Although both 'Dulce et Decorum Est?é?? and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade?é?? are about battle and the death of soldiers, they portray the experience of war in different ways. Tennyson?é??s poem celebrates the glory of war, despite the fact that, because of an error of judgement 'Someone had blundered?é??, six hundred soldiers were sent to their death. Owen?é??s poem, on the other hand, might almost have been written as a challenge to Tennyson?é??s rousing and jingoistic sentiments. He presents the horror of senseless death in the trenches and shows us how the famous line from the...
was like. This poem is the closest we will get to experiencing such atrocities and if we had, Owen tells us in the final lines, then we would not try to glorify the war any more. In the Preface to his poems, published after his death, Owen wrote, 'All a poet can do today is warn. That is why true poets must be truthful?é??. This why he criticizes 'the high zest?é?? that some people have for 'the old Lie?é?? of the glory of war, and why I think that 'Dulce?é?? is the more powerful poem of the two.