Power & Conflict Poems 1-5

Message for COTLB

Tennyson wrote 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' to honour the "noble six hundred" and to encourage readers to
remember and respect their great sacrifice in battle.

"Into the valley of Death"

1. Biblical allusion to Psalm 23 -Suggestion that God is with them, reinforced through reference of "light" brigade
2. Metaphor transforms battleground into a place of
certain death- through the capitalisation of "Death" which makes it almost sound like a monster
3. Physical reference to the landscape - "valley" - shows
the danger of their mission - no escape, surrounded on both
sides- foreshadows the massive loss of life from the offset.
4. Emphasises the significance of their sacrifice- willingly and
boldly ride towards certain \death

"Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell"

1. Personification - paints a picture of the power of the
dangers of the enemy, increasing the fear for the
soldiers +sympathy
2. Emphasises their bravery as they are willingly riding towards
certain death and a place that is presented as "hell"
3. "jaws" + "mouth" = no escape, enemies seem like all-consuming monsters, Suggests that death is inevitable and
unavoidable
4. Emphasises the bravery and nobility of the soldiers- respect
their sacrifice.

"Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade"

1. Repetition + imperative- poet is commanding us to remember
their sacrifice and bravery
2. Creates a celebratory tone, emphasises the importance of
what they did.
3. "honour" sacrifice in war is to be respected and admired.
4. Emphasise the message that we must never forget the soldiers.

Message of Bayonet Charge

Hughes wrote 'Bayonet Charge' to criticise the patriotic, idealised view of war by presenting it as futile and
destructive.

"Suddenly he awoke and was running - raw"

1. In media res- places us immediately in the action, sympathy for the soldier- don't know what has happened before or what is happening now
2. Creates a sense of panic, chaos and disorder- exactly as the soldier is experiencing.
3. "raw" emphasises his discomfort in both his uniform and possibly his position in war
4. "he"- unnamed anonymous, could be anyone to reflect the universal experiences of war.
5. Creates sympathy for the soldier by placing us in the same confused and disordered position- no sense of honour or bravery

"Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame"

1. Natural imagery- paints a picture of the devastating effects of war on nature as well as man.
2. Hare is a metaphor for the soldiers' individual suffering, vulnerable and dying innocent animal getting caught up in
the destruction.
3. "yellow" connotations of sicknessnature is dying. Also of fear- again reflects the soldiers' feelings.
4. Emphasises the destructive impact of war to further criticise the patriotic, idealised view of war.

"King, honour, human dignity, etcetera Dropped like luxuries”

1. Simile- compares the abstract notion of his values (and the
reasons for signing up to war) to physical items which have been easily discarded.
2. Asyndetic list emphasises the idea that war destroys all values and ideals- they are seen as "luxuries" rather than
necessities in the brutality of war.
3. "etcetera" dismissive of any other reasons for his signing up
to war- all meaningless, he no longer believes in them
4. Emphasises the futility of war which is destructive and
dehumanising.

Message of Exposure

Owen wrote 'Exposure' to convey the true "pity of war" by showing the soldiers are powerless to defend themselves
against their enemies and the horrific conditions.

"the merciless iced east winds that knive us..."

1. Personification - power of the wind as a menacing and deadly enemy, highlight the brutal, exposed conditions the soldiers face.
2. Highlights the potency of the personified weather- actively
attacking them like an enemy; juxtaposed with the lack of
agency that the soldiers have.
3. "our" inclusive/collective pronoun= reflects the shared
experiences of the soldiers and invites the reader to imagine we are part of the group to evoke sympathy.
4. Emphasises how the soldiers are powerless- even the weather is an enemy that they have to fight.

Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence"

1. Auditory imagery paints a picture of the soundscape of the
trenches and battleground, reader to feels immersed in the
setting
2. The sibilance mimics the sound of the ammunition streaking
overhead.
3. "sudden"= the gunfire can come out of nowhere, leaving the
soldiers always on edge and waiting for the next attack.
Death is all around them.
4. However, even the bullets are "less deadly" than the weather-the actual war is impotent in comparison to nature.
5. Emphasising the horrific conditions the soldiers had to
live through with no escape.

"slowly, our ghosts drag home"

1. Metaphor- transformed into ghosts- Implies that they will
not survive and return home as themselves.
2. Even if they do return home, they will not be fully human-merely ghosts of themselves
3. "slowly" once again reiterates the sense of waiting and the
idea that the war is long and drawn out
4. Emphasising the inevitability of death and therefore the futility of war.

Message of Remains

Armitage wrote 'Remains' to raise awareness of the long-lasting effects of conflict by emphasising the profound guilt
and trauma some soldiers experience.

"Probably armed, possibly not"

1. Repetition (line 4 and 22) emphasise impact of his doubt
and uncertainty
2. At first, almost seems dismissive of this question- it is irrelevant whether the looter was armed
or not.
3. Later, demonstrates doubt and uncertainty- the looter's death is playing on his mind.
4. Inner turmoil- cannot escape the possibility of having killed a
"possibly" unarmed man.
5. Demonstrates the lasting effects of conflict- cannot escape their actions.

"and tosses his guts back into his
body. Then he's carted off in the back of a
lorry."

1. Colloquial language 'tosses' 'guts' 'carted off.' Suggests a
casual attitude towards the dead man.
2. Seemingly uncaring and unsympathetic, cold and callous
treatment of the body- no respect.
3. Thrown onto the back of the lorry like a piece of rubbish-disposable, everyday occurrence- desensitised to
death.
4. Colloquial language possibly because he cannot articulate
what has happened- trying to distance himself from actions

"his bloody life in my bloody hands"

1. Repetition- Emphasising the speaker's guilt
2. Possible reference to Macbeth -Lady Macbeth attempting to
wash away her sins - hints that the speaker has been
unbalanced by his guilt.
3. 'My' suggests that he is completely responsible- no
longer collective pronouns.
4. Lasting guilt and trauma- feels responsible for what he did.

Message of War Photographer

Duffy wrote 'War Photographer' to acknowledge that the public have become detached and desensitised to images
of war-torn nations despite the horrors experienced by those involved in conflict.

"spools of suffering set out in
ordered rows"

1. Metaphor transforms the spools into the people who
have been pictured, depicting their pain and distress
2. Contrasts the chaos of war with the ordered rows- could
relate to graves or military formation.
3. "suffering" both of the subjects of the photos and
the photographer
4. Reveals the horror that the photographer has witnessed,
creating sympathy for both subject and photographer.

"a half-formed ghost"

1. Metaphor transforms the dying man into a ghost
2. Dually-effective- both "half-formed" as it is developing and
also process of dying/becoming a ghost.
3. "twist"- connotations of painpain of memories and the
images.
4. Lasting impact of war- reliving moments he has witnessed.

"A hundred agonies in black and white"

1. Hyperbole-exaggerates the pain and suffering that has occurred.
2. Only "five or six" will be selected from "hundreds"- we see only a small amount of the suffering that is taking place.
3. "black and white"- war is presented exactly as it is- no
covering with propaganda
4. Not seeing war's true colours-allows viewers to become
desensitised and detached- "do not care"