Comparing Poems: Bayonet Charge & The Charge

‘Bayonet Charge’ and The Charge of ‘The Light Brigade’ are both poems that focus of war specifically the soldiers in the war these poems show the soldier’s bravery and patriotism. At the second stanza in ‘Bayonet Charge,’ the soldier begins to doubt why he’s is fighting the war, while in “The Charge of the Light Brigade” the soldiers remain totally focused on war and not the consequences. In both these poems soldiers are show as patriotic and they will die for their countries.

In ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade‘ Tennyson has shown their loyalty through the use of repetition, ‘Someone had blundered‘ theirs not to make reply.  Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and diety this shows the loyalty of the soldiers as even though they knew that it was a military mistake they stayed true to their orders. ‘Theirs ‘ has been used to show that the soldiers are not their own people so they are one group of people that will not leave each other alone in this war so they are loyal.

Tennyson has called the person who made the mistake ‘someone‘ so that it does not take any of the focus of the six hundred, which shows that the soldiers knew it was a mistake as this ‘someone‘ was a leading officer. ‘Bayonet Charge‘shows war in a different light as it shows the soldiers have turned their patriotism into suffering through the use of a simile, ‘The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye / Sweating like molten iron’.

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The fact that Hughes suggests that the soldier has a ‘patriotic tear’ ‘brimming in his eye‘ shows that the patriotism is leaving his body as he’s crying it out. This shows that he was patriotic but after seeing the things he sees he is suffering.

The use of ‘molten iron’ shows his pain as ‘molten iron‘ would hurt if it touched you ‘lron’ is strong and if its ‘molten’ it’s not achieving its purpose of being strong so he‘s no longer strong to his beliefs so he’s in pain from being patriotic. This show that Tennyson is trying to gain respect for the soldiers and Hughes is trying to gain pity‘ The tones of the 2 poems are different with the tone of ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ being a heroic one whereas the tone of ‘Bayonet Charge‘ a fearful one ‘The Charge of the light Brigade‘ is shown as heroic though the use of biblical imagery, ‘into the valley of death. This is from psalm 23 and shows the soldiers as heroes as this was before they got into the tight so they know they were going to die.

This also shows the soldiers never had a chance but they did not have any fear as psalm 23 is about a person who has lost their fear as God is protecting them. ‘Bayonet Charge‘ shows the soldiers in a fearful way through the use of animal imagery, ‘yellow hare“. This can show the soldier as fearful as hares are light brown so he has begun to see things differently as he’s so scared. ’Vellow’ can also symbolize how he is a coward for being so scared. The ‘hare’ can also be a hallucination that he has made because of his fear as a hare would no stay on a battle field. In conclusion, both of these poems present the poems in a different way and have a different tones to them with the six hundred shows as heroic people that should be honored for their bravery, and the soldier in ‘Bayonet Charge’ shows as so scared he has lost his patriotism.