The Crimean war in the 1850s and the Great War in the early 1900s have both been an inspiration for great prose and poetry. Two such examples are “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Tennyson inspired by the famous attack of the 1854, and “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen written following the Great War. They both portray a vivid image of war, but the poets give the impression of having completely opposing views on the subject.
The Charge of the Light Brigade, commemorated by Tennyson’s poem, was the charge of British cavalry into the “Valley of Death” held by Russian troops in November 1854. The Crimean War was launched to dispel the last pockets of resistance within the nineteenth century British Empire. Whether or not it was seen as good or bad, this war had a clear, well defined purpose, in contrast, the Great War of 1914-18 which is the backdrop to Owen’s “Disabled”, has been seen by many as pointless and having no clear purpose. This is reflected in Owen’s heavy style of writing, inspiring pathos for those whose lives were torn apart by the tragedies of war.
Tennyson, although not necessarily glorifying war in itself, glorifies and celebrates what was a piric victory. Tennyson glorifies the charge with the telling of the cavalry’s sabres flashed “bare, as they turned in the air Sabering the gunners there,” and plunging “in the battery smoke right through the line they broke.” Commendable as their breaking of the Russian gunners line may have been, Tennyson showers this with heroism calling it “Bold” and “Noble”, while appearing to give very little thought to the carnage caused to both sides in the name of nothing more than “honour”.
The Essay on America Declaring War On Great Britain In 1812
America rightfully declared war on Great Britain. The United States declared War on Great Britain on June 12, 1812. The war was declared as a result of long simmering disputes with Great Britian. The central dispute surrounded the impressment of American soldiers by the British. The British had previously attacked the USS Chesapeake and nearly caused a war two year earlier. In addition, disputes ...
Owen, in contrast, centres very much on the futility of war and the destruction and devastation it causes. He speaks of the colour he (the soldier) had “lost… very far from here… poured down shell-holes till the veins ran dry.” This contrast in the poets apparent views and attitudes towards the wars about which they wrote should be taken in context, World War One, around which Owen writes, has been seen by most ever since to have been an aimless struggle that need never have been entered into, and in which gains were few and there were no real winners. Maybe, had Tennyson been writing with this background in mind, his poetry would have painted the idea of war in a different light, more akin to that of Owen.
Both Owen’s fiercely anti-war “Disabled” and Tennyson’s wish to immortalise the events of the Charge of the Light Brigade in verse show that it incredibly hard to offer an open and objective view over something as life affecting as your country at war. Each reflects both its author and the environment and readership it was catered to.
Owen takes an altogether different stance, agreeing with the still appropriate reality of the honest young soldier being betrayed by his superiors, but rather than glorifying those who followed blindly, turns his attentions to the root of the problem and chooses to show the devastation the politician’s willing use of their countrymen as nothing more than cannon fodder for pointless political means.
Owen and Tennyson’s varying ideas of war are reflected not only in their texts, but in the very rhythm and pattern of their poetry; Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” gives a quick rhythm with fast alliteration and repetition such as “Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.” reflecting the fast flowing battles of the mid nineteenth century and the beating of the horses hooves on the ground.
This contrasts vastly with the slow lethargic style of Owen’s “Disabled” the telling of the times before the boy “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” when “there was an artist silly for his face”, whereas now he can only spend a few sick years in Institutes. This transformation of Owen’s soldier from an innocent, impressionable child, maimed and brutalised by war, into a suicidal torso is a story relating to thousands sent to die by the British government during the Great War and the poet’s hatred of the propaganda campaign and the officers who “smiling… wrote his lie; aged nineteen years” is clear.
The Term Paper on Mood Of The Poem War Owen Men
(i) How do sound devices and imagery in the poem contribute to the mood and increasing tension in the poem? Owen's use of exact diction and vivid figurative language emphasizes his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. Furthermore, the utilization of extremely graphic imagery adds even more to his argument. Through compelling imagery, sound devices like alliteration, assonance and ...
Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” offers a similar opinion of those with the comfort of not being in the firing line. “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die” This hatred of the officer class appears to have transcended history, making little distinction between a supposedly heroic victory and the damp hell of trench warfare; where, despite apparent differences, Generals sent hundreds and thousands of men and boys to be slaughtered.
Although both poems concern war, both treat warfare in a very different manor. Using similar techniques both Tennyson and Owen create two different vastly opposing views on the subject.
