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.
Alfred was the fourth of 12 children, born into an old Lincolnshire family. His father was a rector who sent him and two of his older brothers to the Leuth grammar school in 1815, when Alfred was only 6 years old. In 1820 Alfred returned home and under his father’s teachings he became a promising writer who, before his teens, had already composed in the styles of Alexander Pope, Sir Walter Scott, and John Milton (Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition, 1). When he was 13 years old, his father’s health started to deteriorate, which led to unhappiness at home and a feeling of depression in young Alfred; but he kept writing. Alfred attended Trinity College at Cambridge, where he became a member of a secret society called the Cambridge Apostles and also where he met his lifelong friend Arthur Hallam (Mazzeno, 4). While at Trinity, Alfred received the Chancellor’s gold medal with a poem called Timbooctu, which was quite an accomplishment for young Tennyson. Before Alfred could complete his education, his father died and he had to go back to his family to help support them (Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition, 2).
Tennyson underwent a series of events that eventually culminated in h...
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Kornman, Robin. "The Lotos-Eaters." Ebsco. Salem Press, Jan. 2002. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
Mazzeno, Laurence W. "Alfred, Lord Tennyson." Ebsco. Salem Press, Sept. 2002. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
Myslinki, Stephen V. "Crossing the Bar." Ebsco. Salem Press, Jan. 2002. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
The first poem we are going to look at is ‘The Charge of the Light
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.
Alfred Tennyson wants to make people to join the army that why he suggests the good point of the British soldiers and he didn’t suggests the loss of the Britain that much. Also Alfred Tennyson read the news paper about the battle of balaclava then he wrote this poem which shows some parts of the poem might not be accurate. However this poem shows the honour of the British soldiers.
Throughout the history of war poetry, no aspect of war can be said to feature more prominently than the representation of death and dying. While such representations are constant in their inclusion in war texts, the nature of the representation varies greatly, be it as a noble act for ones country, or as the defining negative of war. Poems such as Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ and Seaman’s ‘Pro Patria’ are strong examples of the former; while others such as ‘Dolce et decorum est’ by Owen and ‘The Rear Guard’ by Sassoon best exemplify the latter. The question remains however as to why these representations of death and dying differ so, and whether there is a relevant relationship between the type of depiction and the time period or conflict, as well as the author’s proximity to death’s harsh reality.
to the fact they were made over 100 years apart. In this time what was
“Boldly they rode and well, into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of Hell.” That is an excerpt from Lord Alfred Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade, a poem highlighting the honor and death of war. The poem was chosen for this close reading essay because it has always been a personal favorite. It talks of the real events of the Battle of Balaclava, yet speaks of the life all soldiers must live. The Charge of the Light Brigade is a fascinating poem, both in the way it is formed, to the details of why it was created.
he was in the war and wants to tell you what it was like in the war
This quote suggests that Tennyson’s poem glorifies the war, celebrating the sacrifice they had made for their country. By glorifying the Brigade, Tennyson has ignored the obscurity and massacre of the war; this is shown by the loyalty that the soldiers have for their country. The commitment of war in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is only shown because Tennyson's looking at war from afar .We can see this because in the poem he has not used descriptive language to describe what war was like, and has not shown the real outcome of war.
Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Man." in Eighteenth-Century English Literature. Eds. Geoffrey Tillotson, Paul Fussell, Jr. and Marshall Waingrow. New York: Harcourt, 1969. 635-51.
In this comparative piece on these two anti-war sonnets, from World War One and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, I will attempt to explain how each writer displays the particular event in their poetry. Both these poems have irregular rhyme schemes and around 10 syllables on each line. The aim of these poems is to remind us to respect those men who lost their lives in battle, and to how disgraceful war really is.
Comparing The Charge of the Light Brigade and the Defence of Lucknow by A. Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson gifted the Victorian Era, and the literary world with two iconic poems. The author explored the themes of personal development and culture clash in one of his most famous poems, “Ulysses”. Tennyson also discovered and analyzed the themes of love and death through his renowned and eminent poem, “Tears Idle, Tears”. The poet was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire in 1809 in the East Lindy district of England. Tennyson experienced numerous amounts of difficulties in his childhood and growing adolescent phases that spilled into his adult life. These trials and tribulations became a foundation and source of inspiration for Tennyson, who used them as a stimulus and catalyst to aide his literary progress and ideas. Two of the most prominent poems that Tennyson wrote were “Ulysses “and “Tears Idle, Tears”. These poems defined the peak of his literary endeavor and symbolized the struggles that Tennyson had experienced in his life. Throughout time readers have been able to distinguish a direct correlation between his life journey and the poems he crafted.
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...
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was one of the most famous poets of the Victorian era, some of his most famous poems include Ulysses, In Memoriam or Lady of Shalott. This paper will focus on his poem published in 1830 entitled Mariana. Mariana is Tennyson's well known poem, inspired by the charactre of the same name in shakespear's play Measure for Measure. T.S Eliot heard in Mariana 'something new happening in English verse”, and critics such as Carol Christ or Dwight Culler have “commented preceptively on its use of atomistic detail to create a landscape of strangeness appropriate to this sick-spirited maiden”. Mariana is a complex poem it is both a lyrical poem and a pathetic fallacy.
Tennyson's poetry has stood the test of time because it successfully paints a time and place and reflects the feelings of the people in it. His ability to capture the feelings of uncertainty and loss that were characteristic of this time period, through his use of descriptions, diction, and pathetic fallacy made his poetry not only pleasing to the ear, but also historically important. He surpassed Wordsworth and other poets of his generation as Poet Laureate because his poems capture the important social issues of the Victorian Age such as the shift in religious belief as a result of science, the confusion surrounding women's roles in society, and the isolation that came as a result of the rapid social and economical changes that occurred.