In the first stanza Owen describes the exhaustion and horrific condition of the soldiers. He describes how they were marching towards their ‘distant rest’. This shows they were marching home after a battle, and also gives the impression that they would never reach their rest. In the first sentence Owen describes the soldiers as ‘old beggars’ and ‘like hags’. This use of similes is used to make the reader take pity on the soldiers. This description is also the opposite of the thought of and traditional view on war. Wilfred Owen shows their injury through the words ‘knock-kneed’ and ‘bent double’. This gives an impression of not only their physical wounds but mental injury as well. The statement ‘Men marched asleep’, at the start of the second sentence this sums up the point of the first sentence as it emphasises the soldiers exhaustion. The start of the poem was broken by lots of commas, which slowed down the reader. Owen describes how the soldiers went ‘lame’, ‘blind’, ‘drunk’ and ‘deaf’ as if they were stripped of their senses, and made oblivious and unaware, this almost makes them no longer human, a complete contrast from traditional images of war. Owen often invents new words to express the horrors of war. He does this with ‘blood-shod’, which literally means ‘shoes of blood’. When he does this it gives the impression that the things he has seen are too horrific for words.
The second stanza describes a gas attack and how Owen witnessed a man drowning in the gas. The poem changes pace and the stanza starts with a sudden panic. This is portrayed through the use of short, sharp sentences and exclamation marks. ‘Gas! Gas!’ gives a sense of immediacy and urgency through direct speech and this fast speed shows the need for action. The next sentence is as lot slower and Owen uses an odd combination of words. ‘An ecstasy of fumbling’ could be used to show extreme panic. ‘Ecstasy’ would normally be used to describe extreme pleasure or excitement, and could mean they were in extreme panic or running on adrenaline. The word fumbling also gives the impression that they were too slow. Owen then retains the urgency, but the use of assonance weighs down the poem by the repetition of heavy words. The sound ‘um’ from ‘fumbling’, ‘stumbling’ etc suggests a heavy slow and pondering atmosphere to show how difficult it is to fit the mask in such exhaustion. Owen then describes how he saw the man dying through ‘the misty panes and thick green light’. His graphic description of the man ‘floundering’ show how the man was struggling, unable to fit his mask and gives a sense of panic.
Stanza 3 changes into the present tense and Owen then describes how he relived the moment in his dreams – ‘In all my dreams before my helpless sight’. This shows it was so distressing that he can’t get rid of this recurring nightmare. The words ‘helpless sight’ also show that he can’t do any thing for the gassed man when he ‘plunges’ at him. Owen then shows his desperation to get across how horrific it was by using a string of words. ‘Guttering, choking, drowning’ shows that he found it too horrible for words. Owen describes how if we had seen what he had, we wouldn’t believe the old lie ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori’. Owen’s feelings also come across very strongly. The main point of this stanza is that Owen wants to say that people who believe the old lie ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ are guilty for all the death during the war. It starts with a reminder of the nightmares. In ‘in some smothering dreams’ the use of the word ‘smothering’ is a reference to the gas attack and how painful it is to relive it in his dreams. Owen also mocks tradition in the phrase ‘If you could hear’ by imitating an old war veteran. The whole stanza is only a couple of sentences because Owen is just using point after point to describe these ‘vile’ images. The assonance in ‘white eyes writhing’ is another example of Owen’s struggle to find the right words to describe how bad it was. The eyes didn’t actually wriggle on the mans face but ‘writhing’ shocks the reader. Owen is trying to convert us to his view by building up image after image of this terrible war. He tries to persuade us through shocking and horrifying us.
Charge of the light brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Alfred lord Tennyson was a descendant of king Edward the 3rd. he also wrote poems about the war. The poem I will be comparing written by Tennyson was written as a tribute to the British cavalrymen involved in the ill-vised charge in the Crimean war. Tennyson’s inspiration was John Keats.
This poem is comprised of six numbered stanzas varying in length from six to twelve lines. Each line is in dactylic rhythm. This gives us the sense of the horses charging along the battlefield. The rhyme scheme varies with each stanza. Often, Tennyson uses the same rhyme and occasionally even the same final word for several consecutive lines: ‘Flashed all their sabres bare, Flashed as they turned in air, Sab'ring the gunners there’, these are irregular rhymes as they don’t rhyme very well.
This poem has an irregular rhyme scheme in stanza four five and six. This is used to change the tempo of the poem from slow to fast
In the first stanza the six hundred soldiers are arriving to the place they will fight and most of them will die. The soldiers are ordered to go forward in to the valley of Death ‘Forward the Light Brigade’ ‘charge for the guns’ he said. This shows this place is baptised by Tennyson as ‘the valley of Death’ to warn us they are almost committing suicide.
The second stanza starts with the repetition of ‘Forward the Light Brigade!’, however, this time it is an exclamation. The soldiers didn’t doubt to follow the orders although they knew someone made a big mistake. These verses also emphasise the courage of the soldiers ‘Was there a man dismay’d?’, ‘Not tho’ the soldier knew’ ‘some one had blunder’d’. The six hundred didn’t question the commander’s authority although they knew it was a big mistake and they were going to die ‘ theirs but to do & die’.
In the third stanza Tennyson makes use of anaphora, in which the word ‘ cannon’ is repeated at the beginning of several consecutive verses ‘ cannon to the right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them’. Here, Tennyson wants to emphasise the fact they were surrounded. This effect makes the reader to identify themselves with the soldiers. The readers would be tremendously shocked if they were in the battle so that these verses emphasise the courage and valour of the six hundred. Tennyson uses different metaphors to refer to the place the soldiers died ‘Jaws of Death’ ‘mouth of Hell’, which was previously called The Valley of Death. It is also important to emphasize the repetition of the two last lines in the two first stanzas ‘into the valley of Death, rode the six hundred’. In addition, in the third stanza it has the same structure and meaning, ‘into the jaws of Death’ ‘into the mouth of Hell’. Treating death as the same thing as hell and making both as real as an animal’s attack, the poem heightens the viciousness or death on the battlefield. The last verse of the third first stanzas is repeated ‘Rode the six hundred’, which gives a picture of movement at the same time it is observed the inequality in terms of logistic equipment as the Russians fight with canons and they are riding horses.
The fourth stanza starts with a control of the six hundred over the Cossack and Russians ‘sabring the gunners there’. They ride into the enemy and are able to break through the front line of defence ‘right thro’ the line they broke’. Here it is shown a quite brave image of the six hundred, however the six hundred in the end are not the six hundred any more ‘then they rode back, but not, not the six hundred’.
The first five lines of the fifth stanza are the same than those from the third stanza with the exception of ‘cannon in front of them’ which is substituted by ‘cannon behind them’ which is even more desolator. This stanza gives us a picture of devastation, as this is the moment many soldiers die in spite of their bravery and skills ‘while horse & hero hell, they that had fought so well’. Then, Tennyson makes reference to those who survive the battle “came thro’ the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell”, they came back from Death as it was a miracle they survived the catastrophe.
Finally Tennyson expresses the immeasurable courage of these soldiers ‘when can their glory fade?’ ‘O the wild charge they made’. With the repetition of ‘all the word wonder’d’ the whole world wondered how they were able to be loyal until the end even though they knew they would probably die. Finally, the end of this last stanza shows the main purpose of the poet: to pay tribute to the brave six hundred who died in the battle of Balaclava for loyalty to those who blundered. ‘Honour the Light Brigade, Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!’
The Charge of the Light Brigade tells us of the glory of war, despite
the fact that, because of an error of judgement, six hundred soldiers were sent to their death. On the other hand, Dulce et Decorum Est, might almost have been written as a challenge to Tennyson´s patriotic views of battle. He presents the horror of senseless death in the trenches and shows the saying, 'it is sweet and a great honour to die for your country´, is a lie.
Dulce et decorum est is a dramatic poem, which shows the terrible waste of life during the ww1, the tone of the poem is desperate, shocked and angry. The theme of the charge of the light brigade is courage, honour.
The poem that I prefer is the charge of the light brigade because the 600 cavalrymen risked their own lives in an event that would never of happened if the sergeant wouldn’t of made the mistake of sending them to charge in. That mistake cost the lives of soldiers.
