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Explanation of the charge of the light brigade
Dulce et decorum est by wilfred owen analysis
Dulce et decorum est by wilfred owen analysis
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War Poetry
Alfred Tennyson and Wilfred Owen present different ideas about war in
their poems, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Dulce et Decorum
est”. Write about these poems and their effect on you.
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” was written by Alfred, Lord
Tennyson, about The Battle of Balaclava which took place in 1854.
Tennyson wrote the poem using information from an article in The Times
and it remembers the bravery of the outnumbered cavalry men who were
wrongly sent into battle.
“Dulce et Decorum est” was written by Wilfred Owen during the First
World War. It was written to show the truth about war and to
illustrate that it is not a good thing to die for your country.
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” has six verses. The third, fourth
and fifth stanzas concentrate on the battle itself. The main part of
the battle is depicted in verse four and tells how the soldiers were
“sabring the gunners” and how “Cossack and Russian reeled” portraying
the victory of the Light Brigade. The final stanza is a message from
the poet to “honour the Light Brigade” and not to forget what the six
hundred men did.
The poem has a constant rhyming pattern all the way through with words
like “blundered”, “hundred”, “thundered” and “wondered” or “shell”,
“fell” and “well”. Having this rhyming pattern throughout makes the
poem seem to flow more easily and gives it a more prominent structure.
It emulates the pace of the battle which was over in twenty minutes.
The rhythm of “The Charge of the Light Brigade” mimics the sound of
horses’ hooves by using tripling such as “half a league, half a
league, half a league onward” the sound of galloping horses is
continued when the poet uses words like “volleyed and thundered”.
Tennyson draws attention to the fact that The Battle of Balaclava was
one of the biggest military blunders ever made in his poem by writing
“Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell” showing that to send
the Light Brigade into battle was wrong and that hardly any of them
would return.
In verse two the poet informs the reader that the soldiers knew that a
mistake had been made but followed the orders anyway. The lines
“Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do
and die” show that the soldiers could not refuse to go into battle,
even if they knew “someone had blundered”, all they had to do was go
into battle and die.
Tennyson shows admiration for the Light Brigade in his poem.
In this essay I am going to compare and contrast the differences between ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is written by Poet Lauriat Lord Tennyson and ‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’ is written by Lord Byron. They both contain different poetic techniques and write about a battle in completely different ways.
Portrayal of War in the Pre 1900 Poetry Before 1900, war was always seen as a glorious thing. People truly believed in the words of the ancient writer Horace, "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori. " This phrase can be translated, as "It is a lovely and honourable thing; to die for one's country". Pre 1900 war poetry was strongly patriotic and glossed over the grim reality of death, preferring instead to display the heroic aspects of fighting. If death was mentioned, it was only in a noble and glorious context.
Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." The Faber Book of War Poetry. Ed. Kenneth Baker. London: Faber, 1997. 3-4.
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.
Comparing two war poems written by Wilfred Owen: Dulce et decorum Est. and Anthem for Doomed Youth. In this essay I will be comparing two war poems written by Wilfred Owen: ‘Dulce et decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. By Comparing the two I will be able to distinguish the fact that Wilfred Owen is very anti-propaganda and that's why he feels so strongly about this. The two poems have many similarities but also a fair amount of differences, which I will be discussing in this essay.
Through reading this poem several times I decided that the message from the poem is that war is full of horror and there is little or no glory. Methods which I found most effective were Full rhyme and metaphor.
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...
The next line expresses the way in which he has no grave stone, just a
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The writers of 'Joining the Colours' and 'The Send Off' both use poetry to express their feelings about soldiers leaving for war. Each have similar attitudes about the subject, but use different approaches to try and get their message across. Both question the popular concept of war, including ideas such as heroism and glory. Katherine Hinkson, the poet who wrote 'Joining the Colours', shows the scene from two different perspectives, that of the audience watching the soldiers and also her own point of view. Wilfred Owen simply shares his thoughts by describing the soldiers leaving from a station, although the effect is no less powerful. As Hinkson is a woman, she focuses more on a mother or wives point of view, whereas Owen gives more of the soldiers perspective.
Owen presents us a sarcastic view towards the idea of being honorable to sacrifice for their country and buttresses it with abundant of horrific images. It is a war sonnet that captures the feelings of survivors to those who lost their lives in war. The use of a sonnet creates a sense of intensity in his poem, briefness and portrays the nature of death on a battlefield. Moreover, Owen uses the rhyme scheme of “ababcdcdeffegg” to show the strong division between the lines. The choice of a sonnet allows Owen to convey his message effectively and remain emotional to keep the readers interested. His tone in the poem is gloomy and proposes the reader to consider the question at the beginning of the poem: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle” (1). Their deaths are significant to those of cattle and it occurs in masses. This leads the reader to consider t...
Both poems used different techniques to stimulate the readers’ evaluation and realisation of the adverse outcomes of war, especially its effects on the soldiers. Sassoon’s poem title gave the reader an immediate conclusion about the contents of the poem of the hardship that the soldier faced, which brought upon his suicide. Whereas Owen’s gave the opposite impression at first, as the Latin saying translates into “it is fitting and honourable to die for your country.”
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