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Introduction

Diabled: Disabled shows the struggle of one man who everyday contemplates his wasted life. All he has are the memories but they seem to become more distant as the days go on. Owen is describing someone that he knew in the army. This man was in the Scottish regiment. He has had his leg blown up. He has no legs and his arms are sewn at the elbow. He is in an institute, a nursing home of some sought. He waits for darkness because then things will be quiet. He is fed up with life and is waiting to die. He hears voices of boys singing, these are voices of people playing just as he had once played. He talks about the evenings. He says that at this time the towns atmosphere was fun and happy everyone is dancing having fun. He is very sad that he will never again experience this again. He says the girls look upon like he has some kind of disease. He talks of how he will never again feel the waist of a women, he also talks about how he threw away his knees in the war He was once a lovely face now he looks old. He back is now in a brace this is the back that was not so long ago was as strong as anything. He has lost his colour just like losing blood. He feels as tough he has poured his life away down endless shell holes, he wonders what he has been given for this. Nothing. "And leap of purple spurted from his thigh." He loves his youth. When his leg was blown away a massive part of him is now missing. One time he saw blood down his leg from a football injury, he thought this was great. Now he has no leg. He wonders why he joined the army. ...read more.

Middle

Owen makes extensive use of Repetition, the last two lines of the poem demonstrating this: How cold and late it is? Why don't they come And put him to bed? Why don't they come? This repetition equates to monumental depression, the anxiety the boy is feeling as he waits for somebody to put him to bed. The pitiful image of the young man, dreaming of his warm past in a cold lonely room is a haunting one, and Owen uses it effectively. In Disabled, Owen looks at the cosmic experience of war, and convey s to the reader the horror of the individual battle which continues long after the primary conflict The Charge Of The Light Brigade: Tennyson�s poem celebrates the glory of war, despite the fact that, because of an error of judgement ('Someone had blundered�), six hundred soldiers were sent to their death. He was a civilian poet, as opposed to a soldier poet like Owen. His poem 'Light Brigade� increased the morale of the British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War and of the people at home, but Tennyson had not been an eyewitness to the battle he describes. Tennyson�s poem is a celebration of the bravery of the six hundred British troops who went into battle against all odds, even though they knew that they would be killed. The poem starts in the middle of the action. 'Light Brigade� is written in dactylic feet (one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables) and this gives a sense of the excitement of the galloping horses in the cavalry charge: 'Half a league, half a league Half a league onward� Tennyson creates a vivid impression of the bravery of the soldiers with many 'verbs of action: 'Flash'd all their sabres bare, Flash'd as they turn'd in air, Sabring the gunners there� The heroic command in stanza 1, which is repeated for effect in stanza 2, sweeps the reader along without time to question the futility of the gesture: 'Forward, the Light Brigade! ...read more.

Conclusion

The brief victory that was gained in the fourth stanza has made no difference in the overall scope of the battle. The first time these words were used (lines 18-22), though, they ended with a claim of the soldiers' boldness and skill: this time, they end with the soldiers (referred to directly as "heroes" ) being shot down. The path that the Light Brigade charged into - the jaws of death, the mouth of h**l - is mentioned again as the survivors make their escape. Anthropologists and sociologists have observed that going into h**l and then returning is a common motif in the mythology of many of the world's cultures, including one of the best-known myths of Western civilization, the labors of Hercules. The survivors of this battle are thus raised to heroic status by the words that this poem uses to describe the valley's entrance. Lines 50-55 The focus of the poem shifts in this stanza, from describing the battle scene to addressing the reader directly. In using the description "wild" to marvel at the charge, Line 51 implies that thoughtless bravery is to be admired in and of itself, regardless of concerns about strategy or success. Repeating the line "All the world wondered" in line 52 adds to the idea that what the soldiers have done goes beyond the average person's comprehension: the soldiers are following rules that those who rely on intellect over loyalty might not understand. Although a close reading of the tone of this poem can leave little question about how we are meant to feel about these cavalrymen, the poem does not rely upon a reader's understanding of the subtleties of tone, but directly tells the reader in line 53 and line 55 to honor these soldiers. That the poem is so straightforward about its intent is an indicator that it was written for a common, often uneducated, audience, to celebrate the actions of common soldiers who understood what they were being asked to do better than the blundering military strategists who planned the attack. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level War Poetry section.