Exposure by Wilfred Owen

Exposure

by Wilfred Owen

I

Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us . . .
Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . .
Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . .
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
But nothing happens.

Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire.
Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
Northward incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,
Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.
What are we doing here?

The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .
We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.
Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of gray,
But nothing happens.

Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.
Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,
With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause and renew,
We watch them wandering up and down the wind’s nonchalance,
But nothing happens.

II

Pale flakes with lingering stealth come feeling for our faces?
We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed,
Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,
Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.
Is it that we are dying?

Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires glozed
With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;
For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;
Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed?
We turn back to our dying.

Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;
Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.
For God’s invincible spring our love is made afraid;
Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,
For love of God seems dying.

To-night, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,
Shrivelling many hands and puckering foreheads crisp.
The burying-party, picks and shovels in their shaking grasp,
Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
But nothing happens.

36 thoughts on “Exposure by Wilfred Owen”

  1. This design is incredible! You definitely know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!

  2. Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different internet browsers and both show the same results.

  3. Great – I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your website. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs and related info ended up being truly easy to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, website theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Excellent task..

  4. Nice post. I learn something tougher on different blogs everyday. It’ll at all times be stimulating to read content material from different writers and apply a bit of one thing from their store. I’d favor to make use of some with the content on my blog whether you don’t mind. Natually I’ll provide you with a hyperlink in your internet blog. Thanks for sharing.

  5. The other day, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it can survive a 25 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now destroyed and she has 83 views. I know this is entirely off topic but I had to share it with someone!

  6. I want to convey my affection for your kind-heartedness for folks that have the need for guidance on the theme. Your personal dedication to getting the solution throughout had become exceptionally interesting and have regularly made women much like me to realize their pursuits. Your new valuable guide can mean a lot to me and much more to my office colleagues. Thanks a lot; from everyone of us.

  7. What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve discovered It absolutely useful and it has helped me out loads. I am hoping to contribute & help different users like its aided me. Good job.

  8. When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Many thanks!

  9. It’s appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could I desire to suggest you few interesting things or suggestions. Maybe you could write next articles referring to this article. I want to read more things about it!

  10. What i do not understood is if truth be told how you are not actually much more smartly-appreciated than you might be right now. You’re very intelligent. You know therefore considerably relating to this matter, made me in my opinion imagine it from numerous varied angles. Its like men and women aren’t fascinated until it’s one thing to do with Woman gaga! Your own stuffs excellent. All the time take care of it up!

  11. I am extremely inspired along with your writing abilities as well as with the structure for your blog. Is that this a paid theme or did you modify it your self? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to look a great weblog like this one today..

  12. Nice post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed! Very useful information specially the closing phase 🙂 I maintain such info much. I was seeking this certain info for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck.

  13. I have been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever before.

  14. hey there and thanks for your information – I have certainly picked up anything new from proper here. I did on the other hand experience several technical issues using this web site, as I skilled to reload the site a lot of times prior to I could get it to load properly. I were thinking about in case your web hosting is OK? Now not that I am complaining, however sluggish loading cases times will often impact your placement in google and could harm your high-quality ranking if ads and ***********|advertising|advertising|advertising and *********** with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my email and could glance out for a lot more of your respective exciting content. Ensure that you replace this again very soon..

  15. Magnificent beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your web site, how can i subscribe for a weblog site? The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been tiny bit familiar of this your broadcast offered brilliant clear idea

  16. I have been exploring for a little bit for any high quality articles or blog posts in this sort of area . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this website. Studying this information So i’m satisfied to convey that I’ve an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I came upon just what I needed. I so much no doubt will make certain to do not omit this web site and give it a look regularly.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *