Trace the history of "the old lie" with particular reference to the poetry of Wilfred Owen

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TRACE THE HISTORY OF "THE OLD LIE" WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE POETRY OF WILFRED OWEN

The "old lie" is a term that was developed by Wilfred Owen. The phrase refers to the story that was told to soldiers and civilians of the day. This story was indeed an idealistic view of war and fooled the general population into believing that war was glamorous and glorious and that dying for ones country was noble and dignified.

The old lie was developed over many years and originally started in the days of the Romans that in roman times fighting for your country was honourable as every warrior needed to be extremely fit and skilled in battle, hence, it was an occupation for the physically elite.

In modern day war, an unfit unskilled man can easily kill a skilled and fit man with a gun with little or no effort, and this death is one of an undignified nature and certainly not glorious.

The views from Roman times have been carried through to the modern ages though and even though it was a reality that war was no longer fought by skilled men and death on a battlefield was anything but dignified, civilians had no idea of this and still believed the "old lie" as old attitudes had been carried through to the modern days.

The attitudes of people towards war changed during World War One for many reasons. Originally the attitude to war in the 18th and 19th centuries was that war was glorious and that dying for your country was a noble and graceful act.

These views were conveyed to the general public through literature such as the poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Lord Alfred Tennyson.

This poem was written about a particular battle during the Crimean war and is based around the fact that the soldiers in that war dies a noble death on the battlefield and even though they died due to an inexplicable mistake by one of the commanders not one of them questioned that decision.

The general public were not fully aware of the horrors that war held and poets of the time did not seem prepared to shed war in a negative light, perhaps war raised morale and patriotism in the country.

When Brooke started writing at the beginning of the First World War attitudes were that war was seen as romantic and glorious and death on the battlefield was considered noble and dignified.

As the war developed, these views changed in correspondence with the publications of Wilfred Owen's poetry. Owen's poetry shed a new light on war and it discussed how death on the battlefield was actually undignified and death was not honourable and that war was pointless and horrific. Owen expresses these views through his poetry.

A factor that heavily contributed to people's perception of war was the literature that was published both through poetry and the media as plenty of people in that time read poetry and the media had a huge influence over people's opinions.

If the general trend in literature being published was that war was glorious and dignified the public's opinions were more than likely to follow in that general direction and vice versa, hence poetry had a huge grasp over the thoughts of the entire country as if one respected poet demonstrated those views, this could sway the perception the whole country had to war

On the other hand the views of poets and the media could be propaganda that was employed in order to help raise the morale of the country and for numerous other causes. An example would be "Charge of the Light Brigade", where Tennyson's views are so concentrated on the positive aspects of the battle through the use of euphemisms one can only suspect that there was a propaganda campaign behind this in order to perhaps shelter the armed forces from criticism and to raise the morale of the country.

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" was a poem written during the Crimean war after Britain had just lost a battle in devastating fashion, due to a mistake by one of the commanding officers, soldiers were sent into an ambush and close to six hundred died pointlessly and their deaths were avoidable or postponable at the very least.

Tennyson actually wrote this poem as a third person as he was in no way involved in the war and drew all his information from the famously biased British media, i.e. a newspaper. Perhaps this played a role in his idealistic and euphemistic portrayal of the battle.

Tennyson's attitude to war was one of extreme jingoism and was extremely idealistic. His view of war was that it was glorious, dignified and honourable to die for your country. His poetry conveys to the reader that he possibly knew of the true horrors of that battle but he played down the negative points through euphemisms, for example, "while horse and hero fell", this line is essentially saying that the soldiers died on the battlefield but though the use of the word "fell" and "hero", Tennyson allows a sentence about death to become majestic, serene even, which is a testament to his skills as a writer.

Through Tennyson's poetry it becomes apparent to the reader that Tennyson has never fought in a war himself and that he was most probably raised to accept the "old lie" as gospel truth. This is due to his idealistic views and his use of euphemisms, and his jingoistic attitude to war allows him to actually glorify a battle that could not have gone worse for the British.

Tennyson demonstrates through this poem that he very much respects soldiers that have fought in battle. In "The Charge of the Light Brigade" he immortalises all the soldiers who died but made sure not to name any specific soldier as this would raise his profile above that of the rest and in his eyes they were all equally respectable.

He demonstrates his respect for the soldiers through the line, "When can their glory fade? ... Honour the light brigade". This shows us that Tennyson felt strongly that the light brigade deserved to be honoured for what they had done. The issue of their honour was quite an emotional issue for Tennyson, hence, the rhetorical question, "When can their glory fade?", which of course is rhetorical as in his eyes, their honour can never fade.

The rhythm and rhyme in this poem are meticulously assembled to convey several subconscious messages to the reader.

The rhythm of the poem is reminiscent to the sound of a horse galloping which bears significance in the context of this text as the men who dies in the battle the poem is based on, died whilst riding horses.

Tennyson uses the line "Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them" to great effect. The repetition of the word cannon and the increase in tempo when reading these lines helps to convey to the reader how much danger the soldiers were in and how the odds were stacked completely against them. The repetition and change in tempo integrates well with the rhythm which is reminiscent of a horse galloping and all of this helps to paint a vivid image in the reader's mind of the battle scene.
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The rhyme in this poem is varied. There are several examples of half rhymes and the effect they have is that they give some tune to the poem to help it be rousing.

Alliteration is used in this poem in order to emphasise the tragedy of what happened, for example, "horse and hero" and "all the world wondered". These uses of alliteration help to give a more sombre feel to the poem and help the reader to fully experience the tragedy of the battle and to help keep the solemn and respectful feel of the poem.
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