Compare and contrast The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Destruction of Sennacherib. How do the poets use language devices to show their attitude towards war? The two poems that I’m going to be comparing are, The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron and Charge of the Light Brigade written by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Alfred Lord Tennyson, born 6th August 1809, died 6th October 1892, was a “Poet Laureate” in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era, he is still considered to be one of the most popular English language poets.
The “Crimean war” was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Duchy of Nassau. The poem The Charge of the Light Brigade was written by Lord Tennyson during Queen Victoria
...’s era in England. During this time the Victorians had a very religious perspective on life.
The poem was an account written by the poet laureate, Lord Tennyson, because it was such a horrific battle that the government could not let the public see it had made a great mistake and so as the poet laureate, Tennyson wrote the poem saying what a great battle it had been. It was a cover up. The Charge of the Light Brigade is about the British army’s suicidal charge into a “Valley of Death”. Lord Byron, born 22nd January 1788, died 19th April 1824, was a British poet, known for his work in Romanticism, he was one of the greatest and influential British poets, and still remains well read.
The Destruction of Sennacherib was based around a Biblical story about the Assyrian King Sennacherib and how he
failed to capture Jerusalem however both Biblical and Historical references disagree with Byron’s account. Byron’s poem mentions that Sennacherib was killed, but Biblical and Historical records contrast with this, the accounts given show that he was 25 miles away In the city of Lachish fighting the Egyptians. Lord Byron was inspired to write the poem The Destruction of Sennacherib after he visited the ruins Nineveh.
The structure of the two poems has some similarities, The structure of The Destruction of Sennacherib is written out over 6 stanzas and is written in a narrative form to a rhythm of galloping horses; similarly Charge of the Light Brigade is a narrative poem but is read out in chant with the rhythm of marching soldiers set out between 7 stanzas. The paces of the poems give the readers, an insight to the poet’s attitude.
In The Charge of The Light Brigade, Tennyson uses, short paced, and rapid sentence, “Canon to right of them” “Cannon to the left of them” to create a suspenseful atmosphere for the reader to engage in, this also gives an image of honourable soldiers marching to the “Valley of death”. Although Tennyson never actually fought in the war himself, he shows great care as to how the soldiers were treated, which could mean he is very anti war, and using the short-fast paced sentences ironically, which I will later explain.
However, in The Destruction of Sennacherib, Byron uses rhyming couplets to make the poem flow better. He also uses descriptive and structured sentences as opposed to short-rapid sentences that Tennyson had used. This shows that he may have a strong hate for Sennacherib, even though he wasn’t
at the battle. “And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;” in The Destruction of Sennacherib Sennacherib’s army are portrayed as wearing purple and gold, these colours are generally related to royalty.
The colour gold represents prosperity and wealth, whereas purple symbolises regalness and spirituality, this would suggest that Sennacherib and his army are over pretentious and regard themselves as better than others. In comparison The Charge of the Light Brigade the strength and ruthlessness of the Army is not shown by what they are wearing, but by their brute force and determination, however they are not shown as ignorant and pretentious as Sennacherib’s army, but instead are shown to be noble and humble people who’s honour it is to fight for their own country.
The Destruction of Sennacherib portrays “The Assyrian”, Sennacherib, as a poltroon, this is shown when the poet uses the simile “The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,” This simile is used to show the similarities between Sennacherib and a Wolf. A wolf is usually defined as a vicious animal that likes to hunt, however they like to hunt weak animals such as Chickens and rabbits. The poem represents the people of Jerusalem as weaker than the Assyrians. This alludes to the fact that the poet saw Sennacherib as a coward.
In The Charge of the Light Brigade the army are not shown in any negative way. This contrast is due to Tennyson writing about his own country’s army whereas, Byron writes about the opposing army. However the poets are similar to each other in the sense that they are both being patriotic. The two poets transcend between national and
religious aspects. They support their own countries but they also bring religious concepts into the poems. Tennyson uses “Into the valley of Death” this has parallels with what is written in Psalms 23 “Into the valley of the shadow of Death”. Similarly in the
Destruction of Sennacherib, the Angel of Death is mentioned “For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast” This shows that both poets felt that god was on their side, and they were fighting for a greater cause. The poem The Charge of the Light Brigade shows us that Tennyson’s view on war is very different to our views now. He felt that was war noble and that it was an honour to fight and to die for your country. This is portrayed throughout the poem with variations of the line “Noble six hundred! ” which is referring to the cavalier who are ‘riding’ into their ‘death’.
However, Tennyson could be using repetition as a form of irony, repeating “into the valley of death”, to emphasise how he really feels. That nothing is good is gained from war, merely lost. Tennyson is also writing from the point of view of the losing country. Tennyson’s attitude towards war can be interpreted in many different ways, the irony, which would make his attitude completely anti-war but since he was the poet-laureate he had to write how noble war was. On another hand he could believe that fighting in war is something completely honourable.
Whereas Byron is writing from the view of the winning country, however unlike Tennyson, Byron was not writing from a firsthand account, but from a biblical story. Although Byron is writing
about an event from the bible, he is still historically incorrect, in the poem, The Destruction of Sennacherib, Byron describes how Sennacherib attacks the people of Jerusalem and how the Angel of Death takes his life. However, it is recorded in history that in fact, Sennacherib was not even at the battle, but was at another battle in Egypt.
Byron may have said this to exaggerate how cruel Sennacherib was, and to give the readers the sense that the battle was greater than it actually had been. Byron’s poem The Destruction of Sennacherib is more so about the power of god and how he helped them to defeat the evil Sennacherib, rather than war. This could also be interpreted in many different ways, mainly because he does not mention honour of war, neither the horror of war. In conclusion, I think that the poets’ attitudes towards war are very different.
Byron has a strong emotion and passion towards what he was writing; this may be because he was writing about a biblical event that may be a part of his faith. Whereas Tennyson’s attitude and emotions aren’t obvious, he uses short sentences to create an atmosphere that gets the reader to think. Overall I prefer the poem The Charge of the Light Brigade, the poem is quite straight forward when you scan through it. Once you began to look into you start to wonder what he really means, and what his actual views on war are.
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