Exposure, By Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen’s poem, exposure, conveys the harsh realities of trench warfare. He highlights the fact that although there might be not be any immediate danger from the enemy, mother nature is a dangerous force to contend with. The first line of the poem ‘Our brains ache’, informs the reader that the soldiers are physically in pain as well as possibly developing physiological issues such as ptsd. Other sentences such as ‘We cringe in holes’ conveys to the reader that the soldiers are like scared animals hiding in their burrows.

Owen also uses the structure of the poem to enlighten the reader of the conditions of the warfare to the reader. At the end of each stanza, Owen makes the line shorter than others to emphasise the point of that line.