Light Brigade by Lord Tennyson Essay Example

the men for them to start the attack. This is showing that the men are brave to be running at the cannons.

But then it says about the valley of Death. The men knew that there was not much hope for them but this did not dismay them. They thought it was a glorious thing to die for your country. He is showing us that war is a positive thing through movement as he is using direct orders like Forward and Charge.These words are strong words and make the men want to attack. Another example of Tennyson showing war is a positive thing through the way he talks about movement is when he says "boldly they rode and well.

" This is saying to the readers that the men are not scared but they are confident. None of them are worried about death so they keep riding into the "the valley of death. " This shows us that war is not a bad thing as the people who are fighting in it are not worried about what they are doing, they are confident and ride well.When Tennyson says "Flash'd all their sabres bare, Flash'd as they turn'd in air" he is making them sound very positive he did not have to use the word flash'd. He could of just said swung, but to glorify what the men are doing he decided to use flash'd.

This line shows us that the view that Tennyson has to war is positive. The other occasion when Tennyson shows that war is a positive and heroic thing is when he talks about one of the soldiers who got killed. He

said "while horse and hero fell. " He uses the word Hero instead of just saying man.I think this has been done to glorify the fact that the man has died for his country. Lord Tennyson believe that to die for your country is a very noble and heroic thing.

He talks about how the men move and when he does this he uses words that glorify the hero's of war. This is a completely different attitude to that of Dulche et Decorum Est. Dulche et Decorum Est has a very negative attitude towards war and the people that fight in it. the best way to see that Dulche et Decorum Est is against war is to look at the way that Wilfred Owen talks about how the soldiers move.

In Dulche et Decorum Est as soon as you start reading you come across phrases that describe the way the soldiers are moving. Phrases like " bent double," " knock-kneed" and "trudge" these are all referring to the way that the soldiers are moving. They are all very negative phrases and make use think of a lot of men who are all hopeless and cant do anything about it. they are at war and they have to fight. The author is saying how tired the men are and how exhausted the men.

The way that Owen uses these powerful phrases, shows the reader what it was like to be on the front line.Another time that Owen talks about the negative movement of war is when he says "Men marched asleep, many had lost their boots" I find this line very powerful as Owen is saying what

poor conditions it is to live in. You did not get enough sleep when you where on the front line and you did not even have basic equipment like boots. This shows us that Owens attitude toward war is very negative. He does not say anything that is positive about war. The first stanza is very slow, it sues lots of powerful but depressing adjectives.

This makes the mood of the reader very solemn.The mood then changes when the trenches gets bombed. The men who "..

. marched asleep. " Had to wake up very quickly as everyone panicked. This makes everyone move very fast. They had to change very quickly.

In order to survive you had to get your gas mask on in time. If you didn't you would die. This shows us that war is not a good and glorious thing. The poet then moves on to descried the way in which one unlucky man did not get his mask on. The gas had got to him and he was suffering, words like stumbling" and "floundering" are used here.

This tells us that the man is in great amounts of pain. He is not going to die quickly either but slow and painfully. This is telling us that the man who is dying is in great amounts of pain. This shows us Owens negative attitude towards war. Owen unlike Tennyson does not think that it is sweet and fit to die for your country. All the phrases that Owen uses are all negative and makes us picture the Front line as a horrible place to be and die.

At the time the people in England

did not know how much the men where suffering and how exhausted they where.The attitude towards war from Tennyson was that of glory and heroism and this is what people in England thought. As Lord Tennyson never went to war he did not know of the truth about war unlike Owen. I think this has a crucial role in the two attitudes to war. Anyone that came home from war alive was considered a Hero.

This was how Tennyson saw war. But as Owen had fought on the front line he knew how bad it was. So I think this results in the two poems being very different. One describes a man who fought on the Front Line and the other a man who never went to war but sat at home in safety.This I think has a big role in why the poems are so different.

Another poem that describes the affects of war is a poem called Disabled. This poem is also written by Wilfred Owen. This person shows us the affect on a young boys life. During fighting in the war the man got injured.

He lost his legs and half an arm. This was down to the casualties of war. For the rest of his life he will have to live without his legs and arm. This means he will not be able to walk again. This shows us another negative of war.

People come out of it injured and will have a poor quality of life.After he got home know one took care of him. He was supposed to have been a hero who had fought bravely in the war.

He should be treated like a Hero like Lord Tennyson says in his poem. This however is not the case.

Know one seems to care that he is home, know one wants to look after him and know one except one man visits him. This tells us that to fight in a war is not heroic and people will not think you are a hero. His name will be forgotten and know one will care for him. This shows us that Owens attitude to war is very negative.

He is telling us all the negatives about fighting and how the men of war are not considered to be heroes at all. Disabled and Dulche et Decorum Est are both showing the negative attitude to war, while in Charge of the Light Brigade is showing the positive. In Dulche et Decorum Est the negative attitude towards war is shown in the form of sarcasm. There are a lot of sarcastic comments in this poem. The last line of the poem is properly the best example of this and is also the title "Dulche et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori" this stands for it is sweet and fitting to die for your country.

In the context that this phrase is used, it is used in a very sarcastic way. It says before the old lie this tells us that it is sarcastic, but Owen is saying it after all the negative comments about war. So we can see that it is not sweet and fitting to die for your country but painful and dreadful. The other form of sarcasm in this poem is when Owen says "my friend".

This

is being used in a very sarcastic way. Owen is trying to imply that the person who is reading the poem is someone who is at home and safe. Not fighting a war. They do not have to see the horrors of war.

So the term "my friend" in this sarcastic context shows us the negative attitude towards war. Charge of the Light Brigade has a positive altitude towards war. We know this as Tennyson does not use any negative words thought out the poem. Even when referring to death he makes the death seem heroic by using the word Hero instead of man.

This shows us that Tennyson thinks the man who died is a hero and has fought well for his country. This is a big contrast to the opinion of Owen and Dulche et Decorum Est . Owen does not see it sweet to die for your country.He sees it as a horrible thing and very painful. Unlike Tennyson who thinks it is sweet to die for your country.

This is the biggest contrast in the two poems. I am now going to talk about how the two authors use the language to help justify their points. In Dulche et Decorum Est during the first paragraph Owen uses short sentences. This creates a sense of alarm and keeps the reader on edge. This is what it would have been like in the trenches and Owen uses this type of language to show the reader how horrible it would be to be in the trenches.

Then in the second paragraph the sentence structure changes to longer sentences. In these sentences Owen uses a lot

of descriptive writing and uses a lot of metaphors and similes. This is to try and get the reader of the poem to picture how horrible it would be in the trenches. Owen uses a lot of descriptive writing in this poem, it is all very negative. It would either be describing the physical appearance of the soldiers. For example "Bent double" or "knock-kneed.

"Or he is describing the suffering of soldiers "guttering, choking, drowning. All the describing he uses shows us his very negative attitude towards war and how horrible it would be to fight in the war. In Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson uses lots of different techniques to glorify the soldiers who fought. He uses a lot of repatriation.

A example of this would be "rode the six hundred. " As he constantly refers to the fact that there are only six hundred soldiers he us telling us that they are brave and noble as there are so little of them taking on this huge army. This tells us that Tennyson thinks of the men as brave and noble and his attitude towards war is that of a good thing.The author uses short sentences which I think is to represent the movement of horses. Each line or sentence is a horses gallop. The sentences get longer towards the end and this I think is to show that the horses are tired.

Tennyson uses much more descriptive words then what are necessary. A example of this is when he says "when horse and hero fell. " This line says to us that horses and the men are falling. But he uses the

word hero. This shows us that Tennyson has a heroic attitude towards war and the soldiers who fight in war.The two authors both have very different attitudes towards war.

Tennyson think that it is very glorious and heroic to fight for your country, and to die for your country is an honour. However Tennyson never went to war, he only wrote the poem about what he had learned through the news. So Tennyson never got the chance to see the true light and suffering of war. While Owen who had experienced war saw how horrible war was and how hard it is on the people who fight it. This is shown through the two poems, Dulche et Decorum Est and disabled and his attitude towards war is very negative.