The Charge of the Light Brigade and Dulce et Decorum Est Essays

The Charge of the Light Brigade and Dulce et Decorum Est Alfred Tennyson and Wilfred Owen present different ideas about War in their poems, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’ Write about these poems and their effect on you. The first poem, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred Tennyson was based on a newspaper article he read in the Times Newspaper on November 14th, 1854. The article was about the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. It described how the soldiers were wounded and killed because one man in their cavalry had made a mistake. It outlined how the plain was strewn with their bodies’ and ‘steeds rode rider less across the plain.’ This article was the inspiration for his poem. The second poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ was more vividly written, because its poem, Wilfred Owen, was an actual soldier in the first World War, which lasted from 1914-1918. He was too young to become a soldier, so he lied about his age and went away to fight. He was under the impression that War was dignified and sweet because of all the propaganda that was put about to encourage young men to join the army. He then realised that War wasn’t as glorified as he had thought and wrote poems to deter other young men, who, like himself, thought it was brave and courageous to die for their country. The poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade,’ tells the story of how one man in their cavalry, The Commander, made a huge mistake by charging them towards the Russian Army. This is depicted when the poet says: ‘Into the valley of death.’ This implies that the army on the other side of the valley were so great; the cavalry didn’t have any hope of beating them. Ironically, they won the battle. In ... ...nditions of War were and the terrible ways that the soldiers lost their lives. My favourite poem out of the two was ‘Dulce et Decorum Est,’ it clearly depicts what happened during World War I and Owen then says what he feels. At the start of the poem, I was shocked by how bad the conditions of War actually were. The vivid descriptions show how strongly Owen felt about discouraging other young men not to fall for the same propaganda that he did. It made me realise how lucky I am not to be living in those terrible conditions that he had to endure. I think that the poem does fulfil its purpose of discouraging men from joining the army because it is so graphic and vivid. It explains the true atrocities that War brings and how terribly they can affect lives, even after the War has ended. Owen clearly doesn’t want the young men to experience what he has.