War and Poetry The Gallantry and Repugnance of War in Poetry (19th and 20th centuries)

The history of war had long been portrayed into two radically different ways in literature: realistic and romantic. The realistic imagery of war and conflict primarily depicts the feeling of patriotism and at the same time, disillusionment of humanity as deaths and destruction dominate. Portrayals of betrayed loyalty and wastage of human lives and property are common images illustrated when describing the state of war. Of course, these images were derived from experience, hence giving this imagery of war a realistic feel and thought. Romantic images of war also abound, and are usually shown as the anti-thesis or 'positive' side of going to war. The romantic depiction of war shows the gallantry or desirability of engaging in war: the war symbolized the patriotism of people, pledging their allegiance and loyalty to their country or group. War portrayed through romantic imagery is a noble cause, a means towards a just end (achieving peace and order in the process).

These two images of the war are depicted effectively in the poetry of William Wordsworth, Rudyard Kipling, Guy Jones, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. These poets from the 19th and 20th centuries have expressed the real and romantic images that pervaded wars and conflicts among human societies. In the analysis of each poet's literary work, this paper looks at how Wordsworth,...

In the texts that follow, the following works by the author are analyzed according to the theme of gallantry and repugnance of war in poetry: "The charge of the light brigade" by Tennyson, "A tear for those who gave their all" by Jones, "The white man's burden" by Kipling, and "Occasioned by the Battle of Waterloo" by Wordsworth.
In the poem "The charge of the light brigade" (1854), poet Tennyson expressed in a mixture of realistic and romantic elements the noble cause of war. In it, he explicated how, embedded within the inevitable loss of lives of the soldiers is the deeper meaning of peace and unity that can only be achieved during times of conflict. Indeed, he was aware of the perils of war, and already established in the first stanza of the poem that war or conflict is described as "[i]nto the valley of Death Rode the six hundred." These lines demonstrated how war prepared humanity for death and destruction for a more meaningful end -- that is, war is the just the means toward an end. This was supported by Tennyson's reference to the soldier, a 'man who was not dismayed' despite the threats of apparent death in the war: "Their's not to make reply; Their's not to reason why; Their's but to do and die." The use of poetic elements as well as portrayal of the gallantry of war allowed the poem to create…