Comparison of War Poetry: Dulce et decorum est and the charge of the light Brigade

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Comparison of War Poetry: Dulce et decorum est and the charge of the light Brigade

Although both 'Dulce et Decorum Est´ and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade´ are about battle and the death of soldiers, they both portray the experience of war in very different ways.

The Charge of the Light Brigade tells us of the glory of war, despite the fact that, because of an error of judgement ('Someone had blundered´), six hundred soldiers were sent to their death.

On the other hand, Dulce et Decorum Est, might almost have been written as a challenge to Tennyson´s patriotic views of battle. He presents the horror of senseless death in the trenches and shows the saying, 'it is sweet and becoming to die for your country´, is a lie.

We are told that Tennyson wrote 'Light Brigade´ in a few minutes after reading the description in The Times of the Battle of Balaclava in 1854. He was a civilian poet, as opposed to a soldier poet like Owen. His poem 'Light Brigade´ increased the morale of the British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War and of the people at home, but Tennyson had not been