Comparison: Anthem for doomed youth, Charge of the light brigade

Poetry Comparison – Charge of the light brigade and Anthem for doomed youth

The two poems that I am going to be studying are The Charge Of The Light Brigade and Anthem of Doomed Youth, both, which are war poems. The Charge Of The Light Brigade was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1854. Anthem For Doomed Youth was written much later in 1917 by Wilfred Owen, regarded by some of the leading poets in the First World War. Wilfred was a soldier and had been injured in the front line of battle. Charge of the light brigade was based on the battle of balaclava. Tennyson wrote the poem after reading about it in “The Times” newspaper. It is a lengthy poem containing six stanzas. Wilfred Owen wrote Charge of the light brigade whilst recovering from a battle wound in an Edinburgh hospital. Siegfried Sassoon, a fellow poet, amended it. This poem was written in WW1 conditions, where soldiers suffered physically and mentally for example some soldiers were shell-shocked.

Firstly, I will explain the differences within the form and layout of the two poems. Charge has six stanzas with roughly eight lines in each stanza, whereas Anthem is a fourteen-line sonnet written in two stanzas. I think that there are six stanzas in Charge of the light brigade because it symbolises the six hundred soldiers fighting in the battle of balaclava, also it could be to do with the devils number 666, meaning that they could be riding to the devil or death. The last stanza is shorter than the others; this could be because it is the end of the battle and not many soldiers survived, so Tennyson left the last stanza with fewer lines than the others just like the little amount of soldiers that came home alive. There are two similar stanzas beginning with “Cannon to the left of them, Cannon to the right of them”. The fact that there are two similar stanzas could represent the two armies, also the one stanza is bigger than the other, this could be referring to how the light brigade were out numbered. Anthem for doomed youth is in the format of a sonnet which is commonly used for love and romance but this poem is a war poem perhaps it suggests conflicting ideas about war as some see it as wonderful and great. Also the first Stanza is longer than the second, the first stanza is about the war and the second stanza is about what is going on back home. Because there is more written about the actual war it is probably the main subject of the poem.

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Now I will talk about the ideas and imagery of the poem. Although both of the poems are about war, Charge of the light brigade glorifies the soldiers’ bravery, whilst Anthem for doomed youth laments about the unnecessary death of the young soldiers. This affects the ideas of the poem because both poems are showing different parts of war. Charge of the light brigade is read in a trochaic rhythm, I think it was written like this to echo the horses galloping. Also, earlier on in the essay when I mentioned the devils number relating to the 6 stanzas, I think this quote also backs up my idea of hell in this poem, “Came thro’ the jaws of death, Back from the mouth of hell” I think that Lord Tennyson had the idea that war was the devils work because of the number of times he mentioned hell. I think that Lord Tennyson compares the soldiers to animals by saying, “Flashed all their sabres bare” He could be saying they fight like animals by flashing their teeth, also fighting to the death. In anthem for doomed youth it says, “What candle may be held to speed them all?”, Although candles are lit when a person dies, the light represents life, and the wax melts away like our lives – until the flame eventually goes out.

We have seen that Charge Of The Light Brigade rejoices the bravery and nobility of the soldiers and Anthem For Doomed Youth is explaining the concern of the innocent losing lives. The start of Charge of the light brigade gives off a sense of encouragement towards the brave soldiers. It says “half a league onward”. This shows us that even though they only have half a squad, they are still charging towards the enemy. Also it says, “Rode the six hundred”, this also proves that they didn’t just walk in to the opposition, but they rode in, fearless. The text also says “Charge of the guns”, this goes on to show that they went in with all guns blazing and showing their courage. The tone of Anthem for doomed youth is the complete opposite to charge of the light brigade. It has a negative tone. I know this because it says, “The bugles calling for them from sad shires”, this shows its negative because it’s like the bugles are ordering the soldiers home but they are dead and cannot here them. It goes on to say “Each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds”, this describes each night that the soldiers loved ones go through each and every day, each night they draw down the blinds and hope for them to return home the following day, but it doesn’t happen.

Both poems were written about wars, but were written sixty-three years apart of each other. During these times were great social changes; I think this is shown in the difference between the two poems. The charge of the light brigade mentions, “ the world wondered”, this means that the battle was all the world cared about, like the whole world came to a standstill and all that was happening was this battle. Anthem for doomed youth mentions “sad shires”, this refers to the counties back home such as Yorkshire and Oxfordshire. It is saying that the counties are sad because they are almost empty of soldiers and no life to be seen.

In Charge of the light brigade I noticed a lot of rhyming. It says, “Theirs was not to make reply, theirs was not to reason why”, I think it uses this to echo the sound of the first line. It also uses personification when it says, “Came thro’ the jaws of death, back from the mouth of hell.” I think it uses this to make it seem that hell is a person and it could just eat the soldiers as they die. Anthem for doomed youth uses alliteration when it says, “Rifles’ rapid rattle”. The R sound in this is used to make the sound of the rifles. Also it uses a rhetorical question at the beginning of each stanza. It does this to ask the world the question that they already know, used to remind the world of what is going on.

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote charge of the light brigade after reading a newspaper article about it. This could be biased towards the poems content, because newspapers don’t always tell the truth. Also he could have been biased not to ruin his reputation because if he was already a famous poet. Wilfred Owen wrote Anthem for doomed youth whilst in an Edinburgh hospital recovering from shell shock. This could’ve altered his attitudes to the war. Also the fact that Alfred Lord Tennyson had never been to war and that Wilfred Owen had could have altered their attitudes.

The Use of exclamation marks in Charge of the light brigade could make the reader imagine the soldiers shouting out for help and urgency, the text says, “Forward, the light brigade!” This shows that it is an urgent command. Also the repetitive rhythm sounds like horses galloping. In Anthem for doomed youth, it says, “Rifles’ rapid rattle.” This echoes the sound of the rifles.

Although the two poems are about war, the content is very different because they were written by two different people, one that had been to war and one that hadn’t. The context and date might affect the poems because between the two there were great social changes. I think Charge of the light brigade was more affective because it was more positive.