Nicholas Sosa October 17,2022

British Literature Honors A Period

Close Reading Poetry Essay

In both poems: “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars” and “The Charge of the Light

Brigade” the poets use different tone and diction. One story may be on the more romantic side

while the other might be more action packed. The poets each describe the topic in different ways

through different tones. Both poets wrote stories on the topic of war, but they described it in

different words and through different tones.

Richard Lovelace uses a very unique style of tone and diction in his poem “To Lucasta,

on Going to the Wars”. Lovelace uses a very romantic tone as well as diction in his poem. An

example of this in the text is “True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field; And

with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield.”(Lines 5-9 of “To Lucasta, on Going to

the Wars”) This quote shows the romantic tone of Lovelace. He describes war in a very romantic

way which is the opposite of what war is really like. War is commonly described as gory and

bloody but Lovelace decides to describe it as lovely and sweet. Lovelace also uses romantic

diction through the words sweet, dear, adore, loved, and embrace. Lovelace uses romantic words

to describe the gory subject of war. He talks about war as if it is the love of his life. This is a very

unique approach to a war poem. War is not usually described with romantic type words, it is

commonly described as a horrible subject.

Alfred, Lord Tenyson on the other hand, uses a much different style of tone and diction in

his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. In this poem Lord Tenyson uses a very passionate

diction. A couple examples of this in the poem are the use of the phrases “All in the valley of
Death”(Line 3), “Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death,” (Lines 23 and 24), and

“They that had fought so well” (Line 45). These phrases show us as readers that the soldiers

being described were fighting for all that they had. They were risking their lives for their country

as true soldiers. Lord Tenyson uses a passionate tone throughout the poem. An example of this is

when Lord Tenysin writes “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 Rode the six hundred.” (Lines 1-9 of “The Charge of the Light Brigade”)

This quote describes the emotion that Lord Tenyson is writing with. His usage of exclamation

points shows us that he is very passionate about the subject.

The tone and diction of both poems give us different views and perspectives on the

subject of war. Each poem uses a different approach to the topic. Richard Lovelace give susthe

more romantic and opposite perspective, while Alfred, Lord Tenyson on the other hand gives us

the more passionate and traditional perspective. Richard Lovelace shows us that war can be

something that you love. He does this by describing it in a romantical way especially in line 5

when he writes “True, a new mistress now I chase,”. This gives us a very unorthodox view on

war itself. We commonly think of war as something bad but Lovelace takes the opposite

approach and gives us the perspective of war that we can love and adore. Lord Tenyson decided

to take the traditional route with his poem and shows us his passion for battles. He describes to

us that a group of soldiers had the determination to defeat their enemy in battle. Although there

were mistakes made on the mission they did not back down and showed perseverance. Many of

them were killed but the few that survived were met with glory.

In conclusion, we are presented with different forms of tone and diction from both poets.

With the difference in tone and diction it showed us the two different sides of the topic of war.
We saw the romantic side as well as the passionate side with the different approaches by the

poets.