Although these are soft soothing sounds with an innocent presence, they are effective in their contrast with the intensity of the battle that is to come. It also manages to portray an image in our mind of the troops marching along, exhausted but still moving. The line “But limped on, blood-shot, All went lame, all blind” also shows how determined they were to carry on and serve.
“Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind”
In my opinion the above couplet conveys a very powerful message as to how tired and shell shocked they were. It also shows they were past caring and that the hopelessness of the plight they found themselves in captivates so much that went wrong in a war where the lives of thousands of young men were sacrificed on the altar of war. The use of the words “drunk with fatigue” is associated with people when they are either enjoying themselves or recuperating afterwards. Here Owen uses them to depict the state of mind of what should have been lean and keen fighting machines-what an excellent twist of phrase in order to show how tired and exhausted the troops were.
Those men were so tired and battle scarred that dragging themselves along is enough of a task never mind what’s happening around them. The whole ordeal must seem a little surreal for them. The atmosphere is somewhat peaceful when the poet says; “Of gas shells dropping softly behind”. The soothing atmosphere has an extreme contrast to the real atmosphere on the battlefield which would definitely be thunderous, destructive and aggressive.
The gas attack is first introduced into the poem in the second stanza with the following lines;
“Gas! GAS! Quick Boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time”
This is a dramatic and striking introduction to the event, as we picture the scene clearly in our minds. Wilfred Owen uses capital letter to express the immense urgency of the situation as illustrated by “Quick Boys!” but mainly by “GAS!” One can imagine the troops hastening at this point and fumbling for the gas mask is described as “ecstasy”; the most heightened of sensations. This is ironic because ecstasy is commonly referred to as a positive happy effect, but in this case it would have been hastened by fear. It is possible that Owen is trying to convey the adrenaline pumping through their veins as they struggled to fit on their rigid steel helmets.
Unfortunately, one soldier doesn’t fit his helmet on in time. Consequently he is like “a man in fire or lime”. This description portrays a man writhing in pain the poisonous gas penetrating and burning his throat and lungs. Once again Owens’ line becomes dream-like or serene as he describes the view another soldier has through the small pane of his mask as if he’s watching a silent film. This is clearly illustrated by the following quotation;
“Dim through the misty panes and think green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning”
This is similar to someone in water with their lungs slowly filling up with water and building up to a climax with a horrific death. The following two lines bring an element of despair and misery into the poem.
“In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”
In the above quotation Owen reminds us how these terrible scenes come back to haunt him when he sleeps. We can imagine how such a scene would repeat itself over and over in his mind like an endless reel of film. The verbs “guttering”, “choking” and “drowning” are particularly powerful and convey the dramatic negative presence of death. Owen suggests that it’s happening continually by using “ing” which is the present continuous. There is also a structural contrast here to the rest of the poem. The other stanzas have at least six lines in them. This stanza consists of just two lines making it stand out and catching our attention.
In the final stanza, the grotesque and bitter images create a sense of wickedness and evil. The poet manages to include the reader by personalising the poem by using “you”, which makes the reader feel that somehow he is also responsible and possibly guilty and responsible for the deaths of those poor soldiers.
“Behind the wagon we flung it in”; here the man is flung into the wagon quickly showing us they had little time and had to act swiftly. They most probably rushed him into the wagon in order to get him back to safety to receive medical attention. It is said that his eyes were writhing in his face as well as “devil’s sick of sin”. There is use of a simile evident here. The devil is looked at from an evil perspective but it also implies that even the devil is sick of all the sin of war.
“Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as cud
Of Vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues”
The heaping of adjectives “froth-corrupted”, “obscene”, “bitter, “vile” and “incurable” follow one after another, leaving us in no doubt as to the never-ending horror that haunted those poor souls. The heaping of adjectives one after another manages to compound the severity and helplessness of the situation.
Suddenly the horror comes to a rigid Holt and the reader is addressed as “my friend” and finally Owen mentions the “old lie” which so many English patriots have repeated to themselves over time In fact he expresses those words in Latin; a language no longer spoken.
“Dulce et Decorum Est
Pro Patria Mori”
This translated means “it is sweet and noble to die for one’s country”, however the question he poses is whether those who preach about the glory of war would utter those words if they had been present and been a part of what Wilfred Owen had seen?
Latin, which is not so widely taught in schools these days, was an important subject in the public school education of Owen’s day. He possibly makes use of the Latin phrase in order to illustrate how out of touch were so many of those from the old noble classes. They were still advocating the old upper class system of education just as they believed that men on horseback could fight artillery guns. They still extolled the virtue of war old lie that it was sweet and noble to die for one’s country from the safety and luxury of their mansions.
Both poems have the similar theme of war, however they are both written from totally different perspectives. Wilfred Owen was a soldier in the trenches an actually saw the suffering and endured the hardship. He writes his poem from first and experience and can graphically describe how comrades died in the war. Alfred Lord Tennyson on the other hand, stayed at home and read about the second hand accounts in the newspapers of the day. He also promotes the idea that it was an honour for a soldier to die for his country. As a consequence he wrote his now famous poem ‘Charge of The Light Brigade’.
The purposes for which Tennyson and Owen wrote their poems are different. For instance, Tennyson uses the third person writing style and refers to the soldiers as ‘theirs’, ‘the six hundred’ and ‘them’. This creates the idea that the poet was detached from the actual war itself. Owen however, uses the first person mode because he was there on the battlefield experiencing the bitter horror of it all. ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ was written to give an overall perspective of the war whilst Owen's poem was written from his own personal experience. Consequently Owen’s descriptions and language are far more graphic. He describes in detail the death scenes and uses imagery to show that he was there. Tennyson on the other hand can only depict the scene from afar because he was never at the battle. As a consequence his poem is impersonal and has to rely on clever use of repetition in order to show the power and force of the cavalry.
The poem ‘Charge Of The Light Brigade’ was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson on the 10th of April 1864. It commemorates a suicidal charge by British light cavalry forces over open terrain in the battle of Balaclava.
The poem takes us through a journey of the battle and tells the story of what these brave, courageous men went through when fighting for their country.
The poem opens with the following lines;
“Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred”
The rhythm of Tennyson's poem starts off
"Half a league, Half a league onward"
The measured meter conjures up the image of horses galloping into battle. The men in the saddle are entering the battle here. The use of the phrases “The valley of death” is very effective in my view. It is repeated throughout the poem, as a kind of grand opera chorus and it conveys the hopelessness and the pure lunacy and folly of such an action. The “the valley of death” conjures a very negative atmosphere and prepares us for the inevitable slaughter that will follow as a result of this battle. Tennyson prepares us for the worst by giving us the impression that many of these patriots will die here. The men rode into the “valley of death”, and these words of woe are repeated throughout the poem, like the chorus from a grand opera..
In both the first and second stanzas there are numerous words used that suggests that there will be tragic consequences. Some of these consist of; “Someone had blundere’d”, “Their’s but to do and die”, “Valley of death”, “Charge of the guns” and “Was there a man dismay’d?” Again Tennyson is attempting to prepare us for the battle that’s awaiting them. He makes use of a rhetorical question in the second stanza; “Was there a man dismay’d?” Tennyson is aiming to make us feel as if we’re there with the men having first hand experience of the catastrophe that was about to befall them..
The men in the poem “ride the six hundred”, the verb “Rode”, indicate that the men rode on horseback, which shows how long ago this battle took place. It also brings a sense of imagery into your head of six hundred men on horseback charging into the battlefield bursting with courage and bravery shouting at the top of their voices as heroes.
This is in total contrast to the condition of the men in the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, because they are described as “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”. Those men depicted by Owen were exhausted, battered and wounded, Tennyson however depicts his heroes as if they are freshly fed and raring to ride to a certain death –yet no one blinks an eyelid or considers whether there is an alternative. Everything is so matter of fact and not at anytime does the reader feel that he is a part of this war. These men are almost like some programmed fighting machines that will carry on fighting regardless of any consequences.
“Forward, the Light Brigade” is repeated time and time again. One can imagine the commander uttering those words as he charges forth deep into the enemy lines with his fellow troops.
In the second stanza the official call comes for the men of the Light Brigade to attack. Ironically, the order was a mistake but it was too late to turn back. The men were trained to obey the orders and it was not their role to question the decision but to carry out the orders. Subsequently they marched on to face a certain death because of the blundering mistake of their commanding officer.
The third stanza contains three lines, which convey a sense of urgency and intenseness.
“Cannon to the right of them
Cannon to the left of them
Cannon in front of them”
One can imagine the tense atmosphere as they sat in between these cannons as helpless targets.
“Storm’d at with shot and shell”
“Boldly they rode and well”
“Into the jaws of death”
Here the troops charge forth with daring courage despite the cannons surrounding them. The adjective “boldly” just shows how gallant they were as they charged forth on their horses into “the jaws of death”. This line illustrates how hellish, violent and brutal the battlefield environment was. The next line, “Into the mouth of Hell” and especially the demonstrates the word “Hell” would have a tremendous significance for the majority of the church attendees of the time. Such turn of phrase would have such impact on the audience as if it was a bullet tearing through the flesh of a trooper on the battlefield. There is a noticeable pattern of rhyming in this stanza; an example is “shell, well, Hell”
The poem is primarily about the thrill of battle – the vivid verbs and alliteration in the fourth stanza show Tennyson’s excitement at the flashing of "their sabres bare". However there is a slightly mystical tone, its effect is designed to make us imagine these brave men as not dying, but somehow escaping death itself.
They then break through the line together as an army –
“Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre-stroke
Shatter’d and sunder’d”
Here the men cut through the Russian and Cossack troops with their swords as they stand shattered and sundered from the blow. Unfortunately some of the men are lost during the battle; Tennyson uses a more pleasant way of showing that many of them died.
“They rode back, but not”
“Not the six hundred”
This shows that they did not return as the six hundred because some had been brutally killed at the battle which brings an element of sadness into the poem. There is also noticeable rhyming in the fourth stanza, “bare, air, there, smoke, broke”
Once again in the fourth Stanza where it depicts the cannons surrounding the men. The first five lines are repeated from the third stanza and suddenly we are plunged into a very patriotic atmosphere.
“While horses and hero fell
They had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of hell”
The four lines drift very smoothly and it creates an image in my head of these heroic men slowly falling off their horses onto the idol littered ground. It’s as if it takes an eternity for the men to reach the ground as they fall to their death. Many had been lost but they had fought for their country and gone through hell to pay the price. I believe they could die with pride wearing their bright gold medals and gripping their silver sabres for one last time.
In the last stanza a question is used; “When can their glory fade?” The real answer is that their glory will never fade, their patriotic spirits will echo through the ages. Tennyson then tells us!
“Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade”
We should appreciate what these men did on behalf of their country. They gave up their lives for their country. Tennyson then closes the poem with honour,
“Noble six hundred!”
The legendary six hundred is mentioned, one last time.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed studying both poems; they have definitely influenced my view on war. Before reading these poems, I had no real idea what it must have been like for both those the brave young men in the battle of Balaclava or those in the First World War. Through the viewpoint of two very different poets I can truly appreciate the bravery and courageousness of those soldiers. I have also come to the conclusion that there are no real winners in a war and that even those who survived carry either physical or mental scars for the rest of their lives.
