The poem, 'The Charge of The Light Brigade', was written in the Crimean War by Alfred Tennyson, he was the poet Laureate at the time. His poem is about a military disaster where roughly six hundred soldiers were falsely sent to charge right into enemy gunfire, many cannons by their captain. This was named the 'Charge of the Light Brigade'.
Unlike Owen, Tennyson was not a witness of what he was writing about. Owen was a soldier in the first world war, and he was writing about the horrors of what happened, he writes from first hand experience, Tennyson wrote using what he read from newspapers, and from other people, so his poem may not be as accurate as 'Dulce et Decorum Est'.Altough it is hard to tell if it is unaccurate or not, because from poems were written in different wars, and different parts of the world. 'Dulce et Decorum Est' was written in the First World War, while 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' was written in the Crimean War.
Owen has experienced months of horrible conditions in the trenches at the front line of the war, as shown by the way the soldiers were "Coughing like hags". He would have seen many people in pain, agony, and experienced one of the most horrific and desturctive wars in history, so his view of the war was very bad.He was involved in the first World War, so he knows the realities of warfare. I can see that his poem is aimed at the poets who wrote about glory, honour and patriotism.He wants to show clearly the realities of conflict, behind the heroism and splendour, and this is shown by the vivid language and imagery he uses. He has a very bad view of war as a whole. However, Tennyson shows a totally different approach to war. Being the poet Laureate, it could be argued that Tennyson was trying to underplay the completely unnecessary death of so many men. His poem becomes political, as he is defending the establishment, where men were told, when they joined the army and sent to die, that they would die heroically, not as fools, despite being sent to the front line by generals far from the danger. On top of all of this, Tennyson was not actually in the war unlike Owen. Tennyson had to use soldiers stories of the charge to write his poem, which was mainly high ranked officers of which there were few there, so he also had to use his imagination to a certain extent. This is reflected in his view of war. He does not consider the dreadful realities of war, only the honour and bravery, as the Laureate, he had to make it sound successful. The two writers use many methods to convey their opinions, and also to show or to hide the realities and myths surrounding war. Firstly, the two writers try to make their poems sound as realistic as possible and as convincing as possible. Both writers use direct speech in their poems. In Tennyson's poem, "Forward, the Light Brigade!" is used, and in 'Dulce et Decorum Est', we hear "Gas! Gas! Quick, boys". This direct speech not only makes the poems more exciting, but it also adds realism in a way.
Owen makes his poem, 'Dulce et Decorum Est' more realistic by using the senses to add his descriptions. He includes the sounds of gas shells dropping, and tastes, for example, "The blood came gargling up from the froth-corrupted lungs". He then gives an impression of the awful taste of this blood; "Bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues". This descriptive use of senses makes the poem very realistic, Tennyson does not use senses as description.
The images created in 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' are very majestic and noble. The mood is very glorious and heroic. The first image created in the viewers mind is the "Valley of Death". In the word "death", Tennyson uses a capital 'D', i think that this is trying to personify Death with a person. Such as the 'Grim Reaper', maybe he is trying to say that the soldiers charging into the valley will not a slow, painful death, but a fast, painless death. Using the phrase "Valley of Death" also makes the soldiers sound more heroic, as if they know they are going to die down there, but they are doing it for their country and their families.
Each of the two poems have a different paced rythm. Owen uses words to create a slow, exhausted rythm. As if it was in-tune to the men slowly marching along, nearly asleep. On the other hand, Tennyson uses a fast paced rythm. The words fit in to tune with what is most probably the rythm of the horses galloping.
Between these two poems there are two main differences. 'Dulce et Decorum Est' was set in the First World War, while 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' was set in the Crimean War. But the main difference is that 'Dulce et Decorum Est' is trying to show the horrors of the war in detail, while 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' is trying to show that war was heroic, and is not in great detail.
The poem 'Vitai Lampada' was written by Henry Newbolt who lived from 1862-1938. In this poem, Newbolt is comparing a war which was in the middle of a desert, to a cricket match which he took part in as a young boy at school.
In the first stanza, Newbolt begins the poem by talking about the cricket match from when he played for his school team as a young boy. He begins by using powerful phrases to create thick tention. For example, "Breathless hush" and "Ten to make". By the phrase, "Ten to make", Newbolt means that its 10 more runs until his team wins the match. Newbolt then goes on to write "Last man in", so this means that the last batter was in, and the game was in his hands., he had to aim for the 10 runs to win the match. A bit later in the stanza, Newbolt mentions "Not for the sake of a ribboned coat, nor the selfish hope of a seasons fame", by this Newbolt is trying to but across the point that they were not playing for glory and fame, but merely for the sake of taking part.
As you move on down the poem, to the second stanza, Newbolt nearly completely changes the subject all of a sudden. The subject suddenly jumsp from the cricket match straight to a war in a desert where there are a group of soldiers trying to withstand an attack by using a square formation. As the attack goes on, the soldiers defending start to fall rapidly, which in the end leaves one soldier standing. It is just like in the first stanza, the outcome of the event is left in one person's hands, and his only. The last batter in a cricket match, which the game in his hands, and the last soldier in a battle, the outcome in his hands.
In the second stanza, Newbolt is using more sort of depressing words. "The sand of the desert is sodden red", Newbolt is showing by this sentence, how much gore and violence took place, creating a sickening view. In the next line, Newbolt goes on to saying "Red with the wreck of a square that broke", again, this is mentioning how messy and gory it was, by "Red" he means the blood, and by "The wreck of a square that broke", Newbolt is telling you that they were defending in a square formation, which obviously went wrong. Newbolt then goes on to write "The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead", the Gatlings most probably being their most powerful gun, and their Colonel dead, meaning they would'nt have much organisation, which resulted in a bad defence. In line 14, he mentions "And England's far, and Honour a name", by this, i think Newbolt again means that they are not fighting for glory or fame, but for the sake of taking part, just like in the cricket match. In the final line of the second stanza, Newbolt writes, "Play up! play up! and play the game!", the soldier is remembering back to the cricket match, when the Captain said that to the last man in. In a way, he is relating War to a Game, and in both instances they are there for simple taking part, not for glory or fame.
In the third and final stanza, Newbolt is basically explaining what the first and second stanzas mean, a bit like ive already done, but in a lot less words.
Each of the three poets which I have mentioned, each have their own different views on war and the soldiers that were in the certain battles.
Owen's I would say has the very worst view of war, as he was writing his poems first hand, he was a soldier in war, and he knew what it was actually like being there and fighting. He uses a very strong rhythm in his first two stanzas, which helps add to the attitude of the poem to the readers, it gives feel of exhausted, slow soldiers, literally only just keeping their eyes open and having to drag most of their body along with them. His poem also gives alot of images to the readers, for example, for me, when reading this poem, I automatically got an image of soldiers dragging themselves along, slowly and looking a state. You would of soldiers being extremely neat and tidy looking, but instead you get the image of dity and torn clothes etc.
Owen's poem is directed at Jessie Pope, who back in England was saying that War was honourable and it was a great thing to fight for your country, but Owen knew from being one of the soldiers, that this was'nt true, it was complete horror, not honourable.
All in all, I think Owen's view of War was a horrible experience and that the soldiers of the War had to put up with extremely bad conditions. And as it was the First World War, there was not much advanced medicine etc as we have today. This would be resulting in terrible pains if they were attacked, which would be un-bareable to us in our time as we arent used to having to put up with extrem long-term pain, but these dasys we have good medicines around.
But then when you come to Tennyson, the writer of "The Charge of the Light Brigade", he has an entierly different view on War and the soldiers of the War. Unlike Owen, he was'nt a soldier in a War, so his poems were based on second hand information. He did not witness the horrible conditions that soldiers experienced so he didnt write anything about it. He did'nt know it was horrible conditions, he probably thought it would be a bit like normal life as a soldier, just quite a lot more dangerous. He thinks that the "Charge of the Light Brigade" was a honourable and glorious War event in the Crimean War. His opinion on War is entierly different to Owen's. He did not make his poem sound sort of slow and droopy like Owen's, he used a rythm of the sound of the soldier's horses galloping, adding to the effect of honour.
Overall, Tennyson's view on War was honourable and glourious, he believed may have believed that the soldiers were lucky to die in such a 'honourable' way.
On the other hand, there is Newbolt, the writer of "Vitai Lampada", again, he has a different view of War to the other two poets. Just like Tennyson, Newbolt was not actually a witness of this battle, but he still wrote a poem on it from other people's accounts and from the newspapers etc. So he did not know entirely what it was like being a soldier in a battle. Although he knows it is bloody and gory, and a terrible sight, he refers War to being like a game. He relates War to a cricket match he has when he was a young boy. Im not so sure i agree with that, but that is his opinion I believe. Unlike Tennyson's poem, this is not about glory or fame, but for the sake of taking part, while Tennyson's poem is about fame and glory. In that way of looking at it, they are kind of opposites to eachother in that way.
In this poem, Newbolt has contained a lot of tension. Being the last man in a cricket match or being the last man in a battle, the outcome is in their hands, this creates a great amount of tension.