Both Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est” feature warfare, but with noticeably different tones created from the diction and imagery presented. In “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” the diction provided by Tennyson establishes the image of brave soldiers riding into battle. The narrator states, “Their’s not to make reply, / Their’s not to reason why, / Their’s but to do and die” (13-15), which shows how the soldiers show their strength by following their given commands, even if the commands given might lead to their own demise. At the end of the third stanza, the narrator states, “Into the jaws of Death, / Into the mouth of Hell / Rode the six hundred,” (24-26) where it is confirmed …show more content…
The narrator concludes, “Honor the charge they made! / Honor the Light Brigade, / Noble six hundred,” which exhibits the tone of glory and moral victory in the battle. On the other hand, Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” the tone created is much grimmer, where there is no glory in war. In the first stanza, Owen presents a scene by utilizing words and phrases such as “haunting” (3), “all went lame, all blind” (6), and “drunk with fatigue” (7). These words and phrases immediately give readers an image of tired and worn-down soldier, which is a stark difference to the exclamations given in the first stanza of “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” In the last line of the second stanza, the narrator states, “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning,” which further adds to the imagery of tattered soldiers. This is also a turning point where the narrator begins to describe his horror in seeing the image of a comrade dying. The narrator seems to be haunted by the image of his fellow soldier plunging into the depths, “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, / He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”
The ‘Storm’ is an uncontrollable natural thing that destroy everything’s that are on its way and then they go, Alfred Tennyson describe the cannons as a storm because they are dangerous and kills or damage things also the canons are on the enemies side and the British soldiers haven’t got enough weapons to fight back. However Alfred Tennyson used alliteration because when you pronoun the words it sounds like you spiting which tells that the cannons are firing.
“Dulce et Decorum Est” shows how one soldiers need to survive indirectly causes another soldiers death. From the very beginning of the poem the reader sees how the war affects the soldiers. Fighting in the war has aged the soldiers, the once young men now “bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” trudge through the warzone (Owen 1-2). The men, completely drained f...
In this essay you will notice the differences and similarities between ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was written in nineteenth century by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In contrast, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ was written in the twentieth century by Wilfred Owen. The main similarity we have observed is that they both capture war time experiences. However, the poets’ present these events using their own style, and the effect is two completely different observations of war.
They had lost their lives to the lost cause of war, which also killed their innocence and youth. They were no longer boys, but callous men. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", Pat Barker's novel Regeneration, and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, all portray the irony between the delusive glory of war and the gruesome reality of it, but whereas Owen and Sassoon treat the theme from a British point of view, Remarque allows us to look at it from the enemy's perspective. The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen who was an English footsoldier, states that it is not sweet and fitting to die a hero's death for a country. Right off in the first line, Owen describes the troops as being "like old beggars under sacks" (1).
The two poems I will be comparing and contrasting are ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen along with ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Wilfred Owen wrote his poem in the duration of the World War one, the poem was first published in the 1920’s. Owens imagery shown in the poem is repulsive and presenting an ugly side of war, the language used by the poet is fierce. On the other hand Lord Tennyson wrote the poem at some point in the Battle of Balaclava in the 1854 however, Lord Tennyson has a diverse vision on war due to not understanding how war was, his imagery demonstrates a calm slow story explaining how he thought war would be. Both poems are similar however they tell there stories in different ways.
In ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. Owen, throughout the poem, creates the impression of the trenches for the reader and stanza one helps to set the scene. The soldiers, who have been fighting for a long time in the trenches, are finally returning to their billets to rest. The exhaustion of the men is shown here through similes which compare the men to old beggars and hags, ‘like beggars under sacks’ and ‘coughing like hags’, although they were young men, showing just how exhausted they were and the effects the war is having on them physically. Also, the men are ‘blood-shod’ which makes them seem more like horses than human beings. Owen also uses metaphors in stanza one to describe the terrible tiredness the men were suffering from, ‘men marched asleep’. The stanza describes how the poor conditions of the trenches are putting a strain on the soldiers, until they are ‘knock-kneed’ and having to ‘trudge’ through the ‘sludge’ to get to their place of rest. They are ‘drunk with fatigue’ and limping with wounds or loss of boots. This stanza also illustrates the ...
Owen opens his poem with a strong simile that compares the soldiers to old people that may be hunch-backed. ‘Bent double, like old beggars like sacks.’ ‘like sacks’ suggests the image that the soldiers are like homeless people at the side of a street that is all dirty. This highlights that the clothes they were wearing were al...
Owen then moves on to tell us how even in their weak human state, the soldiers march on, until the enemy fires gas shells at them. This sudden situation causes the soldiers to hurriedly put their gas masks on, but one soldier did not put it on in time. Owen tells us the condition the soldier is in, and how, even in the time to come, he could not forget the images that it left him with. In the last stanza he tells the readers that if we had seen what he had seen then we would never encourage the next generation to fight in a war. Owen uses imagery constantly to convey the conditions and feelings experienced during this war.
Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” makes the reader acutely aware of the impact of war. The speaker’s experiences with war are vivid and terrible. Through the themes of the poem, his language choices, and contrasting the pleasant title preceding the disturbing content of the poem, he brings attention to his views on war while during the midst of one himself. Owen uses symbolism in form and language to illustrate the horrors the speaker and his comrades go through; and the way he describes the soldiers, as though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and haunted by war.
The poem is divided into three sections with each part dealing with a different stage of the experience. In the first stanza, Owen describes the state the soldiers are in. The first line states that the platoon is “Bent double, like old beggars” (1). This gives the reader a vision that they are exhausted and compares them to the look of beggars on the street, who often times, look very ragged and shabby. The line “coughing like o...
The similes and metaphors used by Owen illustrate very negative war scenes throughout the poem, depicting extreme suffering of young men fighting during World War I. The first simile used by Owen describes the soldiers as “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, giving them sickly, wounded, and exhausted attributes from battle and lack of rest (1). Next, the soldiers are described as “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags”, which once again portrays these young men as sick...
The theme of war is explored in both ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Despite this they differ in the way they are written. Wilfred Owen gives a first-hand experience including all of the details which may disturb people. Alfred, Lord Tennyson is an omniscient narrator. This means he was ‘looking over the battle’.
substantially contribute towards the portrayal of conflict. Secondly, in “The Charge of Light Brigade” the poem displays a noble and gallant tone. The troopers all ride into the “valley of Death”. The soldiers “not to reason why”, but courageously ride into battle.
Although the title of Dulce et Decorum Est, referencing “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” displays war in a glorious light, it is the true reality of war that glares in this poem by Wilfred Owen. This essay will take a closer look at the history behind behind why humans associate glory and war. As well as the event that changed our perception, the same event that ended Owen’s life. Throughout the existence of human civilization, war has been able to flourish.
Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, discusses the horrors young men face when they go off to fight in a war for their country. The content of the poem is sharply contrasted by the title of the poem. The poem tells the story of a young man who does not get his mask on in time during a gas attack. Owen gruesomely describes the the events that occur following the attack. While the content of the poem talks of how horrible war is, the title of the poem translates to “It is sweet and meet to die for one’s country” (Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume F).