Grade 9 AQA GCSE English literature Poetry Anthology Power and conflict - The Charge of the Light Brigade & Exposure

TJNOTES
TJNOTES
COMPARISION BETWEEN THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT
BRIGADE AND EXPOSURE


TJNOTES
Similar to Owen, Tennyson explores the dangers of war for the British soldiers. In the
opening line of Exposure, as the soldiers wait agonisingly for the enemy’s attack, Owen
explores the danger that comes from nature by writing ‘the merciless iced east winds that
knive us’. Owen personifies the wind as an unsympathetic, cruel person, who is deliberately
attacking the soldiers. Owen’s use of the words ‘knive us’ help the reader to vividly imagine
that the wind is brutally cold and that it is creating a stabbing pain against the soldiers’


TJNOTES
cheeks. Perhaps Owen uses these words as a reflection on his own experience and to reveal
to his readers the brutality of the weather conditions during the coldest winter months in
the trenches in World War One. As a soldier in the war himself, Owen wanted to make clear
that soldiers are in danger because of the cold weather rather than from the fire of the
enemy. Although Tennyson also explores the dangers of war, the danger to the British
soldiers in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is from the powerful Russian enemy. Unlike the



TJNOTES
soldiers in Owen’s ‘Exposure’ who are waiting for action, Tennyson immediately starts his
poem with the action of the battle. In the opening section of ‘The Charge of the Light
Brigade’, as the British soldiers charge towards their death, Tennyson makes clear the
soldiers are in danger by writing ‘cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in
front of them’. Tennyson’s use of these words creates powerful imagery of the soldiers
charging bravely and heroically, into enemy cannon fire. Tennyson’s repetition of the word
‘cannon’ emphasises the danger the soldiers are in by demonstrating that the soldiers are



TJNOTES
surrounded by enemy gunfire from all sides. Similarly, Tennyson also makes clear to the
reader that the British soldiers are severely outnumbered compared to the Russians. As the
first war to be reported in the news, many stories were raising criticism of the officers in
charge. Tennyson wanted to ensure that the danger was clear to his readers so that his
Victorian readers would recognise how brave the soldiers and officers were.
Both ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Exposure’ explore how the soldiers obediently



TJNOTES
fulfilled their duty in war. Throughout Exposure, as the soldiers agonise over when the next
enemy attack will be, Owen makes clear the soldiers dutifully wait to receive instructions by
repeating ‘but nothing happens’. Owen demonstrates that, in spite of the deathly weather
conditions and the lack of action or commands, the soldiers in the trenches know that it is
their duty to stay and wait. Owen’s repetition of these words emphasises how futile he
believed the war was, due to the lack of enemy fire and the fact that the soldiers seemed to



TJNOTES
be risking their lives for nothing. Owen chooses to end the poem with this line which not
only leaves the reader pondering about the purpose of the war, but also leaves us
sympathising with the soldiers who had to endure these brutal conditions for a long time.
Similarly, in the opening section of his poem, Tennyson demonstrates that the soldiers
obediently follow their officers’ orders by writing ‘theirs not to make reply, theirs not to
reason why, theirs but to do and die’. Similar to Owen, Tennyson’s repetition of the words
‘theirs not to’ emphasises the fact that the soldiers feel obliged to follow orders and not



TJNOTES
contradict their officers. They know that they must do their duty and patriotically fight for
their country. Tennyson’s use of alliteration in the words ‘do and die’ indicate that the
soldiers know that they are risking their lives, which demonstrates the strong sense of duty
they feel to their queen and their country. As Poet Laureate, Tennyson writes these lines not





TJNOTES