Comparing Dulce Et Decorum Est And The Charge Of The Light Brigade

War poetry has an extremely interesting history. From spiritual war poems written by the Greeks to World War One and World War Two poems written about everything from the struggles and victories of the wars. Many tried this ancient art of poetry, and many also succeeded and became well known in the poetry world. Two of these poets had a great impact on both the soldiers and the civilians in the war, Wilfred Owen and Alfred Tennyson. ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ covers the brutality and horrific nature of what it was like to serve in the trenches of World War One, and gives an eye-opening perspective of how many died in terrible ways, affecting many. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was written about how 600 heroic men went into battle and they didn’t

Throughout the poem, Owen describes a death caused by an attack on the soldiers with poisonous gas, which is first referenced in line 8 - ‘Of gas shells dropping softly behind’. Subsequently, this reveals the fact that the attackers had been undetected in their efforts to assassinate the many soldiers that resided there. At the start of the next stanza, a warning is issued by another soldier who most likely saw the gas bombs first, which resulted in a mass panic among the other soldiers. Line 7 adds to the dangerousness of the situation, as it states, ‘Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots’. This makes it clear that the soldiers were exhausted, most likely from a battle that they had just returned from, and how this would’ve made it difficult to stay vigilant for hazards Rhyming can be seen, which instills more and more negativity

In English, this roughly translates to ‘it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country’. This is continually proven wrong throughout, as the entire poem is written using dark and terrifying language which continuously is trying to drive young people away from enlisting in the war, as it claims that war is not glorious, but is filled with horrifying, life-altering experiences that would not be desirable for any person. The old Lie contradicts the truth and makes war seem like the opposite of what it truly is. The poem's general message is how terrible war can be and therefore that the stories told about the glories of war aren’t