1. Impressions of war: Duffy and Tennyson
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Impressions of war: Duffy and Tennyson
Thursday, 17 October 2019

2. Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Consider ThIS Statement from George Alagiah (from A passage to Africa, Edexcel IGCSE Anthology.)
Reading. Brief discussion of ideas here regarding the moral imperatives and the corrosive nature of the material - the craving.

3. Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Overview
4 stanzas, each covering a stage in the process of development to print
Iambic Pentameter suggests the importance of the material
Almost heroic couplets – not wholly rhyming couplet structure.
Such organisation is reminiscent of a hymn or work of high poetic form. It also suggests clarity of thought and we need to notice the variations as important when they come.
Anonymous and therefore applicable to all people and all times.
Beginning with WP (Duffy)

4. War Photographer Many of the same ideas as Alagiah:
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
War Photographer
Many of the same ideas as Alagiah:
We note the links in terms of the ideas of the horror and the influence of the editor in choosing only the most shocking images, but we focus on the word ‘MUST’ – the moral imperative which this poem explores.
Link to opening stimulus slide – picking up ideas of compulsion and the developing tropes of suffering, blood/land, and lack of care

5. Religion and the moral imperative
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Religion and the moral imperative
Imagery throughout the first two stanzas which links the photographer to a priest.
The idea of having someone to ‘bear witness’ is evident
The ‘sacred duty’ to tell the truth in the face of hardship
The sense of working in a role as a ‘righteous being’
The sense of a vocation is implied
Setting up analysis of stanzas 1&2

6. The metaphor is complex – the spools are indeed now the carriers of suffering, the ordered rows possibly suggesting the war graves seen in memorials
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Technical requirement in a darkroom which echoes the candles glowing in front of an altar (softly)
The simile confirms the idea of the religious nature of the job and thus the sense of vocation
Solemnity. The cities take on the sound of a religious service, ending with the funeral text.
Read it Aloud and add the comments one at a time.
A job - a vocation
Developing fluid takes on the overtone of Communion wine in the context of the previous stanza

7. A personal trial Is suffering from some form of PTSD
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
A personal trial
Is suffering from some form of PTSD
Unable to remove self from the effects of what has been seen
Flashbacks
Recalls images familiar to the reader
Tropes of war poetry from an earlier age

8. Only now is suffering, once home
The rather out of control enjambment is brought up sharp by the double caesura –reality.
Does the broken line and short statement explain or contain a sense of contempt?
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Only now is suffering, once home
The enjambment again seems to suggest a lack of control over the reappearance of the images.
The sense of a ghost ties in with Alagiah’s ‘ghoulish manner’ – neither dead nor alive, kept alive by his photograph- twist suggests the physical pain in the picture
Sound imagery highlights the lack of direct communication
The moral imperative: to bear witness to suffering and cruelty

9. The trope of Blood on Land
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The trope of Blood on Land
Either: Brooke’s self-obsessed jingoism or Hardy’s wider conciliatory world view.
The photographer and the victim are utterly anonymous and any sense of identification is avoided, making the poem applicable to all
An extension comment comparing Brooke and Hardy – the jingoistic and the holistic.

10. Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The response
As the poem’s stanzas outline the process by which the photographs are developed and become objects in their own right, causing the emotional response of the photographer, so in the last stanza we read of the response from the three stakeholders –the editor, the reader and the photographer.
The final line picks up the mood of the earlier lines – ‘he has a job to do’, and ‘what someone must’

11. Newsprint and clarity of message.
The Spools of suffering are now metaphorical ‘agonies’, as though each picture presented an archetype for both victim and photographer
A sharp pain but a short one – the enjambment intrigues as we hurry to follow the thought process – almost like the momentary interruption of the day by the prick itself.
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Newsprint and clarity of message.
A loss of control over the process. A sense of a higher authority
The internal rhyme reinforces the triteness of the response
Who is ‘they’?

12. Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The last couplet
He is already airborne – he has a ‘job to do’ and has no part in the process of delivery
He ‘stares impassively’ – he has removed himself from reality and ‘rural England’ and his emotions have shut down again
It is a job – ‘he earns his living’ – a coping mechanism
‘They do not care’ – is he bitter? There is a coldness in this line and a lack of emotion – certainly critical of the public receiving the material, but also of the Editors. What of the sufferers – are they also included in this comment?

13. Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
In an earlier time
Little or no news pictures in 1850s. Most were staged and used in material produced well after the event - carefully edited for public consumption.
War poetry is changing – Southey has explored futility in ‘The Battle of Blenheim’.
In Light Brigade, Tennyson explores both responsibility and heroism in abject failure – a distinct shift from the typical muscular Christian, ‘God is an Englishman’ poetry so popular in Victorian England.
A poem written to be published in the news – The Examiner – and which he feared "might prove not to be decorous for a poet laureate“.
It is a verbal film of that great British war trope – the gallant defeat. It also criticises authority without naming those at fault.
Contexts for Tennyson

14. Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
The music of the dactylic rhythm creates a sense of order and discpline as we see the horses canter towards the guns much in the manner of Holst in music…
Ordered advance seen in the repetition of short distances
The first variation in this line and line 7 –the additional syllable to emphasise the metaphor – ‘Death’
The order is clear – the voice issuing the order is not.
Direct speech gives veracity – yet there is none – Tennyson is editorialising
Slower rhythm by punctuation, direct speech, Biblical allusion
The repetition of ‘The Six Hundred’ serves to iconify the group and create a legend

15. Religion as a trope Valley of Death is an allusion to Psalm 23
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Religion as a trope
Valley of Death is an allusion to Psalm 23
The Valley of Death (Hell) is a test for the Christian Soul who will ‘fear no ill’ and will trust his God to preserve him.
For most in this poem, the salvation will not happen.
The Allusion will change to become the ‘Jaws of Death’ in subsequent stanzas.

16. The charge picks up pace
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The charge picks up pace
The rhetorical question establishes a link between bravery and knowledge of poor leadership – bravery is to show courage despite knowing the reality of the situation – anonymous again: universality
More direct speech – allows reader to hear the battle… Imperatives must be obeyed.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Someone had blundered. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
The pace increases as the dactyls are no longer punctuated
Rhyythm underpins all – there is no stopping this action what ever we are thinking above the idea of the charge.
Almost as a refrain, the twin ideas of the 600 and death are re-established

17. The cannonade In Stanza three the rhythm becomes fractured.
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The cannonade
In Stanza three the rhythm becomes fractured.
Whilst the front-loading of the word ‘canons’ serves to create the idea of the gunshots.
I prefer to focus on the idea that the canon shot disrupts the organised rhythm of the charge, carefully established in the opening 2 stanzas.
The hard consonants produce the effect of breaking the lines…

18. Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Alliterative dentals and gutterals break up the charge. The rhythm is unaltered as the riders continue.
Sibilants add another layer of sound to the onomatopoieia, whilst the line shave no flow due to the consonants.
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them    Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of hell    Rode the six hundred.
The hendiadys of ‘Boldly they rode and well’ separates the bravery from the skill. The rhythm remains unbroken
The imagery redoubles – the jaws of death act to personify the valley as a huge monster. The mouth of Hell leaves nothing unspoken – fire, brimstone and certain death.

19. The turning point is reached
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The turning point is reached
Stanzas lengthen to this point as though echoing the distance from safety for the cavalrymen
After the cannonade, the focus shifts to the cavalry themselves and onomatopoieia is again used to add a layer of vividness to the description of the battle.
Tennyson introduces the horror of the ‘retreat’ in the last couplet.

20. Sound and FURY…. Signifying?
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Repetition and onomatopoieia combine to produce vivid sound and visual imagery. Alliteration accents the description of the destroyed Russian forces
Sound and FURY…. Signifying?
2 key words: ‘army’ and ‘wondered’.
Size matters: the 600 now charge an army – untrue but successful journalese to stress the impossible odds.
All the world (really?) ‘wondered’ suggests awe but also a questioning of the act itself. What is the role of the war poet here?
Flashed all their sabres bare Flashed as they turned in air Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army, while    All the world wondered. Plunged in the battery-smoke Right through the line they broke; Cossack and Russian Reeled from the sabre stroke    Shattered and sundered. Then they rode back, but not    Not the six hundred .
The double negative, split across 2 lines serves to emphasise the loss. Tennyson has established the ‘600’ as a unit in this poem – now we reach the truth – the loss. The focus shifts dramatically to the aftermath at this point.

21. Re-emphasises the idea of the ‘600’ as a poetic, heroic whole.
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The return
Emotive placement of key words: ‘horse and hero’ establishes the idea of heroic death in a lost cause
The pattern is identical to Stanza 3 -note ‘behind’ them. This is a factual description of the event.
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them    Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell. They that had fought so well Came through the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of hell, All that was left of them,    Left of six hundred.
The beginning of the moral imperative on the reader which will be confirmed in the last stanza: they that had fought so well… All that was left of them…
Re-emphasises the idea of the ‘600’ as a poetic, heroic whole.

22. The Journalistic Imperative
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
The Journalistic Imperative
Duffy focused on the moral imperative to bear witness, Tennyson does this and draws focus to the moral imperative to ‘honour the light brigade’.
This is in line with modern charities such as Help For Heroes and the development of the Remembrance Celebrations which emerged as a nation came to terms with the losses of the First World War.

23. When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made!
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
Addressing his readers, Tennyson asks the rhetorical question, fully expecting the answer: ‘never’. He has set this up over the 5 preceding stanzas
‘wild’ is interesting – Tennyson opts to celebrate the romantic nature of the charge rather than to overload the idea of heroism again.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
   All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
   Noble six hundred!
In the repetition of the line ‘all the world wondered’ I believe the focus is clearly on awe at this stage.
The double imperative ‘honour’ underlines the moral imperative on the reader and also on the journalist – to honour and respect the bravery of those involved, whilst not losing sight of the blunders highlighted earlier.
‘noble’ moves the 600 to a level beyond brave and to a new social stratum – the officers who blundered were ‘noble’ –perhaps the 600 are more deserving of the title?

24. In summary… 2 poems which explore the role of the war correspondent.
Jonathan Peel JLS 2019
In summary…
2 poems which explore the role of the war correspondent.
Duffy focuses on the journalist and the response of a disinterested public. Often overloaded with graphic imagery form a war zone the public lose interest – ‘they do not care’.
Tennyson, possibly for the first time uses his position as poet laureate to not only describe the event in graphic detail- each stanza a ‘spool of suffering’, but also to impose the moral imperative on the readership – the need to honour and value the blood spilled in their name.
Both poems have a note of criticism – of authority and of the mechanism of reporting.