Tennyson’s stanzas are blank verses. However, you will be able to
find the occasional rhyme when he describes the brave soldiers attempts from the war when they, ‘Plunged in the battery smoke, Right through the line they broke’. Kipling uses noticeably more rhyme in his stanzas than Tennyson does. As he elaborates on how, ‘they laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey; keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they’.
Tennyson creates the rhythm of galloping horses. I feel that this s a fine effect
as you can just imagine the soldiers moving ‘Forward the light brigade’ on their strong stallions as they boldly lead into the war. Kipling unfortunately has no rhythm to his poem.
‘Cannon to the left of them, cannon to the right of them, cannon in front of them’ Tennyson’s use of language here envogues the war to his readers as well as its surroundings. As for Kipling he only repeats the phrase, ‘the last of the light brigade’ at the end of each stanza.
Tennyson uses alliteration to emphasise what went on in the parts of the war,
‘stormed at with shot and shell’ gives us a pretty good impression of how the army
attacked. However, Kipling uses alliteration to describe the soldiers themselves and
how ‘they were only shiftless soldiers’ as well as feeling as if their life was being
wasted. In my perspective I believe they may feel this way since they had to swallow
their pride in order to go too Tennyson, to get some food or whatever they needed.
Both poets share the history as well as knowledge of the war. Also they both
tell reader how the soldiers were brave and made heroic gestures throughout the war,
in their poems. They were both written around the 19th century.
The arrangements of the poems are alike in the sense that their stanzas relate to the next stanza and that they keep the meaning throughout.
The use of repetition from the two poets were exceptional as they used it at the right time in their stanzas to create that extra bit of imagination to their poems.
As for the use of alliteration I believe that it was slightly better in Tennyson’s
poem although the use of it was good in both poems. However I feel Tennyson’s used
it better to emphasise the attacks where Kipling just used it to describe out the soldiers
thought that their lives were being wasted.
However, how the poets have written their poem moods are not similar. The
mood differences in the two poems are quite like chalk and cheese. I say this for the
fact that Tennyson seems to have written about how brave the soldiers were and how
they are our heroes, so this implies a good thought. Where as Kipling has chose to
inform the reader how hard they had to work to become heroes and how they lost they
dignity basically begging for their food, so really the mood Kipling has created makes
it seem similar to a tramp begging, ‘please, write we are starving now’.
There is a slight variation of action going on in the poems. Where as Tennyson
has gone for thrilling information of the war, Kipling has gone for the background
information of how tough it was for the Light Brigade.
As for the rhythm it’s pretty simple. Tennyson’s had the rhythm of horse
galloping/charging where as Kipling’s had no rhythm what so ever.
In my conclusion I feel that the better of the two poems was definitely
Kipling’s poem. I say as I feel his poem caught my interest just that extra bit more, simply for the fact that it rhymed more and in addition it was much more catchier. However, as for general information given out from the poem, then Tennyson has certainly out done Kipling.
