The message Owen is trying to portray is wanting people to realise that once you go to war you are as insignificant as the un-named man who died in front of Owens eyes, by using an un-named man the audience can picture anybody in this situation as there is no physical description about him or his personality, hobbies or background. He is just another statistic, another death that happened, the audience can picture themselves in that position and understand that they too would just be another face in the crowd. His overall message is that he is clearly against war and that it is not noble or heroic to die for your country. This fact is very poignant within his poem; he sees the loss of life wasteful and un-necessary. Owen wants his audience to follow his beliefs, I know this as he says ‘My friend’, this suggests that he is including his audience and referring to them as his ‘friends’, by doing this it includes the audience and encourages them to believe that it is futile, not noble to die for their country. This technique used by Owen, of making a point suggestively and also ridiculing others that disagree, forces the audience to believe and follow Owens opinions and scaring them not to have another view. He does not allow the audience to have another opinion; he is pressurizing and frightening them into conforming.
Therefore, I feel that this poem has been written for people who are unsure of their opinion of war, many people do not feel hatred or happiness when they hear about war and therefore don’t know how to react, Owen is forcing them to have the same opinion as him. The poem might also be aimed at people who agree that it is noble to die for your country and that it is justified to go and kill a man, who is innocent, but belongs to a particular apposing country. Owen is aiming to enlighten them to his views and encourage them to see warfare from a different angle. Good may come from war, although Owen does not seem to believe this, instead he thinks further hatred is fueled by war. He is trying to capture the minds of people who might be going to war and causing them to reconsider, he does this by shocking them with the brutal reality.
The language used is very formal and dated to the time it was written, such as ‘devil’s sick of sin’, many people were religious when this was wrote more so than today, this would have had a large impact upon them. This quote has strong poignant imagery, a devil’s face, which is sick of sin, would be hung, lifeless and intense with bitterness, this is a good example of the imagery used within the poem. The language used ties close links with the issue of war, such as ‘incurable’, ‘innocent’ and ‘ecstasy’, these are all perfect descriptions, the men were innocent and after a war of ecstasy they were incurable from the shock and turmoil they suffered, this is a strong image in the readers mind. Words like ‘guttering, choking, drowning’ symbolise pain and torture, war was ‘obscene as cancer’, it was repulsive, it spread and indecently killed them. The explicit detail exposed with fantastic language techniques helps Owen describe the harsh reality and lets the audience understand the hardship and terror these men suffered.
Similies such as ‘coughing like hags’ also enhanced the imagery; the men will have been heavily coughing from the gas attacks like old hags. Another similie is ‘And flound’ring like a man in fire or line’, concentrated lime will dissolve flesh and bones this gives a strong description of a man in immense pain and suffering, this imagery heightens the poem and adds realism. With powerful literary techniques like these Owen creates vivid images in the readers’ minds and shocks them to remember the poem. I feel that the metaphors used are very strong, such as ‘Men marched asleep’ and ‘drunk with fatigue’; these expresses their overwhelming exhaustion and makes the poem more believable. Repetition, exclamation marks and capitals increases the slow speed of this poem, ‘Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!’ this releases panic into the poem and quickly increases the pace; these tactics capture the reader and adds excitement to the intense parts of the story. I feel the poem is mostly at a slow speed as few commas are used; instead they are long drawn out sentences that follow for a few lines each, the speed is reduced again by the long worded sentences that make the message so vibrant and constant throughout. Techniques such as alliteration stress the importance of the poem and the message, ‘incurable sores on innocent tongues’, the ‘in’ sound is piercing and significant to the reader. The ‘ing’ sound in ‘guttering, choking, drowning’ helps enforce the image.
My personal response to this poem was shock that somebody would write a poem with the themes and issues of war and death in such explicit detail and used such realistic imagery. I feel the poem is very thought provoking and has enforced my view on warfare, I now agree that war is unnecessary and brutal. I can’t understand why somebody would kill another man in cold blood because he has been told to do so. This poem is strong, powerful and cleverly changes the minds of the audience; it uses effective language techniques and creates influential imagery.
I now intend to analyse the poem ‘The charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This particular poem is based on the Crimean war against Russia, the Russians had stolen the Crimean’s guns, the 600 members of the Light Brigade were the Crimean side and they intended to recapture their guns. But ‘someone had blundered’, instead of the Crimean’s going around the Russian troops and give them a surprise attack from behind they were given the command to ride straight up the valley and go head on at the Russians there would have been no element of surprise and also they were surrounded, ‘Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon to front of them’. It was fatal, they did not recapture the guns, but managed to break through the Russian line, many did not get back through and less than 300 soldiers returned. This attack was called the Charge of the Light Brigade and influenced the title of this poem.
The structure of this poem is in seven stanzas that are all different in length. The poem does not have any rhyming couplets, but when read it does seem to flow and have rhythm. The poem seems to rhyme due to the fact that most lines have either five or six syllables, therefore the reader will be pausing at the same time on every line, this gives the illusion that every line links with the next. Although there are no rhyming couplets similar words are used on the ends of every line again to help encourage the flow of the poem, such as ‘shell, fell, well and hell’ are all used in the same stanza but not in couplets, these same set of words are hen repeated elsewhere in the poem. This poem is in a chronological order, we are following the story of the noble six hundred going into battle. The poem is not anecdotal as we are being told of something as it is happening, although this poem was written after the charge it is presented as if it is happening as we read it.
The themes and issues highlighted in this poem are war; this is an account of a battle but brutal factors have been blurred for a more dramatic effect, this poem leaves out the horror, realism and reality in order to support nobility and glory to the death of the Light Brigade. Nobility is the strongest theme raised in the poem as it carries a patriotic nationalistic approach to war, they are know as the ‘Noble six hundred’, the poem is constantly paying tribute to them and their ability not to be paralysed by the fear of death and have blind obedience. It is the most poignant theme in the poem and is being constantly empathised throughout.
This poem was written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, he was also a reader of The Times newspaper in which found an article by William Howard Russell; William was a dispatch for the newspaper and was on the front line with the men reporting the events. Alfred was inspired by the article and chose to write a poem about it. Alfred never went to war and never found out the brutal mortality of it, all he knew was the papers view and they produced a very biased account of the battle, therefore through lack of knowledge he thought that war was glorious and heroic and this is the type of message he portrayed within his poem. Tennyson tells an exciting story full of rhythm and rhyme, which brings the story to life, he finishes with sadness and honor and encourages us to pay tribute to the brave men who fought and died carrying out their duty. He fails to tell us that is was unnecessary and that the charge that whipped out the brigade achieved nothing and was a complete military disaster. He believes that the charge was a terrible but unavoidable waste of life.
The message is not made very obvious, as the poem is just a story of a battle; therefore a strong view-changing message about the factors of war is not given out for the audience to absorb. The view that Alfred is trying to make us believe is that the six hundred men that formed the Light Brigade were noble and heroic and what they did was extraordinary and showed fantastic bravery. The aim of this poem was to give out a patriotic approach to war and to pay tribute to the noble six hundred, he is proud of these men and wishes to show this in his poem even though it turned out to be an unnecessary disaster, the poem has been written with a very biased account. There is no hidden meaning or message within this poem that strikes the audience as important other than to respect and honor the bravery of these six hundred men.
The poem is aimed at the general public and has a wide audience; it could be targeted more at the well-to-do people who read The Times newspaper, as this is where the inspiration to write the poem came from. The poem was soon made into a song that was sung in concert halls for entertainment, therefore the song was written for people’s enjoyment and pleasure. The audience the poem attracted was of the sort of people that went to music halls when this was first written almost 140 years ago, these will have been upper class ladies and gentlemen. They will have also not been to war and therefore will have this biased and stereotypical view of war and will agree that it was noble and glorious, the song would not have changed their views, only enhanced them more. They felt they were the superior race to the Russian and Cossack soldiers, therefore would not have admitted defeat and believed that even though they lost more than half their troops, they did win the battle. Whether they really won or lost is not mentioned in the poem, this empathises their biased accounts and beliefs of superiority.
The language used in this poem is very formal and no ‘slang’ words are used; we know the poem is formal as there is no mention of bloodshed and it is a very light hearted and naïve poem, such as the line ‘Sabring the gunners there’ is a formal way to cover up the injury and loss that the Light Brigade suffered. The language used is very dated and suits the times that it was wrote in, ‘mouth of Hell’, people were religious and this would have had a large effect on them. Hell today is not considered as a dangerous or frightening place and would not have the same effect, but by putting this in the poem it suggests that the poem was written a long time ago. Repetition plays an important literacy technique in this poem as many lines are repeated; this increases the pace of the poem making it effervescent, optimistic and joyful, which has helped it become a song. ‘Half a league’ is repeated three times at the beginning, ‘Cannon to….’ is repeated six times and the words ‘six hundred’ is repeated seven times, by doing this it empathises the message of the poem and makes important issues or moments stand out in the story. Repetition quickly increases the pace; these tactics capture the reader and add excitement to the intense or dull parts of the story.
Imagery was successfully used within this poem to create strong pictures in the readers’ minds, ‘Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell’, here a powerful image is made of these brave six hundred men riding to their deaths, imagery and dramatic language is used to enforce the conditions and make the story more theatrical. Imagery such as ‘Flashed all their sabers bare’ gives the vivid picture of them ready to fight and skillfully charging on horseback, this is again to add glory to the noble six hundred and heightens the story. ‘Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell’ is also a powerful metaphor and language technique, they were not really going into a jaw of death but when a poet uses words like these it increases the excitement of the story and adds to the imagery. The message that these men were blind to the fact they could die and still carried on is remembered more when fantastic imagery is used. Similies were not used in the poem as I don’t feel these are as powerful as metaphors, the soldiers received more praise riding into the valley of death than they would have received going in to a valley like death. It’s a small difference but makes a large affect upon a poem and the audience.
My personal response to this poem was instant respect for the six hundred men as I feel this poem portrays them as fantastic role models for any man going into battle, as they were clearly not phased by fear of death, this is what the poet has intended me to think and has caused this to happen successfully. Since I first read the poem I have begun to realise that they were unaware of the dangers that faced them or the fact that somebody had blundered, which later resulted in many of their deaths. I also feel that this account of the battle is very biased and has been dramatized so that the men receive more gratitude than maybe they should have done. I also think that the poet has deliberately avoided subjects such as death, the fact they lost over half their men and explicit details of injury and suffering in order to support the nobility of the men and encourage the readers’ beliefs that what happened was necessary and understandable. I do not like this poem because of these reasons.
I now intend to compare the poems. I feel the largest difference that altered the two poems highly opinionated views was the experiences the poets had had. Owen had had first hand experiences in the war and had been on the battlefield, he had seen men be killed in cold blood before his eyes and he has endured the loss, injury and suffering many men had to encounter when they were in war. As a result of this he is very bitter, critical and angry towards any war related subjects, he therefore ridicules any other person that believes that it is noble and honorable to die for their country and forces his audience to believe what he believes. Owen focused on the horror of war whereas Tennyson focused on the glory. Tennyson is the total opposite, he has never had any first hand experiences, he has never seen the war as Owen has seen it and therefore cannot begin to understand the pain and endurance they were subject to. Tennyson has just read papers that contain a very biased view and only write about what the people want o hear and therefore he has been molded into believing that war must be glorious and noble and therefore presents war as a fantastic opportunity to show that you also respect and will honor your country. I feel Owen writes in a very negative style whereas Tennyson writes in a positive manor; these styles are deeply reflected in their work and their opinion of warfare.
As a result of Tennyson not having this first hand experience he avoids the gruesome details and there are no graphical descriptions in his poem, he blurs the facts but adds dramatic verbs and adjectives, powerful imagery with fantastic use of metaphors to show extent of action. The tone is light hearted and written to entertain in music halls, and only becomes serious after the line ‘Then they rode back but not the six hundred’, this is the only part of the poem that is slightly depressing and still he does not empathize on the death of so many men, he focuses still on the bravery. Owen has a distressing, demoralizing and repulsive tone throughout the poem which never rises, this song could not be sung as a light hearted song in music halls as this is not the image the poet wanted to create. As Owen had the first hand experiences he told the actions that happened that day in explicit detail, he deliberately included all the gruesome details to make the poem more thought provoking and have more of an affect upon the audience. Owen expressively highlights and emphasises the suffering, injury, death and loss whereas Tennyson avoids it totally to encourage his beliefs. Owen wants the reader to feel sad, disturbed and moved by his poem; he wants to shock them with the brutal mortality of what really happens at war. Tennyson wants his reader to believe war is good and honorable and wants them to feel proud that men would die for their country.
In conclusion to this I feel that ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson both have differing views on warfare due to their experiences. Owen has had first hand experiences, he has seen the suffering and death and therefore writes in a negative way, this has influenced his opinions on warfare and this is shown throughout this poem. Tennyson has never been to war, he has only read about it in the papers and has received a very biased account, this has influenced him to believe that war is glorious and noble, therefore he writes about war in a positive style. The messages given in both poems also link with the poets views, Owen has successfully pressurized and frightened the audience into conforming he does not allow them to have another opinion, the audience will believe that warfare is unnecessary if circumstances like the one Owen described are happening. Tennyson’s message is not as clear, once reading his poem the audience will see the positive side to war and the advantages of fighting for our rights. Both poems have used thought provoking and fantastic imagery to portray their differing and highly opinionated views on warfare. Powerful literacy techniques and successful uses of metaphors and similies cleverly enhance the story and increase the pace, which influences the excitement. Therefore I can say that the experiences that a man has in connection to warfare will defiantly affect their view and how they present the issue in the style of a poem, also that poets will hide parts of the truth to emphasise their view and capture their audiences’ minds.
