Poetry, quotes and context

Quote showing how the speaker in the man he killed would have been friends in other circumstances, plus quotations

“Had he and I but met/ by some old ancient inn, we’d should have sat us down to wet/ right many a nipperkin!”

Lexical field illustrates how the speaker believes they could have befriended each other in different circumstances, and gone for a drink at a pub; clearly demonstrates the futility of conflict between indivisuals as this interaction led to a waste of a possible friendship, and a useless death

Quotation showing the futility of war

“I shot him because - because he was my foe”

Caesura - pause represents how the speaker had to think for a reason to justify his actions - he could not and had to resort to just being enemies

Quotation showing how the conflict in The Man he Killed resulted in shots fired, plus technique

“I shot at him as he at me”

Mirrored action, 4 syllables each side of the sentence shows how the men are in the same position and share similarities

Quotation showing how it results in death, plus technique

“And killed him in his place.”

Short sentence plus a full stop underlines the severity of this action and how this conflict has resulted in the destruction of human life

Quotation showing how the speaker believes the nature of war is and technique

“How quaint and curious war is!”

imperative which shows the peculiar nature

What is the rhyme scheme, and what form does it lead to?

Regular ABAB rhyme scheme

Portrays the poem to be like a Balad - nursery rhyme like language to describe a very serious event exemplifies how the speaker thinks conflict is a foolish and mindless event

Context for Hardy about being a pacafist and purpose of the poem

Thomas Hardy was an extreme pacafist and hated the odd nature of war

The purpose of this poem was to protest against the Boer Wars occuring in South Africa, and how it was killing thousands thousands of people for a foolish cause

Context for Hardy about his opinion on the politicians?

He believed that ordinary soldiers had to enforce the immoral and senseless decisions made by politicians which led to useless deaths - he also believed how they were incompetent and did not care about the moral consequence of these decisions

Quotation in the Charge of the Light Brigade showing how war is glorified and valiant and technique

“Into the valley of death, rode the six hundred”

Metaphore comparing the battle field to death illustrates the bravery of the soldiers as they are riding into near certain death, further portraying the courageous nature of conflict in the poem

Quotation in COTLB showing how their sacrifice was glorious plus technique

“When can their glory fade?”

“Honour the Light brigade"!”

Once they escape the valley of death, we are ordered by the writer to honour them

Imperative and rhetorical question shows how the writer believes that their sacrifice was not futile, but glorious and that their memory will never be forgotten due to their sacrifices in conflict

Quotation showing how the conflict in COTLB results in suffering and death

“Volleyed and thundered” - onomatopoeia
“Stormed at with shot and shell, while horse and hero fell”

Rhyming couplet shows how the some of the valiant soldiers died in their charge

Another quote showing the same thing

“Then they rode back, but not/ not the six hundred”

Repetition of not emphasises death

Quotations in the COTLB how the conflict is between the force of men

“Canon to the right of them, canon to the left of them, canon infront of them” - repetition of canon shows how they are surrounded

“Flashed all their sabers bare, flashed as they turned in air” - rhyming couplet

What is the poems meter and what is the effect

Dactylic dimeter - represents the rythym of the horses’ hooves

Conflict of man

Context about the poem and the purpose of it

Lord Tennyson was poet Laureate at the time, and therefore he was obliged by the government to make the sacrifice of the light brigade seem glorious and not futile to support the decisions of the aristocracy

Nationalism

Context about the actually decision to send the COTLB

It was a critical mistake by the commanding officers in the Crimea War which resulted in the death 113 men of the 600 men on horseback

Context about how the forces of man

This battle was one of the first conflicts to use modern military techniques, like exploding artillery shells from canons, and this led to much destruction and death due to the force of man

Quotation showing how in Exposure the weather is the main enemy

“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence, less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow” - oxymoron

Another quotation showing this?

“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”

Quotations and/or structure showing the futility of this war?

“But nothing happens” - repeated refrain

Cyclical structure - attrition, never ending cycle of war

“We only know war lasts”

Quotation showing suffering

“Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice”

Quotation showing the result of this suffering

“For the love of God seems dying”

Quotation in Destruction about the soldiers appeared greater than nature

“And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, when the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee”

Quotation for God killing the army

“For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass’d”

Vivid language demonstrates how effortless God killed them - Assyrians power is nothing compared to God’s

Quotation for soldiers dying via supernatural and the affect

“And there lay the rider distorted and pale, with the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail”

“And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!”