The world can be changed by the things that create and hurt it. With words they can create sentences, and sentences create stories. These stories can tear relationships apart or bring people together. The famous poem, “The Battle of Balaclava”, affected our perspective with its imagistic honorable, and enduring language.
Tennyson describes the horror of war with imagistic lines throughout the poem. One example is in line 46, [the soldiers] came thro’ the jaws of Death / Back from the mouth of Hell.” This line depicts the British soldiers entering a battle they couldn’t win. It compares the battlefield to the jaws of death or the mouth of hell. The poem gives us what the soldiers felt during the battle. The poem’s short lines represent quick sounds or movement, similar to gunfire. It mimics the feeling and sound of the battlefield, whereas the article describes the battlefield.
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However, the poem shows the bravery and actions of the soldiers. The author wanted to honor the light brigade, which is why he wrote the poem. For instance, Tennyson repeats the line, “Into the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred.” (7), to show the bravery of the soldiers. Those six hundred men charged into battle willingly, even though the enemy surrounded the British. The soldiers fought with all their strength, “While horse and hero fell / They that had fought so well.” (44). The light brigade knew that they couldn’t win, yet they didn’t retreat. They charged head on. It is no wonder that both authors favored the
The modern world is full of social issues and people use all different kinds of way to express the way that they feel and how they see things. Bruce Dawe uses his poem ‘War Without End’ and Christopher Mann with his poem ‘Country Matters’ to convey important messages.
The historical context behind ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is that it is a battle in October 1854, which was a disastrous charge of British cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, Tennyson wrote the poem pointing out the courageous and the tragic.
...he edge as his focus moves internally as he figuratively crawls in to his “cavern” where his mind can only focus on the immediate things around him like the sounds of horses’ hooves and voices. Tennyson finally shifts the speaker out of his inner madness and changes the focus again. This time the Crimean War becomes the escape for the speaker. He is now somewhat aware that his mind is not sane and he looks to the only thing that can give him peace, death. Tennyson’s speaker in his morbidity and inner discourse is tragic, but comments such acts of written eloquence the reader can not help but be trapped by his madness as he finds peace in his final act of madness.
Reflecting the progress of the battle to the reader, it also shows the honor that the soldiers possessed. At the end of each stanza, he is reinforcing the point that the soldiers fought, that the soldiers died, and because of their sacrifice, the soldiers became heroes. Another case that Tennyson emphasizes this point is when he is describing the battle: “Boldly they rode and well, / Into the jaws of Death,”(23-24). Tennyson’s pattern so far has been to capitalize every beginning to a new word, but in these few lines he changes that and capitalizes the word “Death”. This not only draws attention to that word but gives death more meaning throughout the poem. Tennyson describes the soldiers as riding to their death, but doing it with courage. Though they had faced death and sacrificed themselves because of a mistake of a superior officer, they had still fought to the best of their ability. Their death inspires courage in others and their sense of duty makes their sacrifice deserving of honor and
Poetry is defined by William Faulkner as “some moving, passionate moment of the human condition distilled to its absolute essence” (Ford, 527). Many literary pieces look at human nature and how human’s reaction during those situations, so while the environment may change the human part does not. When we really look underneath a stories surroundings and exam the underlying human pieces they are the same in literary pieces written years ago compared to human kind today. The “Narrative Legerdemain: Evoking Sarty’s Future in ‘Barn Burning’” discusses the human internal battle of good versus evil (Ford, 528). “Tennessee Williams and the Two Streetcars” by Daniel Thomieres describes the human battle of wanting to live life to its fullest, but also staying within the limitations set by society. “’Don’t Turn Back’: Langston Hughes, Barack Obama, and Martin Luther King, Jr.” by W. Jason Miller examines how Langston Hughes poem can be used to motivate people to keep “climbing.”
War and its ramifications for those who are unfortunately entangled in it, is an issue that has fueled both political discussion and literary exploration throughout the previous century. Underived, authentic accounts of the experience and effects of war, from those who have served in it, can be especially enlightening for the majority of society who have had the fortune of not being intimately familiar with war. Through the examination of poems and stories written by soldiers, who were inspired by their involvement in conflict, one can obtain a greater understanding of this gruesome aspect of life, without having to directly experience it. Similarly, soldier turned poet, Bruce Weigl, has contributed his perspective on war through his literary
The themes of the two poems are portrayed in very distinctive ways. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ explains in a majestic approach, that fighting in war is something every soldier should honour. The poem is also about the loyalty of the soldiers, not the bad luck or foolishness of men. Tennyson presents this in his poem to show the bravery of the soldiers, although, he only highlights on the benefits of war.
Alfred Lord Tennyson, an English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry, wrote “Charge of the light Brigade,” a poem to commemorate a battle bravely fought by the British troops in the Crimean War. In this poem, Tennyson expresses the deep emotions he felt after reading a newspaper in which there was an account of the Battle of Balaclava, a battle that the British lost. This poem presents a theme of courage and honor, as we can see from the author’s use of detail, diction, and imagery.
A successful writer is he who is able to transmit ideas, emotions, and wisdom on to his readers. He is cable of stirring emotions and capturing the reader's attention with vivid descriptions and clever dialogues. The writer can even play with the meanings of words and fuse reality with fiction to achieve his goal of taking the reader on a wonderful journey. His tools are but words, yet the art of writing is found in the use of the language to create though-provoking pieces that defy the changing times. Between the lines, voices and images emerge. Not everyone can write effectively and invoke these voices. It is those few who can create certain psychological effects on the reader who can seize him (or her) with inspiring teachings, frightening thoughts, and playful games with the language. These people are true writers…
The poem comprises three stanzas which are patterned in two halves; the rule of three is ingeniously used throughout the poem to create tension and show the progression of the soldiers’ lives. There is a variety of rhyming schemes used – possibly Duffy considered using caesural rhyme, internal rhyme and irregular rhyme to better address the elegiac reality. The rhythm is very powerful and shows Duffy’s technical adroitness. It is slightly disconcerting, and adds to the other worldly ambience of the poem. Duffy uses a powerful comparative in each stanza to exemplify the monstrosity and extent of war, which is much worse than we imagine; it develops throughout each stanza, starting with a syntactical ‘No; worse.’ to ‘worse by far’ and ending on ‘much worse’. Similarly, the verbs used to describe the soldier’s shadow as he falls shows the reader the journey of the shadow, as if it’s the trajectory of soldiers’ lives. At first, the shadow is as an act...
Many war pieces express a distinct sense of truth, hatred, and anger that can be found in the style, tone, and imagery they possess. Incredible images are created in ones mind as war writings are read and heard. Works written by such writers as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Tim OBrien really reach out to the audience by way of the authors choice of words and images that they use in their writing. These talented writers create very touching and heart-felt images as they write about the true occurrences, problems, feelings and emotions that soldiers encountered throughout times of war. It is by way of these writers words that the bloody truth of war is heard, rather than the glorified victories heard which overlook the pain that soldiers went through.
This type of writing interests me because it was used as a tool to open people’s eyes to the brutality of war. In a way it protested and spoke up against this injustice and most importantly gave a voice to the people who became the biggest victims of war – the soldiers themselves.
As poet laureate and patriot, Alfred, Lord Tennyson was very influential in 19th century England. He successfully showed the ignorance of the English Army leaders while still reflecting his strong nationalist views in an attempt to create propaganda for the Crimean War in his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” The charge was a tragic incident that took place in 1854 during the Crimean War, which was England, France and Sardinia against Russia, when English Army generals blundered and sent over six hundred soldiers on a charge that was destined for disaster. The solders were known as the Light Brigade and the charge resulted in over two hundred deaths to soldiers and over three hundred deaths to horses. In this horrific aftermath, Tennyson responded to this event by writing a poem which went on to become a classic. Tennyson was a strong nationalist and very political. He was moved and troubled when he received news of the tragic charge. The poem became a form of propaganda for the Crimean War due to Tennyson glorifying the sacrifice of the soldiers by using his exceptional writing skills. Although this poem is regarded by many as propaganda, he included the word blunder in the poem which showed the ignorance of the Army leaders.
In conclusion I personally find Kipling's poem more effective. I find this because although Tennyson tries to make people feel a sense of national pride, the battle took place because of an error, and they the English people were massacred. They were brave because they knew they were committing suicide, but they went anyway. This makes them very brave, and quite foolish, but not heroes. On the other hand, Kipling is angry, and disgusted with the English people's fake loyalty because they only needed the soldier when they were fighting, now the battle is over they are just get in the way.
The tone is bitter and intense in a realistic way. It is achieved by the vivid and gruesome images in the poem. Wilfred Owen 's use of imagery in this poem is by depicting emotional, nightmarish, and vivid words to capture the haunting encounters of WWI that soldiers went through. In the first stanza, Owen depicts his fellow soldiers struggling through the battlefield, but their terrible health conditions prevent them from their strong actions in the war. When Owen says, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” (lines 1-2). This provides the readers with an unexpected view and appearance of soldiers, as they usually picture as strong, noble, and brawny-looking men. Soldiers sacrifice themselves to fight for their country and are exhausted from their unhealthy lifestyle. In lines 7-8, “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of gas-shells dropping softly behind,” they have lost the facade of humanity and their bodies are all wearied and weak on their march. This reveals a glimpse at the soldiers’ actions, as well as inferring to a psychological effect of the war. Then in line 5, “Men marched asleep,” the author is making abnormality to be one of the major purposes of the war, that it