Comparing The Charge of the Light Brigade and the Defence of Lucknow by A. Tennyson

2132 Words5 Pages

Comparing The Charge of the Light Brigade and the Defence of Lucknow by A. Tennyson

Introduction

Both poems 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and the 'Defence of

Lucknow' are written by Alfred Lord Tennyson. (1809-1892).Both of

these poems are related to two battles in the 19th century, both of

these battles concerned the British which were praised highly in the

poems as you will discover later on in my essay. When writing these

poems Tennyson was very proud of the British for their bravery, he

describes this in both the poems 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and

the 'Defence of Lucknow'.

'The Charge of the Light Brigade' involved the British, French and the

Russians it was written by Tennyson and was based on a factual life

event which was the Crimean war. The English and the French were both

fighting the Russians between 1854-1856.Within this war The Charge of

the Light Brigade occurred, the charge was a mistake by the British

cavalry commander. There are many ways Tennyson describes the British

as courageous and brave in this poem. Only 673 men were involved, and

they lost 157 men out of 20 000 war dead.

The charge was actually misheard from the Lord Cardigan who was the

commander of the Light Brigade, the message was passed on from one

person to another which then led to the charge.

The 'Defence of Lucknow' is also about war, part of the reason why the

siege began is because was that the opponent was using each others

scared animal to grease their bullets with their fat the siege,

involves the British and the Indians, but not all the Indians were

against the British some were fighting along side the British too.

T...

... middle of paper ...

...e the

reader have a small amount of honor and sadness for the British for

their heroic performance in the war, but at the same time the reader

can have an opposite feeling e.g. the reader may fell angry because

he/she may think why is Tennyson forcing me to feel honorable? Some

readers may not accept the fact that Tennyson forced me to feel in

such a way. This instantly shows that Tennyson has achieved his

objective by making the reader feel that way (my personal opinion).

As for 'Defence of Lucknow', Tennyson does not use as many heroic

terms to make the reader feel in such a way like sympathy or kindness

towards the soldiers . He simply describes the war scene to the

readers and probably wants the readers to make up their own thoughts

and emotions towards the poem this is another contrast between the two

poems.

Open Document