I am going to write about The Charge of The Light Brigade which is about the Crimean War which was fought between Russia on the one hand and Britain France and Turkey on the other. The charge of the light brigade occurred in November 1854 at Balaclava in the Crimea. The brave six hundred rode straight down a valley that was fortified at its end by many cannon served by Russian and Cossack gunners. The heroes were following confused orders from higher military authority as they rode into this valley of death. Note the poet’s words that someone had blundered. In simple terms the battle was a terrible mistake.
The poet seems to be telling a story. He doesn’t give any impression of being there. The reader might feel that the poet has no experience of being at the battle. He glorifies the men and the battle as if to hide the mistakes of the commanders and the government, ‘was there a man dismayed?’ The poet use words like ‘Half a league, half a league, half a league,’ which gives the impression like the horses were galloping along. Also other words that he uses in it were ‘Cannon to right of them Cannon to left of them and cannon in front of them. Also some of the words he use to describe what was happening to the solider like Boldly they rode and well into the jaws of death into the mouth of hell. This is describing that they are going to face a lot of trouble.
There are also six sections to this poem. An overall description of this poem I find it hard to image it as the words he uses describe it very well so I do no really like the poem.
I am now going to describe the Dulce ET Decorum EST Pro Patria Mori poem. This poem is written by Wilfred Owen who was on active service during the First World War. He was a young man and was against the terrible waste of life in the First Would War which he believed was due to bad leadership by the generals. Wilfred Owen was able to experience the war as it really was. The biggest difference between Wilfred Owen and Alfred Lord Tennyson was the fact that he was actually involved in fighting the war. Unlike Tennyson he was not commissioned to write a poem as a cover up for military mistakes.
A group of soldiers were all coming back from the front line and settling down from coming back from the front line. They were about to sit down and the gas alarm was let off. They all ran for their gas a masks one of the guys did not get to there’s in time the rest of the guys had to stand there and watch the guy choke and cough and sputter. The guy was cough up blood and crying out for help
The language which Owen uses is the most important way in which he gets his strong message across. He uses very powerful words to describe what he sees and hears e.g. Knock-Kneed, fumbling, -plunges, guttering, smothering. Owen also uses army slang effectively e.g. Five Nines this helps the reader to feel that they are part of the scene. Also the writer dose not covers anything up that he hers are sees.
There are has four stanzas of different lengths. The first and third stanzas are the longest and help describe the never ending nature of the soldier’s lives. The third stanza is the shortest and perhaps describes the most horrifying experience of the poem when the man who has been gassed “plunges at me” guttering, choking drowning.
I think this poem is very interesting because they are actually telling you the truth of what happed in the war. Also because it is coming from some one who was in the war him self as more cornered?
The differences between the two poems are that in one the poet is saying that the war could not have gone any better, and the poem is telling you that the war was the worst one ever. Also The Charge of the Light Brigade has a “galloping” rhythm all most all the way through the poem. In the Dulce ET Decorum EST Pro Patria Mori poem there is no obvious rhythm to this poem and in fact the slow pace of the poem makes us think of the soldiers trudging through the muddy trenches.
One was involved in fighting but Tennyson was simply writing about an event he’d read about and was against the cruelty and waste of life war brought whereas Tennyson wanted people to feel that war was honourable worthwhile and necessary. I prefer Dulce et Decorum est. as it is more realistic and makes me feel sorry for the men in the poem. Tennyson poem does not give a true account of the war.
