Exposure begins with the words "our brains ache" and it is set during the Great War in January 1917, it seems that the poem is referring to a situation of attrition. Whereas it is symbolizing the freezing winds that gust across the area of no mans land in which Wilfred Owen is stranded to which he refers. This idea of the wind being personified as "merciless" and "knifing" is carried through the entire poem. Although Exposure is written as a poem it is also similar to a letter, in that it is written in the same style as those he sent to his mother. The aspect of letter writing in trench life would have been a getaway from the dangers that occurred each day. The rhyme scheme represents the decay of a soldier's state of mind and the unremitting repetition of the monotony suffered every day. Owen does not keep to the same scheme throughout and this also emphasizes chaos of war, and furthermore the breakdown of the soldier's.
The poem continues, "The night is silent" the ellipses here suggests something has been left out, as if whilst writing the poem Owen has had to stop suddenly because of the threat of the Germans. An ellipsis is also shown on the next line "memory of the salient- this time it adds the air of imagination and leaves the reader confused as the line states "Low, drooping flares confuse our memory". The opening paragraph then ends with the line "But nothing happens"; this is used four times during the poem and refers to the weather. Nothing happens because it is too cold. The Germans as well as the Allies are so cold that they cannot pull the trigger on their guns. It is also used because of the situation of attrition, nothing is actually happening. This line is bathos as each of the four paragraphs it is used in progresses up to this point and lead up to something big only to be let down.
Wilfred Owen stresses the fact that the soldiers are bored with the same activities each day.
