The effects to the reader in the two poems are very different. In “Disabled” there is an appearance of “dark” and “gray”, “ghastly”, and “shivered”. These unpleasant words set up the isolation of the wounded soldier. Owen has a good use of sound and colour in this poem to set a grim portrayal of the subject. For example, he has uses the colour of “grey” to represent the meaning of colourless, sadness, sombre and dim. He also uses the colour of “light blue” to create an image of peace and gentleness to show contrast between the past and the present. Then he uses a colour of “purple” to show his wounds and emphasize on the fact that his “veins ran dry”. The example of using sound is when Owen describes voices of boys “rang like a hymn”. The word “hymn” makes us feel very sad and upset because “hymn” is the sound in the church and normally sound in church is gloomy. Owen also describes the life of the man that used to be happy before by using words like, “light”, “warm”, and “lovelier”. The lines “ in the old times, before he threw away his knees” show the needless sacrifice of joining the war, lost the person the life he had. This creates the idea of change from being active to be passive, being useful to be useless, and being attractive and popular with girls to being ignored. All results of becoming physically disabled. So in this poem the use of language affects reader by evoking sympathy from the reader for the soldier, knowing that he can no longer be happy after his loss due to the horrors of war.
In “The Charge of the Light Brigade’, superior feelings of patriotism are exhibited through words like “glory”, “boldly”, “noble” and “hero”. There is the idea of soldiers’ fighting bravely through the battle despite heavy casualties. The effect to the reader is totally different from “Disabled”. This is because the poet wants to have the reader think that being a soldier is honourable and brave and being proud of the soldier. It also sets that we will never forget what the soldiers have done “When can their glory fade”.
The used of structure in the two poems are that they all have similarities and differences. First of all, the narration of both poems is described as third person. This is because the poet is not in that situation but comments on characters by using ‘he’. For example in “Disabled”, “he sat in a wheelchair” the poet used “he” to comments on character. Similarly, in “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, poet used “they” to comment on the characters too.
Secondly, both of the poems use rhythm to suggest how the poems were presented. In “Disabled” the rhythm suggests that the poem is slow. Due to the emphasised sounds or beats in each line. This is in contrast to “The Charge of the Light Brigade” which suggests a soldier marching or the movement of troops giving the fast galloping rhythm. “Half a league, half a league, half a league on ward, All in the valley of death”
Thirdly, both poems have different points of view. In “Disabled”, the poet has described war as a bad thing by showing that one man who joined up the war and when he come back he became disabled. He is now sitting on a wheeled chair waiting for dark. Owen shows his anger on what war can do to a person. It can ruin one’s life. It has ruined this one! Unlike “The Charge of the Light Brigade” Tennyson has described the war as a good thing. He writes to encourage the soldiers to fight for their country marvelling, “O the wild charge they made! All the world wonder’d”. So the point of view of the two poems is different to each other.
In “Disabled”, the language has been used in such a way to achieve its effects in detail to shock the reader. The use of metaphor “Waiting for the dark” creates an image of waiting for death. This young soldier is not even nineteen years of age but he cannot enjoy the world any longer. This is because he is physically disabled. He has no legs and without at least one arm: “Legless, sewn short at elbow. Also the used of alliteration “ghastly suit of grey” creates the image to the reader to illustrate a joyless present. In the second stanza, “Now he never feel again how slim girl’s waists are”. In this line, Owen wants the reader to think about how this man used to go into town and have fun with girls but now girls are repulsed by him. It is a terrible emotion. Owen also writes “Now he is old; his back will never brace”; the use of “never” is a very effective word to indicate eternity. Word shows the results of what the war has done to him, losing limbs. This not just they had physical effects but also mental effect on this wounded soldier. And he will always regret what he did and why he should put himself through the war. This is a contrast to the popular handsome young man he used to be. The irony in the fourth stanza is very powerful and effective. The irony being that here we have loss of life as opposed to the creation of life. “One time he’d like a blood smear down his leg”. This line shows the concept of revisal is again used, from sporting hero to a cripple, from a handsome man to a queer disease, and from warm to cold. He also feels that when he returns in a terrible state, the crowds welcoming of the returning soldier is in sharp contrast to the roar of the football crowd, “Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal”. This is the cheer heavily tinged with pity and deep repulsion towards their physical loss. In the last stanza, Owen also writes to create the effect of people see him as a sort of circus attraction and they all pity him. Owen shows that people don’t actually care about what happens. They only mourn for the death and it is all due to the cruel, harsh nature of war “To-night he noticed how the women eyes/ passed from him to the strong men that were whole”. This also shows that now he knows he will be shunned by women. He is incomplete, less than man, and he can no longer attract the opposite sex. Now he depend on young women to put him to bed which is in contrast to what he used to be when he expected to take women to bed “Why don’t they come/ And put him in bed”. So all these things is by the poet to show the reward for fighting for their country is having your life destroyed. Owen expresses his anger in this poem, on what the horrors of war can do to a person.
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” also uses metaphor to create the image. Tennyson writes “Valley of death” this metaphor creates the image in the mind of reader of place of a horror, of danger, of no escape and what soldiers have to face. In this poem the poet used a lot of repetition to show the strong emotion. In verse one, Tennyson had repeated “half a league” 3 times to suggest the disciplined movement of troops toward the death. In verse three, the repetition of “cannon” heightens the tension during war as they are surrounded by cannons, but they still ride to the heart of the enemy lines. This gives the indication of blatant bravery in the eye of death. In verse two, the poet had used the repetition of sound “Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why, Their’s but to do and die”. This line shows the ideological about people responsible for defending the unquestionable bravery and patriotism their country. Tennyson also writes, “Flash’d all their sabres bare” in this state the soldier have to face death but they are still going to attack and save their gun. Tennyson writes this poem to commemorate their bravery and the noble charge the light Brigade made, urging the reader not to forget their courage “Honour the charge they made!/ Honour the Light Brigade”.
The two poems that I have gone through have different ways of presenting their themes. In both, the poets have effectively portrayed the horrors and tragedy of war. In “The Charge of the Light Brigade; however, Lord Tennyson marvels on the sacrifices made and indicates that they were worthwhile causes. Owen, on the band, sees sacrifices and death in war as senseless and absurd.