Alfred Tennyson Facing It Analysis

The effects of war are often calculated in terms of costs for weapons, equipment, gains, and losses with respect to what is being fought over, be it land or other resources. In thinking of war that way, however, we often overlook the very personal costs of war; while we may think in the abstract terms of numbers of dead soldiers, we overlook the cognitive, physical, and psychological on soldiers, civilians, and even the entire world. Indeed, while war shows man’s resilience and sacrifice, it also highlights what is worst about mankind, and its effects can linger for generations. The arts, including poetry, have long been instrumental in conveying the horrors of war, allowing the audience to feel some of what war is like and thus better understand it. Two such examples of this are the poems “The Charge of the light brigade” by Alfred Tennyson and “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa. In the first of these, Tennyson, describing the heroism of soldiers during the Crimean War, expresses the struggles and the dangers experienced by the soldiers during the …show more content…
For instance, he uses personification as a way to emphasize the significance of “Death” and “Hell,” as can be seen in the following quotations: “Intro the jaws of Death” (“The Light Brigade” 24), “Came thro’ the jaws of Death” (46), “Intro the mouth of Hell” (25), and “Back from the mouth of Hell” (47). Here, Tennyson uses personification to cast hell and death as characters in the poem. Likewise, Tennyson’s “valley of Death” is no longer just a valley, but rather a living thing that is ready to slaughter those soldiers. In addition, the capitalization and the repetition of the words “Death” and “Hell” is another way to underline the prominence of these “characters” and to convey fear, danger, and