Compare and contrast The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy and the The Charge Of The Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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Compare and contrast ‘The Man He Killed’ by Thomas Hardy and the ‘The Charge Of The Light Brigade’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Many poets have chosen to write on controversial topic of war. Some are in favour of it and some are strongly apposed to it. Poets often choose to write about war to show the true human suffering that goes on. A good example of a poem that shows the pointlessness and sadness of war is ‘The Man He Killed’ by Thomas Hardy. On the other hand, other poets have a patriotic view of war and like to show that dying for your country is honourable. A poem that celebrates soldiers’ bravery in battle but also shows horror of war is Tennyson’s poem ‘The Charge Of  The Light Brigade’. It is interesting to compare the difference in the poets’ approaches.

‘The Charge Of The Light Brigade’ describes a disastrous cavalry charge that took place during the Battle of Balaclava. It was based on the war known as Eastern War in Russia or in UK it is known as Crimean war, which took place between 1853 till 1856. Britain and France were together and they were both fighting Russia. He was the Poet Laureate. This meant that he wrote poems celebrating occasions of national importance and honouring the royal family. His poem dealt with a range of themes. Most of his poems celebrated war and shows in the whole pile of poems (The Charge of the light brigade is one of them) that dying for your country is honourable. The cavalry was given the wrong order my mistake and as they charged towards the Russians cannons they were cut down. We sense that Tennyson believed that we should celebrate and honour the brave men that gave up their life during the event but we also feel the horror and sadness of war. ‘Honour the charge they made’.  

On the other hand, Hardy’s methods are very different. In ‘The Man He Killed’ Hardy presents a dramatic monologue in which the speaker is reflecting on killing another and we hear how he thinks war is futile as results oh him killing a man. He says that in a different circumstances things might have been different and instead o fighting a man he might have shared a drink with it.

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Hardy’s poem was based on the Boer War. This war took place between 1899 and 1902. The countries which took part, in the war were Britain who took on the Republic of South Africa. Britain declared War which made Hardy more devastated.

During the charge of the ‘The Charge Of The Light Brigade’ there is a lot of elevated and glorious language used in the poem. ‘When can their glory fade?’ This showed that Alfred lord Tennyson believed that these brave men put their life and soul into trusting their military. Another way the reader enforces his elevated ...

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