War Literature Comparison

Paper Summary:

This essay deals with the changing attitudes towards war as expressed by the poets Alfred Lord Tennyson (pre 1914) and John McCrae in their works "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "In Flanders Fields." It includes an analysis of poetic techniques and the changing ideologies between the two poems, with a particular attention paid to social, historical and other contextual changes.

From the Paper:

"Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" describes a great military disaster in the Crimean War where troops were massacred after being led to their death by their commanders. Tennyson praises the heroism of the British soldiers who faced a certain death, but who fought without questioning it. He portrays the battle as a glorious victory despite the huge disaster, admiring the courage of the men who gave up their lives to fight for their country: "Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell." Here, Tennyson personifies death, using capital letters to emphasize the words "Death" and "Hell." He does this repeatedly throughout the poem, which reminds the reader that the soldiers are going to die. In stanza 5, when the brigade is retreating Tennyson uses a subtle variation of his earlier lines; this effectively works in re-iterating the fact that so few returned from the action. "They that had fought so well Came thro, the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell."

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