In 1798 a new era began in English poetry called the Romantic age Essay Example For Students

In 1798 a new era began in English poetry called the Romantic age Essay In 1798 a new era began in English poetry called the Romantic age. This age provoked the thinking of new radical ideas and thoughts and the writing of these ideas in poems. The poets included Samuel T Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth. Some of their ideas and thoughts include: Rebellion against tyrannical and despotic governments and leaders. These feelings were inspired by the recent French and American revolutions. Strong sense of beauty in the natural world around them. Some romantic poets even took to worshipping nature! Sympathy with poor, humble people. Vivid imaginations. The Romantic poets often made fantastic new ethereal worlds. Interest in ancient legends and traditions. A sense of melancholy and loneliness. They often expressed much vitality and emotion in their works. In this essay I will try to see if the romantic poem I will be examining has these ideas incorporated in it. The two poems I will be looking at are both on war but by different authors, with different ideas about war, in different times. I shall examine The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Alfred Lord Tennyson and Dulce et Decorum est, by Wilfred Owen. I will compare the two poets attitudes towards war by examining the context, structure style and language of both poets. The first poem I will be examining is The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poem is a secondary account of the infamous charge the English Light Brigade made on the 25th October 1854 in the Battle of Balaclava which was part of the Crimean War. To examine the poem we need to know the historical background of the things it is describing. To put it plainly the Crimean War really had nothing whatsoever to do with Great Britain. It was a war between Turkey and Russia but as Britain was sided with Turkey and did not want Russia to find a colonial interest in British India, Britain helped to fight Russia. Now back to the actual Charge of The Light Brigade. The Charge went wrong because a military leader Lord Cardigan, interpreted the wrong orders from his superior Lord Raglan. The Brigade ended up charging into the wrong valley and came face to face with the Russian Artillery. They were mowed down mercilessly Alfred Lord Tennyson was not a soldier in the Light Brigade, he wasnt in any of the armed forces and he wasnt even present at the battle. In actual fact Tennyson was the Poet Laureate of Britain and was inspired to write the poem based on a newspaper article he had read on the Charge. The main idea Tennyson is providing in his poem is the fact that he thinks the Light Brigade should be honoured by everyone and his poem is one way of honouring them. He is also using the Romantic notion of dying in battle being very heroic. The tone of the poem actually surprised me. I thought it would be like a sombre epitaph, written on a gravestone style but in fact it seems to have the feel of a funeral party which is celebrating the bravery and life of the Light Brigade rather than being sunk in thoughts of death. The poem it self is written in six stanzas of varying lengths. This reminds me of six scenes in a movie, the middle ones being a climax and the ones leading up to it slowly setting the scene for a big showdown. The ones after the climax seem to be the calm after the storm and quietly conclude the poem. The rhyming in this poem is few and irregular but repetition is used a lot in this poem stanzas one, three and five, and it adds to the war theme of this poem e. g. Stanza 1: if you say the half a leagues out loud and fairly fast it will sound like galloping horses, i. e. the Light Brigade itself who were cavalry. I think this is a very good use of literary rhythm and think its very clever. I will now go through the poem thoroughly and pick out important words and language devices. Firstly I believe the narrator of the poem knew from the beginning that the Light Brigade were doomed as he uses the phrase into the valley of death rode the six hundred, line 7. The use of valley of death is actually an allusion to Psalm 23 of the Bible. In this verse it carries on to say I will fear no evil as you are with me. I find this ironic as the Bible is saying that God will protect them but in actual fact the Light Brigade was annihilated. Another thing I find good about this poem is the fact that Tennyson tries to make the poem sound as realistic as possible and is trying to draw the reader in. This is evident from the fact that he uses charge for the guns! line 6 as the command for the Light Brigade. This sounds very real and militaristic and makes the reader feel as though they really have been sucked into a battlefield rather than something like then they charged. Tennyson being a Romantic poet uses many Romantic ideas in this poem. For example when he says theirs not to make replyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦theirs but to do and die, he is saying that even though someones made a mistake and the soldiers know it they, they will still carry out their orders, bravely, even though they will die in the process. While Tennyson believes the Light Brigade are being very heroic he doesnt believe that this is a fairy tale and none of them will die or get injured. This is proved in lines 18, 19 and 20 when the poet says cannon to the left/cannon to the right/ cannon to the front of them. We can gather that having cannons blowing off in front of a group of men with horses is not the best tactic for the British as most of the will die or get injured from having 14 pound iron balls hitting them. Another Romantic notion Tennyson is using is the idea of not giving up whatever happens, even death. For example in line 22 he writes that the Light Brigade were stormed at with shot and shell. This means that even though the soldiers are dying, being injured and watching their comrades fall, each one continues his job to the end. Even today we find this idea romantic and heroic, how many hundreds of movie battle scenes have guys with 6 arrows in them still fighting. Even Tennysons idea of the Light Brigades weapons is Romantic: They are described as having sabres line 27, which may not sound especially romantic, but he could have simply described them as swords. Sabres are traditionally from Arabia and Persia, countries with very big romantic connotations themselves, think Arabian Nights and Omar Khayaam. Therefore I believe that the word sabre is very well used and very subtly put. Also the style of fighting in Tennysons is different: while today we will shoot at an enemy soldier or throw a grenade at him, the Light Brigade werenquot;t doing that; they were flashing their sabres bareline 27. Well it was the Romantic era of warfare as well as we have mentioned. No nuclear bombs, poison gasses or rocket propelled grenades; instead we have velvet uniforms with ornately decorated pistols, curved sabres, medals glinting in the sun and brave battle horses. However Tennyson wants us to believe that the Light Brigade held out for a long time and fought their hardest and were winning some of the time. Not my business EssayThis idea of no gallant charges is enforced in line 5, where Owen describes them as marching asleep. This shows the reader that this army is tired and sleepy and not ready to charge through enemy lines like the Charge of the Light Brigade. Of course Owen is also saying that the soldiers outward appearance is shattered as well as their inward. He does this in line 5 where he says many had lost their boots. Not only does this show the reader that the men are really in a poor state, but it also enforces the idea of how different this is to the pristine uniforms of the Light Brigade. We can also gather ourselves from the poem the fact that walking around without boots in damp, icy, slippery, rat infested trenches will give you painful infections like athletes foot if youre lucky and more serious conditions such as frostbite if youre not so lucky. The true nature of not giving up and carrying on fighting, whatever your injury is shown by Owen in line 6 but men limped on blood shod. This is good as it makes the reader understand that the romanticising of war is completely different from real life. Another idea which is visible in Dulce et Decorum est, but is practically invisible in The Charge of the Light Brigade, is what will happen to the soldiers after their battles are done. In this poem, in line 6 Owen says that all went lame, all blind. This shows the reader that the consequences of signing up for armed combat are much more far reaching than what just happens on the battlefield: you could be maimed for life, or go blind. As I mentioned in my introductory paragraph for this poem, times have changed and weapons have evolved. Killing is no longer done with gold sabres and silver cannons. Now gas line 9 is used frequently. The reader will find out war is no longer a heroic charge but a long, exhausting campaign that you have look over your shoulder, continuously for a shell with poison gas inside. Again tying in with the fact that war has far reaching consequences, we see that simply seeing your comrades die in front of you is enough to give you psychological problems. For instance, in line 15 Owen says in all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. Often soldiers who saw this kind of thing and were badly affected by it were sent to sanatoriums where trained army psychologists would help them get over it. Certainly nothing like this is seen in The Charge of the Light Brigade. This is very effective piece of ammunition to use in Owenss fight against romantic ideas of war which are so far from the truth. Owen definitely is not a romantic because in his poem he provides many graphic representations which Tennyson did not. For example in line 19 he says that one of the injured soldiers had white eyes writhing in his face. Owen has got to the point and hasnt dilly dallied about going on about heroics; he has got to the point and expressed his view. Again this is good as it describes the reality of getting injured in a war to the reader, and it doesnt seem very nice or heroic. Owenss view of how horribly painful war is for the soldiers is expressed and strengthened in line 22 where he describes the injured soldier as having froth corrupted lungs. This will help the reader find out that the young soldiers didnt die heroically but more like horribly. If we probe a little under the surface, the word corrupted could be used by Owen in a political sense and not just medical. He could be talking about how young men are corrupted by snazzy, persuasive recruitment posters, back in their homeland. According to Owen the root of the war is glorious problem is traced back to childhood. In lines 25 and 26 he says my friend you would not tell with such high zest, to children ardent for some desperate glory. This is good as it makes the reader think back into their own past and childhood and think of any war related triumphs or games they may have done or played. It could also be referring to the soldiers being young and naÃÆ' ¯ve and the recruitment posters gradually selling them these lies, in the hope that they will join up and think they are heroes. Finally in the last line of the poem goes as far as to say that dying as a hero and dying for honour in battle are downright lies. In lines 27 and 28 he says the old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori. This phrase means it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country and was first used by the Roman playwright Horace thousands of years ago. It is still quoted by military leaders today in basic training and before battles. I think Owenss view on this phrase is that it is very dangerous and should not be told especially to desperate and impressionable children. This point of view is a hundred percent different to Tennysons and I need not explain why. I like this poem not only as a piece of good poetry like The Charge of the Light Brigade but also its morals and the poets beliefs are that of mine unlike The Charge of the Light Brigade. It is very effective in carrying across its message of war being bad and not being honourable to die in one. It shows you that the poet thinks young men are lured into war by generals who just sit on the sidelines and will die healthily in their sleep decades after the war. It shows us what happens to the ordinary men who join up, their expectations from childhood and the real thing. This poem has also made me understand something I wondered about before reading it: why there are people whose jobs are army psychologists and why there are buildings used by the military called sanatoriums. As I come to the end of my essay Ive learnt two very important points of view that were used in the past. Firstly about the chivalrous Romantic era on which countless war movies have such ideas in. Honour and fighting till the end whatever the outcome are the main ideas. This will certainly appeal to people who want to hold that point of view but for a realist like me I see through the flashing sabres and the valley of death and see butchered men and mourning families at home. Tennyson never incorporates that in his poem. Secondly I come to the deeply dark and realist first hand views of Owen who explains to me the real story and no beating about the bush. His views are crystal and have made me think rather than the non human termed, honour for our land thoughts of Tennyson. Owen actually made me think about the men being the uniforms. To sum up I like both poems very much but its clear to me whats real and whats not, whats about human beings and not soldiers and all the word suggests brave, never sick, willing to die and finally whats moral to me as a human and whats not.