Exposure
BY WILFRED OWEN Pale flakes with fingering
faces— *
Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that We cringe in holes, back
knive us . . . stare, snow-dazed,
Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . . Deep into grassier ditche
Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the Littered with blossoms tr
salient . . . fusses.
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, —Is it that we are dy
But nothing happens.
* Slowly our ghosts drag h
Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire, glozed
Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles. With crusted dark-red jew
Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles, For hours the innocent m
Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war. Shutters and doors, all c
What are we doing here? closed,—
We turn back to our
The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .
We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag Since we believe not oth
stormy. * Now ever suns smile tru
Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army For God's invincible spri
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey, Therefore, not loath, we
But nothing happens. born,
For love of God see
Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. *
Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow, Tonight, this frost will fas
With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and Shrivelling many hands,
renew, The burying-party, picks
We watch them wandering up and down the wind's Pause over half-known f
nonchalance, But nothing happens
But nothing happens.
STRUCTURE
Owen believed I
men
The reality of war is that a
mattitudes to the war
war was futile
↳ In WWI With lots of trenc
and pointless
seen adrenaline and expectatio
Y
war was
↳
as brave and happen (heightened emoti
CONTEXT
the poem is
monourable
also an exposure
Each Stanza begins with
t
of truth to a
the British public -originally Followed by highly emotiv
*
Of the Marsh pursued a ↳ heightens the tension to
realities of war wilfred owen career in
in After dramatically heighte
died the Church
battle
E
t ends with an anti-climax
(NOV 4th ↳ Owen wants the reader
joined the British
1918) and understand their em
Army in 1915
BY WILFRED OWEN Pale flakes with fingering
faces— *
Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that We cringe in holes, back
knive us . . . stare, snow-dazed,
Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . . Deep into grassier ditche
Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the Littered with blossoms tr
salient . . . fusses.
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, —Is it that we are dy
But nothing happens.
* Slowly our ghosts drag h
Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire, glozed
Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles. With crusted dark-red jew
Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles, For hours the innocent m
Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war. Shutters and doors, all c
What are we doing here? closed,—
We turn back to our
The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .
We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag Since we believe not oth
stormy. * Now ever suns smile tru
Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army For God's invincible spri
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey, Therefore, not loath, we
But nothing happens. born,
For love of God see
Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. *
Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow, Tonight, this frost will fas
With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and Shrivelling many hands,
renew, The burying-party, picks
We watch them wandering up and down the wind's Pause over half-known f
nonchalance, But nothing happens
But nothing happens.
STRUCTURE
Owen believed I
men
The reality of war is that a
mattitudes to the war
war was futile
↳ In WWI With lots of trenc
and pointless
seen adrenaline and expectatio
Y
war was
↳
as brave and happen (heightened emoti
CONTEXT
the poem is
monourable
also an exposure
Each Stanza begins with
t
of truth to a
the British public -originally Followed by highly emotiv
*
Of the Marsh pursued a ↳ heightens the tension to
realities of war wilfred owen career in
in After dramatically heighte
died the Church
battle
E
t ends with an anti-climax
(NOV 4th ↳ Owen wants the reader
joined the British
1918) and understand their em
Army in 1915
