and soldier Wilfred Owen. Owen wrote "Exposure" in 1918, but it wasn't published until 1920, after Owen's death in World War I. Like most of Owen's poetry, "Exposure" deals with the topic of war. "Exposure" specifically focuses on the sheer monotony of daily life for many soldiers, as well as the harsh conditions they must endure (that is, be "exposed" to) even when not on the battlefield. This suffering is made all the more devastating given the fact that, in the speaker's mind, war seems to accomplish nothing on a larger scale (which is an idea Owen frequently espouses in his work) ... "

"Wilfred Owen’s 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 ... "