In stanza three you start to get a feeling of what it was like. “Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them”. Everywhere they look there’s cannons landing, and its just pure luck if you don’t get hit. “Into the jaws of death” and “Into the mouth of hell”. This is what Tennyson compares the change with. Showing that there’s no way out. In all three stanzas the last line is “rode the six hundred” stating how many soldiers charged.
Stanza four explains in great detail how it looked. “Flashed all their sabres bare, flashed as they turned in air” Is how he describes the sun shining and glinting on their swords. He also has a line about the mistake in this verse “All the world wondered”. “Then they rode back, but not, not the six hundred!” These two lines show how they eventually started to ride back, but not all of them.
In stanza five we have three lines the same as stanza three. “Cannon to right of them, left of them, behind them”. When they were riding back, they were still being shot at. They also describe the valley as mouth of hell in this stanza too. Notice that Tennyson never mentioned how many came back. “All that was left of them left of six hundred”.
“When can their glory fade? Oh the wild charge they made”. Tennyson shows his admiration for them in stanza five. “Honour the light Brigade, noble six hundred”.
Dulce et Decorum est was written by the poet Wilfred Owen. In 1913 he went to France and taught English for two years. He entered the war in October 1915 and fought as an officer in the Battle of Somme in 1916 but was hospitalised for shell shock in May 1917. In the hospital he met Seigfried Sassoon, a poet. Under Sassoon’s care, Owen started producing some of his best work. His poems are suffused with the horror of battle.
In the first two lines, Owen uses simile to describe the conditions of the soldiers “bent double like old beggars” and “coughing like old hags”. The word “hag” explains how unhealthy and sick the soldiers were. “Till the haunting flares”. This is personification. Trying to explain how it will all haunt them forever. “Men marched asleep many had lost their boots but limped on bloodshed”. This tells us how determined they were, even know they were covered in blood. They were brave. They were so tired that they didn’t even notice the bombs landing. “Five-nines that dropped behind us”.
The second stanza is a lot faster. “An ecstasy” describes the sudden rush to get their helmets on. Then he starts to talk about the man who didn’t get his helmet on. “But someone still yelling out and stumbling”. Describing how he was burning from gas. “Like a man on fire or lime”. Owen explains how the gas looked “Thick green light”.
“I saw him drowning”. Is exactly what happened to them, their lungs filled up with blood drowning them. “In all my dreams before my helpless sight”. Describes how he’ll always dream about not being able to help him. He writes about how they “flung” him into the wagon, how his eyes “withered” in his face. The sound of him gargling the blood, which had filled his lungs.
“Obscene as cancer, bitter as cud” is another simile. It explains well how terrible and bitter this whole thing was. “Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues”. How unfair this was to be happening to innocent people.
Owen died a week before the war ended in 1918. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for serving in the war with distinction.
I think both of these poems are excellent. I prefer “Dulce et Decorum est” because its so much more real. The author, Wilfred Owen was actually there so he is talking from experience. Unlike Alfred Tennyson who only read it from a report in a paper. They both are still very good examples of what the war were like.