The charge of the Light Brigade and Dulce Et Decorum Est

The charge of the Light Brigade and Dulce Et Decorum Est

The two poems that I have been studying are each about war. They both

describe about the terrors of war and the suffering of each side's men

and what they had to go through. The two different poets have very

different views on how the war actually progressed.

The first poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" is a piece of

propaganda for the army; similarly for "Dulce Et Decorum Est." It was

most likely that the poet in the first poem was nowhere near the

actual war and was probably sitting at some clerk's desk back home,

having been instructed to write such propaganda. You can tell this

because of some of the phrases he uses. Phrases like "They that had

fought so well" show the inaccuracies that the poet showed because in

reality most of the men were killed before they even got to the

Russians guns, because they were under so much heavy fire, "Stormed at

with shot and shell". Shot was a type of projectile that fragmented so

it would kill or injure a lot of men all at once, and shell was a type

of cannon ball that exploded in mid-air.

The other thing that suggests that the poet wasn't near the

battlefield is that he says that the men did not question what was

happening, "Their's not to reason why". But I am sure that in real

life some of the men would have asked what they were doing. The other

thing that this poem does not do is it doesn't show the suffering that

the men had to go through. Instead it tries to tell us how the men

were all brave and heroic wanting to fight "Boldly they rode and

well".

The other thing that makes this poem very different from the second

one is the date because "The charge of the Light Brigade" was set

around 1854...

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... originally made up so that all of the men

who went into war were not afraid of dying for their country, which

would mean that more men would voluntarily join the army and fight for

their country. In conclusion Owen is trying to suggest that war is an

Evil thing.

In the "Charge of the Light Brigade" poem the poet tries to say a

totally opposite thing to the poet of "Dulce Et Decorum Est" because

he tries to emphasize the glory of dying for ones country and how it

was a glorious battle but it was not, it was a bloody death "To the

noble 600". The reason for the difference may be because that "The

Charge of the Light Brigade" poem was written much earlier than the

"Dulce Et Decorum Est" poem and as time has gone on I think the people

have changed their views on war and the general consensus is that it

is better to preserve life than it is to destroy it.