Dulce Et Decorum Est Tone

Wilfred Owen expresses a resentful and panicked tone in his poem Dulce Et Decorum Est in order to emphasize the strength of the individual soldier; while in Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson suggests the loyalty and unity within the soldiers who without a second thought follow orders to their deaths with a tragic yet anticipating tone. The two poems are meant to relay the innate brutality that is war. It reminds the audience that war is death and that it should not be glorified.
Dulce Et Decorum Est represents the innate brutality of war and it's horrific impact on soldiers. Owen uses animalistic words such as "wild" and “lame” to represent the innate savagery of man. By capitalizing the words “Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” he draws the reader towards these lines therefore giving them so much more meaning. He allows the reader to feel the anticipation and the fear in those words as if they were among those soldiers, their life depending on their quickness to strap on a mask. With the use of such horrific words like, “plunges... guttering, choking, drowning” he stirs a pathos in his audience as
they, themselves feel the impact of the words that describe the death of these men. Owen’s distinct diction provides a resentful tone throughout the poem.
Charge of the Light Brigade uses a powerful tone to emphasize the loyalty and comradeship within the men. Tennyson uses powerful diction words such as ‘hundred, blundered, thundered, wondered’ to emphasize the theme of unity. It reminds the audience that there were 'six hundred', one had blundered, they were surrounded by the thundering of war, and although the men wondered that there might be a mistake, they rode on. The switch from they ‘Rode the six hundred’ until the fourth, with a shocked stutter on ‘not’: ‘Then they rode back, but not / Not the six hundred’ Repetition is used to emphasize the importance of unit and how the men start and end as the 'six hundred'. The use of the 'six hundred' instead of Tennyson simply referring to them as men or a group is to signify their unity and how they together made up the six hundred.’ Charge of the Light Brigade provides succinct descriptive words to relay the tone of unity.
Dulce Et Decorum Est uses intense imagery to emphasize the savagery of war and the men participating in it.
As gas entraps them, these solders are described as ‘flound’ring like a man in fire or lime,’ and Owen words it as such to convey the immense pain the men are feeling. He proceeds to emphasize the innate evil of war and how it corrupts man using a metaphor, 'His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin.’ By alluding to the devil he not only reminds us that war is as evil as the devil himself but he uses this euphemism of hell to juxtapose the euphemism of heaven earlier in the poem. This then, produces a religious allegory of the light of man versus the darkness in man and his drive to overcome it. Owen’s overall message to his readers is that the saying of “Dulce Et Decorum Est; Pro patria mori” is wrong because there is no glory in death, especially death through
war.
Charge of the Light Brigade expressed the innate feeling of unity and respect for authority, as the six hundred charge as they've been commanded without second thought. Remarque includes descriptive literary devices to provide his readers with a deeper understanding of the men's loyalty in each other. They ride without question through the "valley of Death" believing in the ones they follow and this then preserves their honour when he says; “Theirs was not to reason why, / Theirs was but to do and die." The statement not only proves their loyalty but it also reiterates the idea of the ugliness of war and it refutes the idea that it is glorious to die for war, because in the end, you will not be remembered individually but only as a whole. The understatement, "Someone had blundered,” reminds the reader just how disposable soldiers of war are. Tennyson uses ‘blundered’ to emphasize the fact that to authority and to the people it was simply a ‘mistake’ but to the soldiers fighting, it was the murder of six hundred.
Together, the two poems relay the desolation of war and its effect on man but they do so in different ways. Owen highlights the murderous aspect of war while creating a pathetic mood to remind the audience that these men are men just as themself who have been forced into premature brutality. He uses a commonly used phrase as his title and a main part in his poem, only to refute the statement. The main goal of Dulce Et Decorum Est is to prove to the reader that war is not glorifying and that it is simply a catalyst for destruction. Tennyson takes a different resolve to portray his theme by highlighting the shining aspects of war and crushing them with the corruption of man. He emphasize the loyalty and unity of man in order to remind the reader that even with the strongest bond of unity the men will still die because the enemy is corrupt, authority is corrupt, and war is corrupt. Charge of the Light Brigade shows the audience the good that may come of war but emphasizes the death that overcomes it. Both of the poems tie together to relay the sole message that war is not something to be glorified but something to be avoided at all costs because it is something that begun with hatred and death and will end in just that.