Making Sense of Wilfred Owen's Keatsian Heritage: ``Exposure'' and ``Ode to a Nightingale''

Readers of Wilfred Owen usually agree that the war poet's early admiration for John Keats faded after he enlisted in the army; his poetry then turned against Keats's. The opening paraphrase of Owen's poem ``Exposure'' is thus often read as a rejection and a subversion of the Romantic poet's ``Ode to a Nightingale.'' This essay will argue that Owen's poem can be seen as a radical reversal of Keats's ode. While ``Exposure'' is indeed more violent and political than ``Ode to a Nightingale,'' it does not depart from Keats's conception of human suffering and of nature. Instead, the war poem builds on Keats's fleeting description of suffering humanity in ``Ode to a Nightingale'' and extends it. It also echoes bleak descriptions of winter found in lesser known poems by Keats, which sheds new light on ``Ode to a Nightingale'' and can turn ``Exposure'' into a grim conclusion to Keats's ode.