Lord Tennyson Vs. Wilfred Owen

Both of these poets wrote well known poetry about war. Despite "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Lord Alfred Tennyson and "Dulce et Decorum Est'" by Wilfred Owen were written in different centuries, they deal with the subject of war and describe the ups and downs of it. On one hand, Alfred Tennyson heard of the charge made by the light brigade and it was when he wrote his poem with no experience of the event. However, Wilfred Owen actually fought in the First World War, and wrote, unlike Lord Tennyson, from his own experience.

Although they deal with the subject of the war, both of them create a different feeling and idea about war.

Lord Tennyson described more the glory and honour rather than the death and the suffering, this created a very heroic image of the soldiers. Lord Tennyson uses on his poem different and simple words and phrases to give the impression of brave and spirited soldiers as "Boldly they rode and well", "They who fought so well." However, in Wilfred Owen's poem, it is found phrases and words such as "old beggars", "corrupted" and "clumsy" to creat a tired picture of the soldiers who have been reduced to something less than men, an idea which is sustained in the images of physical shortcomings: they are, variously, lame, blind, drunk and deaf. Owen use a language very descriptive and dramatic, phrases such as "Gas! Gas! Quick boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone was still yelling out and stumbling..." creat the chaotic and destructive atmosphere on the battle site. Once again Owen finds words that convey an impression of men robbed of their dignity: they are "yelling", "stumbling" and "flound ring." But what also comes across to the reader in those lines is...

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...down one's life for one's country." Owen referred to this quotation as 'an old lie' whichconfirms Owen's opinion that war is not a good thing or an admirable situation.

This can be concluded that the two poems deal with the treatment of war in almost opposite ways. "Dulce et Decorum Est" has a more negative and pessimistic view on war in general because Owen wrote his poetry based on personal experience of the horrors of the First World War, realising himself that war was not something to be glorified but something terrifying. On the contray, "Charge of the Light Brigade" has an optimistic and positive attitude towards war. Tennyson glorifies the deaths, the slaughter of hundreds of men, who died for no reason, in fact because of a mistake. Tennyson wrote his poem at a time when propaganda was needed to promote a war between the British Empire and the Russians.