Using the two poems, The Charge of the Light Brigade and the Destruction of Sennacherib, compare and contrast the attitudes to war expressed in the poems.

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GCSE English Course Work

Poem comparison

Using the two poems, The Charge of the Light Brigade and the Destruction of Sennacherib, compare and contrast the attitudes to war expressed in the poems. Analysis should be closely related to the text and historical and social background must be included. The comparative element is important for the higher grades.

2,368 words

Due 24th October

The Charge of the Light Brigade poem tells the story of the 1854 deadly charge of six hundred heroic cavalry soldiers charging to their deaths by a false order in the Crimean war.

Russia's ambition to control more countries started as the Turkish Empire collapsed which threatened the British and the French. In September of 1854 the Allies landed in Crimea of southern Russia. Shortly after the Russians attacked the British base at Balaclava and the British weaponry was stolen Lord Cardigan made the order for the Light Brigade to advance,

"The Brigade will advance" at ten minutes past eleven on the 25th October. Captain Nolen made the command to retake their guns from the Russians through the valley. He told Lord Luken to give the order to Lord Cardigan,

"You go to the end of the valley, to the guns and take them out!" The message was sent but misunderstood to Lord Cardigan as he ordered the Light Brigade to go straight through the middle of the valley and charge into the guns surrounding them. So the heroic soldiers obeyed their higher ranks and charged for the guns without any questioning of authority, and the battle lasted for a mere twenty-five minutes. This has always been confusing to historians about whether this battle should be remembered for the stupidity of the commanding officers, or for the heroic cavalry of the Light Brigade charging to their deaths. As this battle was the first to be properly reported and photographed the public had a much better understanding of the Charge of the Light Brigade because of reports sent back by W.H. Russell, a correspondent for The Times newspaper. He reported the battle and described it as a very deadly scene,

"They were lost from view the plain was strewn with their bodies" and "The flight was marked by instant gaps in our ranks, by dead men and horses, by steeds flying wounded or riderless across the plain" and by a photograph from a pioneering photojournalist, James Fenton, showing the British base. These new manners of reporting changed the way reports were to be made on the front line.

The poet of the Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson, most likely gathered his information to write his poem from the reports made by the correspondents reporting at the front line when the battle started. The poem itself was published in The Examiner on December 9th 1854 and Tennyson wrote himself in his author's notes,
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"This poem was written after reading the first report of The Times correspondent"

Tennyson probably found it easy to find out about the battle because of these reports and photography had just been invented and first used in this battle.

I think Tennyson chose to write about this event because it involved over six hundred soldiers charging to their deaths and no one really understood why this happened at the time and the local people would be very interested. This battle was so unique to many others too because of the certain death and insane ...

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