To Compare and Contrast how the reality of war has been presented from the Crimean War to the end of World War One.

        By examining the imagery and choice of language used in each poem, we can identify the poet’s presentation of war. ‘The charge of the light brigade’ tends to use dramatic wording to express the points more and uses a range of imagery including alliteration, repetition, rhyme, metaphors, rhetorical questions and reforms. ‘The Solider’ uses a completely different choice of language; it is calmer and uses patriotic language. The choice of imagery used is not quite as vivid as ‘The Charge of the light brigade’ it uses personification and quite a lot of jingoism. The poet describes England as a person and like a mother to the soldier which makes you think of the debt of gratitude you would receive if you died for your mother. ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ uses a wide range of imagery including alliteration, metaphors, sacsums, enjamberment and an oxymoron. The poet uses long sentences in the first stanza to describe the wounded soldiers walking along, which follows the beat of soldiers routinely marching the rhythm reflects action and involves the reader. The first stanza also contains a caesura in the last few lines causing the reader to stop mid-sentence. The second stanza speeds up due to the gas attack creating action. The final third stanza is quite morbid because they are burying the bodies of the soldiers and reminiscing memories.

        Now I shall discuss the form and structure of each poem. ‘The Charge of the light brigade’ has six stanzas with the forth being the longest because it is describing the climax of the battle. At the end of each verse it sums up what is going on in each verse with the “Rode the six hundred” line. ‘The Solider’ only has two verses because it is a sonnet each verse containing seven lines. Sonnet’s are usually about love which reflects the romantic tone of the poem. The first stanza describes what would happen if a soldier died and the second kind of describes what happens when the soldier has died. ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ has three stanzas, the first describes the solider walking around the battlefields, and the second describes the gas attack and a man unable to find his gas mask and dying. The final verse describes how they bury the mans body after he has died from the gas attack.