In ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ The heroism is illustrated by the repetition of ‘Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred’ Tennyson uses personification which makes the reader imagine more of a fictional idea of a ‘valley death’ this makes it easier to imagine and more horrific for the reader. The repetition emphasises the heroism of the soldiers and make the reader think they must be brave and heroic if they would ride into the valley of death when they knew they would die. It then goes on to say ‘Into the jaws of Death Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred’ this highlights the inevitability of the soldier’s fate and adds a visual idea of what might happen to them, again using personification. You can almost imagine the ground opening up and swallowing them whole. This gives the reader the perception of heroism because once more the soldiers are riding into almost certain death. The line ‘Sabring the gunners there’ also shows the soldiers as being heroic. The Light Brigade only had sabres to fight with and had no chance against the guns the Russians had but they fought anyway.
Owen on the other hand though he did believe that the individual could be heroic he felt that war was not heroic at all and he wanted to reveal the reality of what war can do to soldiers. For instance ‘Knock-kneed’ Owen uses alliteration to make the reader imagine the soldiers unable to support themselves properly because of all the equipment they had to carry. The quote ‘coughing like hags’ uses coughing to inform the readers that the soldiers weren’t well and not only couldn’t they support themselves because of they’re bags but they were ill as well. By using the word hag Owen makes the reader think of old women, who are typically weak and that war has aged and weakened young men.
Another theme that links in with Tennyson’s view of the soldiers is that they are loyal to the officers that made the poor decision and loyal to Britain. For instance ‘“forward the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismayed?’ Tennyson wants to make it clear that the soldiers would do anything to protect Britain. Loyalty is revealed in a very different way in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’. Owen is more focused on the loyalty of the soldiers to each other. ‘Before my helpless sight’ and ‘the wagon we flung him in’ these quotes show that although Wilfred Owen and the other soldiers weren’t able to help the fallen soldier they still tried. He uses colloquialisms like ‘flung’ because that id the way he would have spoken to fellow soldiers in the army. ‘Flung’ is also very insensitive. Owen uses this so that people reading understand the urgency of the situation and that even though he was their friend, and their fellow soldier they couldn’t afford to be sensitive they just had to try and help him. This demonstrates loyalty because the soldiers had to look out for themselves in the gas attack but still helped the fallen soldier. Tennyson uses repetition to show that the lower rank soldiers involved in the charge had no choice but to follow orders without question ‘Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why, Their’s but to do and die’ It was the soldier’s duty to go into the battle whether they thought they should or should not and because they were loyal to the officers and their country they fought anyway.
The most obvious aspect within ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is horror. The poet is keen to show war for what it really is, this apparent form the very beginning with the line ‘Bent double, like old beggars’ Owen uses a simile to give the idea of the young men that became soldiers have been turned into old, weak beggars. Beggars are second class citizens that live on the streets, so they would be dirty and unwashed Owen used this simile to demonstrate what war had done to the soldiers. There are many other examples of horror throughout for example ‘He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.’ Here the poet uses an adjectival suffix and a power of three to add emphasis to the horror. The rhyming of the suffix makes the reader remember the sentence .Likewise in the quote ’haunting flares’ Owen uses personification to show that the bright flares remind them of gunfire and explosions haunting and scaring the soldiers. It could also signify the soldiers they had killed haunting them or the soldiers they failed to save. Tennyson also uses personification to show horror in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ with ‘Into the jaws of Death’ and ‘Into the mouth of Hell’ not only does the idea of death and hell cause horror but it also uses the reader’s senses because everyone has had some experience of death and everyone has an idea of what it would be like, what it would look and smell like. When reading those lines it makes the reader think of the dank, moulding, rotting smell of death and the sound of fire burning in hell.
However in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ the horror is much more obvious. This is because Owen wanted to show life in trench warfare and how terrible it was though Tennyson wanted to make a point that someone had made a mistake and sent many soldiers to their death. For instance the quote ‘in all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me’ Owen wrote the poem over a period of months, it was his own experience of what happened and shows the psychological affect it had on Owen. This quote shows that the image of seeing another soldier die has haunted Owen and given him nightmares ever since. The use of enjambment makes it like a statement, which creates a more personal feeling as if Wilfred Owen is actually talking to you which. This is more effective because it connects with the reader directly. However it is completely different to ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ where the rhythm and speed of the poem play a big part. As the stanzas change the pace changes much like that of the horses riding into the battle. Owen also uses similes and metaphors to emphasise the horror in ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ such as ‘bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues’ cud is what cows eat when they regurgitate half digested food this is a very powerful simile because it connects directly with the reader it makes you imagine the bitter taste of acid in your mouth and the idea of eating ‘vile, incurable sores’ is certainly horrific.
An aspect in each poem is that of the ‘unnamed person’. In ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ that unnamed person is Lord Cardigan and the other officers that made the Light Brigade go into battle, Tennyson felt that Lord Cardigan made a mistake this is shown in the quote ‘Not though the soldier knew someone had blundered’. Tennyson is critical of the decision made by the commanding officers and this was influenced by William Russell’s viewpoint because Tennyson had no knowledge of the battle of Balaclava other than the article Russell wrote in The Times newspaper. Owen is also critical of his ‘unnamed person’ who is specifically Jessie Pope but is also aimed at all the propaganda poets back in Britain. In the line ‘my friend you would not tell with such high zest’ Owen’s acerbic tone is directly addressed at the poets who have never experienced war and yet encourage people to sign up to fight. The whole point of the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is to satire the idea that war is noble and this is shown in the final sentence in the poem ‘The old lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori’ that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. I feel this is the biggest difference between the two poems ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ aimed to tell people about the mistake that the officers made and how brave, loyal and heroic the soldiers were and ultimately that it is sweet and fitting for one to die for ones country. I also think that ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is the most effective poem because although Owen was bias towards the view of war being horrific and unjust, ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is his own first hand account of something horrific that happened to him during the war. Whereas Tennyson never really experienced war or its effects.
