Poetry Comparison - "The Charge Of The Light Brigade" and "Futility".

Authors Avatar

Poetry Comparison – “The Charge Of The Light Brigade” and “Futility”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Wilfred Owen both write about events during war, but their poems are presented very differently. By using different form, structure and language, “The Charge Of The Light Brigade” comes across as a very public poem. This compares to Owen’s private poem “Futility”. In these poems, the soldiers are presented as brave during battle.

Tennyson’s “The Charge Of The Light Brigade” is comprised of six verses or stanzas, varying in length from six to twelve lines. Each line has two stressed syllables, called dimeter, and each stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables. This rhythm gives the effect of hoof beats, helping the reader to imagine horses galloping, charging into battle. The use of the “falling” rhythm, in which the stress beat comes first, and then “falls off”, shapes the underlying message of the devastating fall of the Light Brigade. The poem is largely effective because of the way it conveys the movement and noise of the charge, through the strong and repetitive falling meter. “Half a league, half a league,

                                                                                               Half a league onward,”

Join now!

This gives the impression of the whole brigade obeying a command to charge rather than concentrating on the individual efforts of a soldier.

The rhyme scheme in “The Charge Of The Light Brigade” varies with each stanza, as does the number of lines. Tennyson occasionally uses the same word and the same rhyme for several consecutive lines.        “Their’s not to make reply,

                                                      Their’s not to reason why,

            ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Avatar

Although there is some very good analysis of these two poems the response reads as two mini essays rather than a comparison of the two pieces of poetry. When looking at two poems, it is important to link the pieces throughout the essay, either through similarities or differences. 4 Stars