How is Conflict Portrayed in the Poems in the Conflict Section? Essay

The nature of conflict is a clash or coming together. There are many different types of conflict; it can come in varying scales of size and intensity. For example something which starts off as a family feud may end up as a World War. We can look at the causes of conflict, what actually happens or the effects. Tennyson’s ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ paints a picture of the glory and honour of soldiers in battle as it happens. It describes an incident during the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. Sheers’ ‘Mametz Wood’ focuses on the aftermath and futility of war. Hughes’ ‘Hawk Roosting’ looked at the causes of conflict, someone who has power but wants more and does not think about the effects of what they are about to do on others. Another poem by Hughes is ‘Bayonet Charge’ where there is a soldier in battle trying to escape from getting shot. Tennyson’s poem observes the battle from a distance as if he had a good viewpoint. He was not a participant like the poems of Wilfred Owen or Rupert Brook who wrote their poems and died in the trenches of the First World War. Tennyson sets the scene of battle and creates the atmosphere for ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by the form and structure of the poem. The six stanzas have a clear and powerful dactylic rhythm, representing the galloping hooves of the horses as they race into battle. The reader is carried along with the flow of the poem and the energy of the battle, which is emphasised by repetition, from the first two lines of the first stanza of the poem: â€Å"Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward.† A sense of involvement is created for the reader by repetition such as â€Å"cannon† suggesting the relentless assault from all sides â€Å"Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them† which emphasises the dangers faced by the cavalry and their great bravery. The contrast could not be greater in ‘Mametz Wood’. Although both poems are written in the third person there is a sense of detachment and distance within this poem as Sheers reflects on a futile battle. There is no immediacy of involvement. Whereas the rhythm carries you along in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, the conflict in ‘Mametz Wood’ is between past and present. The poem switches between the death of the soldiers in battle and the grisly discovery of their skeletons in the present. â€Å"Twenty men buried in one long grave† is contrasted with the present gentleness and vision of rolling countryside. A sad and reflective feeling is created through the use of a three-line stanza, long sentences and enjambment â€Å"their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre/ in boots that outlasted them†. The breaks between stanzas give the reader opportunity to reflect on the line of soldiers who their arms linked in a shallow grave – perhaps as a joke by those that buried them. Unlike in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, you are given no indication of the actual conflict which occurred, just some of the results. Pathos is emphasised by boots outlasting the men. Both poems memorialise unnecessary carnage. Both events which they are based on were directly the result of poor leadership. â€Å"Someone had blunder’d† in the decision to attack in the Battle of Balaklava but Tennyson emphasised that taking orders is honourable. â€Å"Theirs was not to reason why, / Theirs was but to do and die†. In ‘Mametz Wood’, criminal stupidity of orders â€Å"to walk, not run† made them sitting targets. Both poet’s honour loyalty and obedience where young, amateur and untrained soldiers died in their hundreds without questioning the orders they had been given. With over two hundred men â€Å"storm’d at with shot and shell† with the alliteration suggesting flying bullets in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, the soldiers in ‘Mametz Wood’ were mown down by â€Å"nesting machine guns†, a powerful oxymoron which gives the machine guns naturalness they do not deserve. In ‘Hawk Roosting’ however conflict is created by the hawk thinking that he is the King of the world and can do anything he likes. The vivid imagery emphasises the barbarity and senselessness of war with death being inevitable. The language used in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ creates a strong sense of the violence. Without questioning orders, 600 soldiers are ‘plunged in the battery-smoke’ whilst all around them cannons ‘Volley’d and thunder’d’ as they obeyed commands and plunged into the â€Å"valley of death†, â€Å"jaws of Death† and â€Å"mouth of Hell† which suggests a predator waiting patiently to eat its prey. By using such powerful verbs, metaphors and personification the image of the battle and the hopelessness of the situation faced is portrayed vividly. However Tennyson glorifies soldiers and praises their strength and courage â€Å"Boldly they rode and well†. In ‘Mametz Wood’, Sheers emphasises human frailty, seeing a life as it passes fleetingly in the passage of time. The colours and textures highlight this. The metaphors â€Å"broken bird’s egg of a skull† and ‘the china plate of a shoulder blade’ represent frailty. In ‘Mametz Wood’ the earth is personified as someone who needs healing. The farmers â€Å"tended† the land creating an image of something which needs nursing back to health. A link is made in the fourth stanza with a simile where the emergence of the bones from the soil is â€Å"like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin†. Unlike â€Å"Death† and â€Å"Hell† the earth guards the dead soldiers’ memories and bodies, protecting them until they are found. Earth is pushing them to the surface so that we don’t forget. This is also a reference that the soldiers were foreigners who should not have been in France. Although ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is a famous Tennyson poem I think ‘Mametz Wood’ is more powerful. They both describe real events and the horrors of conflict and show the class divisions between generals giving their orders and the men who follow them. There is an underlying message in both poems about the waste of life in war. The vivid picture of a charge on horseback and the courage of the Light Brigade are to be admired and honoured- not forgotten. However ‘Mametz Wood’ is more powerful in the way it reflects on the futility of war. It is quiet and thoughtful. There is no battle, just men walking to their death due to poor leadership. The emergence from the ground of delicate skeletons trying to yell out something but with â€Å"absent tongues† in their â€Å"socketed heads† suggests that the dead are trying to communicate with the living. Now we hear them, their message and their tragedy. The poem is a form of excava tion as it brings back through words an experience long forgotten. As people say on Remembrance Day every year: ‘We will Remember Them’.