War Poetry :: English Literature

War PoetryAlfred Tennyson and Wilfred Owen present different ideas about war intheir poems, The Charge of the Light brigade and Dulce et Decorumest. Write about these poems and their egress on you.The Charge of the Light Brigade was written by Alfred, LordTennyson, about The Battle of Balaclava which took place in 1854.Tennyson wrote the poem using randomness from an article in The Timesand it remembers the bravery of the outnumbered cavalry men who werewrongly sent into battle.Dulce et Decorum est was written by Wilfred Owen during the FirstWorld War. It was written to manoeuver the truth about war and toillustrate that it is not a good thing to die for your country.The Charge of the Light Brigade has six verses. The third, fourthand fifth part stanzas concentrate on the battle itself. The main part ofthe battle is depicted in verse four and tells how the soldiers weresabring the gunners and how Cossack and Russian reeled portrayingthe victory of the Light Brigade. The last-plac e stanza is a message fromthe poet to honour the Light Brigade and not to forget what the sixhundred men did.The poem has a constant rhyming praxis all the way through with wordslike blundered, hundred, thundered and wondered or shell,fell and well. Having this rhyming pattern throughout makes thepoem count 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 profound ofhorses hooves by using tripling such as half a league, half aleague, half a league onward the sound of galloping horses iscontinued when the poet uses words like volleyed and thundered.Tennyson draws attention to the fact that The Battle of Balaclava wasone of the biggest military blunders ever made in his poem by paperInto the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell showing that to sendthe Light Brigade into battle was wrong and that hardly any of themwould return.In verse two the poet informs the reader that the soldiers knew that amistake had been made but followed the orders anyway. The linesTheirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to doand die show that the soldiers could not refuse to go into battle, sluice if they knew someone had blundered, all they had to do was gointo battle and die.Tennyson shows admiration for the Light Brigade in his poem.