Pre 1914 Poetry Comparison: Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Charge Of The :: English Literature

Pre 1914 Poetry Comparison Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Charge Of TheLight Brigade, and Wilfred Owen, Dulce Et Decorum Est1) The Charge Of The Light BrigadeTennyson was prompted to write this song after reading an article inthe Times newspaper about the charge of the Light Brigade. Tennysonsmain motive for writing this poem seems to be to keep the braveryof the troops.Tennyson appears to be a patriot. He concentrates on the brave way thesoldiers went into near certain death and only makes star mention ofthe complete cock-up make by the generals. Rather than concentrate onthe mistakes made he sticks with celebrating what the soldiers didWhen can their glory fade? he asks. The use of the rhetorical isalmost challenging you to protest with his opinion of the soldiersbravery.Tennyson uses a lot of things like onomatopoeia, repetition andalliteration. He uses repetition to try and show, in words, theconfusion of the battle. An example of this is stem to right ofthem, Cannon to left of t hem, Cannon in front of them. He uses all ofthese things to try and create imagery of the battle, to help try andimagine what the battle was like. However what he doesnt do is hedoesnt personalise he always generalises. He gives you a picture ofthe battle without actually giving accounts of the actions of the men.The pace of the poem is the same all the way finished except for onepoint at the end of the fourth verse. For most of the poem the pace isquite fast, with a rhythm comparable to the clatter of horses hooves(on economic consumption or by accident?). But near the end of the fourth verse,after speaking of the battle and the slaughter of many men, the paceslows for about one line. Then they rode back, but not, Not the sixhundred. The pause between back and but is cleverly used toemphasise the loss of life.An image that recurs a lot in the poem is prosopopoeia of thevalley into which the Light Brigade rode into some kind of monster, adevourer of human life. The phrases the ja ws of Death and mouth ofHell are used more than once, an important piece of imagery.Alfred Lord Tennyson did not return first hand experience of the battleand it shows in the poem. The Charge Of The Light Brigade is verygeneralised, with the word them constantly being used. No actions or spate of any specific soldier is mentioned its always soldiers ratherthan soldier.My personal reaction to his poem is that it would have been better for