‘The Battle’ is about an army regiment who are off to the front line to fight, but on the way they are attacked and a long and bloody battle ensues. The poem is very descriptive. It describes what the men are wearing ‘helmet, rifle, pack and overcoat’, how they dug trenches ‘they sank like moles’ and finally the attack itself ‘the shells and bullets swept the icy roads. The poem has a negative tone and this makes the poem more effective. Because it is harsher and the words are quite negative the poem illustrates the harsh and frightening situation so the reader can understand the emotion and fear of the men. In the last verse the poem is switched to the present tense and we are shown the thoughts of the soldier as he looks back upon the events.
‘The Soldier’ is a very descriptive poem and gives you a clear picture of the soldiers thoughts and memories and how he views England ‘washed by rivers’, ‘blest by suns’ with all of these memories and descriptions you get to see his thoughts. In the poem there are a few metaphors ‘There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England’, these help the reader to compare/relate to it. The fact that the soldier himself is writing it and the use of the metaphors make it more sad and emotional, as well as this it makes it more personal to the reader as it’s easier to become closer to an individual in a poem than a group of people.
‘The Battle’ is more about a group of soldiers who are in the war and does not focus on one soldier. The poem is written by a soldier looking back on his experiences. It, like ‘the Soldier’ is a very descriptive and uses some metaphors in these descriptions. ‘The Battle’ is at a faster pace to convey the action and the battle scenes, but it becomes slower and mellower for the last verse when the soldier is remembering. The poem also uses metaphors to convey memories ‘the corpses stiffened in their scarlet hoods’; this is describing how dead soldiers blood was freezing in the cold temperatures and it looked like they were wearing hoods. It’s metaphors like this that help to improve the imagery of the poem. The poem also contains personification ‘like the circle of a throat on every side the sky was turning red’ and ‘the bright ember would pulse with life’ these make it seem as if it is talking about a person and it makes it easier for the reader to understand.
‘The Soldier’ is a sonnet. It has a set rhyme scheme. The first verse has eight lines and is called an octave; the second has six lines and is called a sestet. It contains long lines that have 10 syllables each. This makes the poem slower and sadder. It is written in letterform, as if the man was writing home because of this the poem is slower and calmer than ‘The Battle’. ‘The Battle’ is a more traditional poem with four verses, each with four lines. As in ‘The Soldier’ each line has 10 syllables. This structure makes the poem slightly faster paced than ‘The Soldier’ does. Both poems have definite rhyme schemes. ‘The Battle’ has more of a rhythm than ‘The Soldier’ because of its structure but neither has a real definitive rhythm.
‘The Soldier’ is the sadder and more emotive of the two poems and through the use of descriptive literary techniques such as metaphors, similes and personification, has more enhanced imagery than ‘The Battle’. I prefer ‘The Soldier’ because it is a very descriptive poem and contains a good use of imagery. I think that this makes it more effective than ‘The Battle’. I also like the way the added emotion causes the reader to sympathise and relate to the soldier.
By Tim Cook