The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Brook

Narration of both poems is completely different and as a result gives the reader a different sense of being. The Brook is written in first person and so is personified to provide the reader with a surreal view and abstract images of the surroundings as the river passes through the countryside. Tennyson has written The Brook in first person view to give impact and interest to the reader. The Charge of the Light Brigade is the complete opposite of The Brook in the way that it has been written, as it is written in third person. Tennyson has chosen to write The Charge of the Light Brigade in third person so as to present an account of the tragedy that occurred. The affect of this is that it is more serious and realistic to the reader. The whole poem comes across as being in a story format.

Personification has been used by Tennyson to give the reader image of what it is like for the river in The Brook. The Brook has been personified through out the poem with the use of human verbs to describe its behaviour. The words used by Tennyson for the personification of The Brook are words such as "chatter", "fret" and "wind about". By personifying the poem in such a way, Tennyson has given the reader the opportunity to understand more full the way I which the river flows, because he has used words that are more commonly associated with humans. Although there is a use of personification and the use of metaphors in The Charge of the Light Brigade, it is short and far apart. An example of personification in The Charge of the Light Brigade used by Tennyson is also a reference to biblical imagery and believes. "The jaws of death...the mouth of Hell" two very abstract concepts that have been used by Tennyson to a terrifying and frightening quality of experience.

Repetition has been used in both the poems, which shows the style in which Tennyson writes. The Brook has a lot of repetition in it, which has mainly been used in the personification of the poem. The word I has been used many time through out the poem. This portrayed the poem as being in first person, as if the poem was written by the river it self. The recurrence of the two lines " For men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever", has been used by Tennyson to emphasise that nature will continue to flourish long after man has been and gone. There is also a lot of repetition in The Charge of the Light Brigade, words such as "death" is frequently reoccurring through out the poem, mainly to emphasise the fact that these soldiers died in this tragic mistake. There is also a repetition of the line "Rode the six hundred" by the repetition of this line Tennyson is portraying the six hundred soldiers as being a heroic six hundred who died in vein.

The use of rhyme and rhythm is clearly apparent in The Brook, however it is not so in The Charge of the Light Brigade. The Brook has a clearly structured rhyming sequence ab, ab, ab. The rhyming couplet of ab, ab, ab has been used by Tennyson to keep the poem together and to help the flow of the poem despite the irregular rhythm of the poem. Looking at The Charge of the Light Brigade I can see no sequence of rhyme or rhythm through out the poem. This gives the reader an impression of the poem being more like a story or an account of an event rather than a poem.

There has been wide usage of alliteration through out both the poems. However there is a distinct difference in the way the alliteration has been used in The Brook and The Charge of the Light Brigade. Tennyson has used mainly soft sounding letters through out the poem such as "sudden sally" this gives the reader a calming effect of the river as it flows through the countryside. Tennyson has however also used hard and sharp sounding consonants in contrast to the softer sounding consonants such as "I chatter, chatter, as I flow". The hardness of the "c" has been used to suggest the sound of the Brook and the power of the river as it crashes through the countryside. The uses of alliteration is similar in both the poems, although there is a use of mainly hard sounding letters in The Charge of the Light Brigade there is also the contrast of the softer sounding words. The alliteration of the hard sounds has been used to illustrate the image of the horses galloping "Volley'd and thunder'd". The alliteration of the letter "d" has also been used to emphasise the association of the poem with death and of how these men died. Tennyson has also used softer sounding letters like "s" so as to give the reader a sense of morning and of loss.

The one major difference in the style language used in the two poems is that in The Brook there is no actual use of rhetorical questions where as in The Charge of the Light Brigade there is. Tennyson uses the rhetorical question to invite the reader into the poem. Although he is inviting you in to the poem he is clear in that he is putting his view across to the reader. One of the questions he asks is "when can their glory fade?". By asking us this question he is showing us that he believes that these courageous men will never be forgotten and that there story will be told for generations to come.

Overall the two poems were fairly successful in putting across Tennyson's views. In The Brook he is trying to give the impression to the reader of how nature will always prevail and continue to flourish long after man has gone. I believe that he has achieved this with they way he has used language to emphasise his views on the natural world. Although he has used similar techniques in both of his poems, he has tried to put across two totally different views to the reader. The Charge of the Light Brigade was an account of an event that he believed was a tragedy and something that should never have happened. He used different techniques through out the poem to portray the bravery and heroic demise of the six hundred men who charged in to a battlefield.

Harjit Saggu Tennyson GCSE English Language

- 1 -