Any Two Love or War Poems Studied and Compare and Contrast

Category: Love, Poem, Psychoanalysis
Last Updated: 25 May 2023
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The first poem I am going to write about is the Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred lord Tennyson. Alfred was born on the 6th of August 1809 in Lincolnshire England. Alfred died on the 6th of October 1892. The poem is talking about war that he read in the newspaper and he wrote a poem about them. The battle took place in the 1854. Alfred was not a soldier in the war he think war is a good thing. In the first verse it talks about the six hundred soldiers going to war in the valley of death. He talks about the soldier being ambushed in the valley by the Russian army. The commander told the soldiers to go to the valley.

The soldiers travel about six or seven miles in the valley “half a league, half a league, half a league onwards all in the valley of death”. There is a good use of tripling half a league, half a league, half a league three times at start sets up a rhythm you can nearly hear the gallop of the horses hooves as you say the words. There is personification in this verse "Valley of death" this is a good because it suggests to us that the Light Brigade are going to lose their lives in the valley few of them will survive the battle. In the second verse he talks about the soldiers going up the valley ready to battle “Forward the light brigade”.

The soldier didn’t have a choice to go and battle in the valley of death. The soldiers had to go and fight because that was there duty to do as the commander asks them to do saw. Alfred said the soldiers was brave because it said in the poem “theirs not to make reply Theirs not reason why Theirs but to do or die” This tells us that Alfred is telling that the soldiers was brave to fight for there country. In this verse there is personification “In to the valley of death”. This is a good use of personification because it describes the valley of death because of the battle in the valley.

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Ther is a ggod verb the "Blunder'd" is good because it means making a mistake. This underlines the fact that what the Light Brigade is doing is going to end in disaster. In the third verse it talks about the cannons shooting the light brigade “cannon to the right of them, cannons to the left of them Cannons in front of them” this is good repetition of the word "Cannan" underlines how senusly survounded the Light Brigade was by the enemy. It also tells us that with connons all round them the Light Brigade were moving into a deadly trap as there was no escape route.

Theres a good persanification bthere "Jaws of hell" this is good because "Jaws" are used for eating and gobbling up food. The idea is that the soldiers are going to be eaten up by the fireing canans of the russians. The word "Hell" suggest that the place and circumstances are horrible like hell. There is a sense of doom. Alfred lord Tennyson tells that the light brigade was bravely to go to the valley and fight. “Boldly they rode and well” The light brigade was foolish to go to the valley of death because the enemy was in the top and they could shoot them easily.

In the forth verse it talks about the Light Brigade ready to battle as they take there swards out. “Flash’d all their sabres bare” “Flash’d as they tum’d in air” The light brigade was fighting the gunners away and charging the army away. Theres a good use of verbs in this poem "Flash'd, sabring, charging, plunged at the beginning of the verse underlines the heroic bravery with which they rode into the valley. "Reel'd shalter'd and shunderd, This verbs at the end of the cerse tell us that the battle went badly for the Light Brigade and they are forced to retread.

Alfred was talking about “all the world was wondered” as the Light Brigade was trying to fight. At the end it tells that the Light Brigade was retiring from the battle “reeled from the sabre stroke”. The soldiers was tired after the battle “shattered and shunder’d”. The last two lines is saying that the light brigade is going back but not the six hundred that had started in the battle “Then they rode back but not, Not the six hundred” In verse five it describing the battle that the Light Brigade fought in the valley of death.

Alfred is saying what was the battle like to fight in. “While horses and hero fell” he is telling that the soldiers in the Light Brigade were being killed while they were fighting. In the last lines it tells “All that was left of them, Left of the six hundred” In this verse there are personification “The jaws of death” There’s use of onomatopoeia "Thundered" and "Stormed" as you hear the noises in your head, you are made aware of the seriousness of the attack against the Light Brigade, the cannons are shooting them to pieces.

In the last verse of the poem is telling how proud were the soldiers when they came back of the battle “when can their glory fade” Alfred is praise war and fighting and the soldiers in the Light Brigade. “Honour the charge they made,” he is praising the charge that the Light Brigade made in the battle. Alfred is saying that the Light Brigade was brave to fight in the battle in the valley "Noble six hundred". He uses onomatopoeia In this verse like “Thundered” and Stormed” as you hear the noises in your head you are made aware of the seriousness of the attack against the light brigade.

The second poem I'm going to talk about is Dulce ET Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. Wilfred Owen was born 18 of March 1893 in Shropshire England and he dead in the war in France in November 1918. In these to poems there are differences and similarities. In Wilfred Owens poem he has written from his experiences in war than Alfred had only read it from the newspaper. Wilfred was saying that war was a terrible thing and Alfred was praising war in his poem.

I think that Alfred lord Tennyson is wrong about war, war isn’t I good thing its terrible and Wilfred is write about war. The similarities in the two war poems are the both lots of soldiers are scared in the two poems. In the two poems there are creating a picture in your mined that there are people dieing in the poems. “In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me guttering, choking, drowning in Wilfred Owens poem and in Alfred poem is saying, “sobering the gunners there”. The poem starts off with a description of the soldiers.

This is totally contrast to light Brigade where the soldiers are “bold” and “Nobel”. Soldiers in Dulce ET Decorum Est look like a bunch of old women “Nock-kneed” and “coughing like hags”. The poem starts with a smile. The soldiers are compared to “old beggars under sacks” This is complete different with how we expect soldiers to be like they are tall and strong and their backs strait not “bent double” Theirs a good use of repetition in this verse. Repetition of the idea of old. “old beggars” and “hags” like old women.

This contras again with how soldiers should be we expect them to be young and full of life. There are some verbs in this verse such as “trudge” “marched asleep” “drunken with fatigue” suggest totally exhausted men who are nearly dead on their feet. This is totally different to the types of verbs used in the “Light Brigade” such as “charging” and “flashing” of swards. In verse 2 there is totally chaos when someone shouts out “Gas! Gas! Quick boys” The soldiers are so tired that their reactions in finding and putting n their gas masks is really slow.

Words like “clumsy” “Stumbling” underline that their movements are awkward and tired. In contrast the actions of the soldiers in the charge of the light brigade are fast and effective “boldly they rode and well” From this point onwards Dulce focuses on one induidiual man the one who fails to get his mask on and dies because his lungs are filling up with gas and he cannot breath, very different to the light brigade which focuses throughout on six hundred men.

Dulce forces the reader to become emotionally involved we care about the terrible death of this one man but in light brigade because there are six hundred of them we seem to care less that most of them die. In verse 3 Wilfred Owen begins to talk directly to you. Earlier he has used “I” “I saw him drowning” which means that he personally was at the battle and witnessed what happened. Again this technique makes us feel sorry for the man who died.

Differently to Alfred was never a soldier he read about the light brigade battle in the news paper the uses the pronoun “They” throughout his poem so again we don’t feel close to these soldiers. The imagery in verse 3 of dulce is associated with parts of the body and ideas about likes that the reader finds disgusting e. g. the block came gargling from the frat and “obscene as cancer” These quotes underline how terrible death of this man was and if only people understood this they would stop pretending that it is great to die for your country Tennyson dreams that it is glorious , noble and brave die for your country.

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Any Two Love or War Poems Studied and Compare and Contrast. (2017, Mar 14). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/choose-any-two-love-or-war-poems-studied-and-compare-and-contrast-the-pair/

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