With a total of six stanzas Tennyson’s poem has a fast and repetitive rhythm but, no regular rhyme this represents the “charge” and gallop of the horses. He repeats himself to get the reader to really think about what is being said and to make them remember it for example, the amount of soldiers, “Rode the six hundred.” As the poem progresses the words slightly change to “left of six hundred” to show that there are very little left of the original six hundred. Owens’s poem has only four stanzas, it also has a rhyme that is present throughout the poem the rhythm in this poem is a much more relaxed pace with long line and stanzas expressing the soldiers that are “Drunk with fatigue”. Apart from two lines in the middle of the poem which stand out in particular “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me guttering, choking, drowning” Owen has done this on purpose to tell the readers that every dream he has is of the dying man’s “gutting, choking, drowning”. He haunts Owen maybe even telling him to write this poem. This makes the readers feel sorry for him and believe him more so that dieing for ones country is not sweet and right.
Owens’s soldiers are described as tired, powerless and have low moral after returning from the front line, “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge” decrepit old women. Owen uses sludge rather than of mud because sludge implies that it’s nearly impossible to move in it. This shows the helplessness of the soldiers and how one of them could have died. On the other hand Tennyson’s solider are portrayed as bold heroic and selfless, “Was there a man dismay’d? Not tho’ the solider knew” this is reflected in the rhythm of the poem. Also showing the boldness of the soldiers is “Flash’d all their sabres bare,” this creates an almost Godly effect because of the word “Flash’d” its like the are throwing bolts of lighting, Tennyson also uses sibilance here to mimic the swords being flashed bare.
The language used in the two poems varies between them and are both very different. In Tennyson’s poem he use very clear, conventional and possibly even objective language, “Honour the light brigade,” He is telling the reader to remember them, as if they had previously been forgotten. Owens language is emotional, inventive and at times repulsive. “Vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,” the reader is degusted to the limit that they agree with Owen. Another example is when he mentions “children” the reader is sickened more so because of the innocent ness of the children and such a taboo subject as “cancer”.
I don’t think you could rate these poems on the same level because Owen was a solider and saw a man die whereas, Tennyson is just a using commenting on what he knows. This could be also be portrayed in the message of each poem. Tennyson is trying to say that to die in action is a noble and brave way to die but, Owen suggests you should not believe that it is good and noble to die for your country because he has seen it and it isn’t.
