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Short Poems
I am going to compare ‘The Falling Leaves’ and ‘The Charge of the Light brigade’

Alfred Tennyson was born in 1809 at Somersby, Lincolnshire. Tennyson wrote ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ during the battle of balaclava (which took place during the Crimean war). The Crimean war is a battle between the British cavalry and Russian forces for control over territory.
‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is comprised of six numbered stanzas varying in length from six to twelve lines. Each line is in diameter, which means it has two stressed syllables; moreover, each stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables, making the rhythm dactylic.
'Charge of the light brigade' is about the Crimean war in southern Russia and it outlines both the heroism and obedience of the troops but also the stupidity of war. Tennyson wrote this poem for people to remember this famous event but also not to forget the lessons that should be learnt from it, the destruction of mistaken orders. But also to boost the moral and letting people at home know what's going on.
In the first few lines of the first stanza the phrase “half a league” emphasis Tennyson uses the repetition in order to produce the image of ‘the light brigade’s’ galloping on horses. On lines 4 and 8 there is also repetition of the phrase 'rode the six hundred’ emphasising how many lives went to waste. Tennyson uses this metaphor “valley of death” to illustrates that the soldiers bravery however, from this metaphor we can also interpret it is used to create a dark tone to engage the readers to feel pity for the soldiers who were killed harshly during the Crimean war.

Margaret Postgate Cole was born in 1893. Cole wrote ‘The Falling Leaves’ at 1915 during the First World War where the French lost over one million men, the Germans more than 600,000 and the British more than a quarter of a million. In the falling leaves Cole has used 12 lines and a three line rhyme scheme. The lines however, alternate

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