“Gas! Gas! Quick boys!” This is a dramatic change in pace to demonstrate the sudden panic and the desperate rush to save your own life. Using alliteration, repetition and direct speech Owen sucks you into the panic and pressure of this attack. Owen immediately puts you in the position of a soldier looking “through the misty panes” of a gas mask. As Owen served as an officer during the war he knows this scenario all too well and displays this in the poem in order to warn people who believe that war is glorious. Amidst the chaos soldiers attempt to fit their “their clumsy helmets.” The helmets are not clumsy but the soldiers are as they “fumble” to fit them in time. “Ecstasy” describes their sudden madness and desperation as they fight for their lives while trying to fit the gas masks to escape the terrifying death which a breath of the gas would result in. “But there is always one” the word “one” shows that in war your life was nothing more than a number, the narrator who was in the same company as the “one” soldier didn’t even know his name. We are given a horrendous image of the soldier drowning in a sea of green gas. It is supposed to be an honourable thing to die for your country but this man “drowned like a man in fire or lime” while the rest of the company trudged on. He is still haunted by this “in all his dreams” and feels guilty about not being able to help “his face hanging like a devil sick of sin” here Owen implies that the war is so horrific the devil himself wants no more. Owen’s shocking imagery “and watch his white eyes writhing in his face” paint a picture of pain, horror and extreme discomfort. The “froth corrupted lungs” describes very vividly the terror of the soldier’s death. The word “corrupted” has a double meaning, it implied the deceitfulness involved in getting men to go to war when this is how they die, the men are cheated into thinking war is glorious and they are let down badly. He uses “you” in this stanza frequently putting you in his position, to hear at every jolt “the blood.” If you could hear every noise that man made as he dies, explaining how you not only suffer your own pain but everyone else’s. Owen describes the war “as obscene as cancer” he uses cancer because it is something everyone fears and it compares to war in the way it breaks down your body and its only a matter of time, although you don’t know how long you will survive, death is inevitable. Owen addresses the reader angrily in the end of this stanza using a definite tone. Having described in graphic detail the sights of war. He tells us not to tell “the old lie” to innocent children naïve to the truth “Dulce et decorum est” a quote meaning it is great and glorious thing to die for your country. This poem is extremely effective as an anti-war poem by using vivid comparisons and graphic images to have the reader feel disgusted at what war is capable of. Making war seem absolutely horrid and revolting, just as the author wanted it to.
“The charge of the light brigade” however presents us with a contrasting view. The light brigade are portrayed as majestic and noble. It is written “half a league, half a league. Half a league onward” the repetition gives us an impression of distance and gives a sense of excitement of the galloping horses in the cavalry charge. The mood of the poem is glorious and heroic. He gives us a death a capital D and thus personifying death. This implies that soldiers will die a quick and painless death. If Death is a person then he will be humane and this suggests the soldiers die a death free from suffering. The poem is made heroic by the soldiers who “boldly and well” go into the valley of death. An image is created of the light brigade on horseback charging fearlessly towards the guns into almost certain death “forward the light brigade charge for the guns”.
Tennyson creates the impression of a smart, clean, impressive army. The soldiers flashed as they turned in the air. This suggests that they were so powerful and energetic they were almost flying. A clean easy victory is awarded to the light brigade by Tennyson “the line they broke” The fact that the light brigade defeated a whole army makes them sound more courageous and brave but also skilled and not reckless. “It makes them more courageous and brave then skilled and reckless as they succeeded.”
Tennyson does not show the pain of the people killed. He describes a very clean efficient annihilation of the enemy, which is more reminiscent of a film rather than real life conflict. With the exclusion of pain, war is perceived as glorious rather than terrifying. But if a death is long suffering it removes the greatness from dieing for your country and turns into something more than horrific.
Tennyson directly describes the soldiers as “hero’s” “while horse and hero fell” Instead of making war sound terrible he turns the soldier into a martyr, he makes the individual important. If the individual did not matter then giving your life would not be glorious because no one would even remember you, in effect you would not matter thus contradicting the glory of war.
The use of rhetorical questions “was there a man dismayed?” and “when can their glory fade?” implies that everyone was happy with the results of what happened and their glory will never fade they will always be remembered. Presenting the idea that these men fought and died for their country means they are immortal because their importance will never be forgotten.
Tennyson uses words such as “boldly,” “forward,” “hero,” “fought,” “glory,” “honour” and “noble” to give the poem a very exciting, thrilling aspect. This also gives a romantic view of war.
By repeating the phrase “the 600” it becomes familiar and uninspiring so we don’t contemplate that 600 soldiers were sent to their death.
The speed of the poem is very fast this is indicative of the fast light brigade and emulates the gallop of the horses. As opposed to “dulce et decorum est” where the slow pace reflects the tiredness of the men in the poem. This speed is achieved by long words, long lines, the lack of rhyme and infrequent punctuation. In the charge of the light brigade the short words and lines speed up the poem conveying the excitement.
In conclusion, it is not a great and glorious thing to die for your country, As stated by “Dulce et decorum est” which was written by a soldier who served on the front line whereas the charge of the light brigade was written by the poet from a second hand source and perhaps he was trying to make the needless death of “the 600” appear better than the actual truth and therefore may harbour some bias. Wilfred Owen tells us how a soldier’s life was “a nightmare” turning fit young men into “hags” when you died you were not a hero. Your company who didn’t even know your name could do nothing but walk on. In reality it is a terrible and unromantic thing to die for your country.
