The_Battle_of_Blenhiem

The Battle of Blenheim and The Destruction of Sennacherib present diverse views on the topic of war. While there are some stylistic devices which are common to both poems, there are considerable differences in the poet’s opinions and approach on the topic of war as they both take a different approach on talking about showing their opinions. There are similarities in the themes for example they are both written about war and battle but there are more differences than similarities, based on the poets approach and what they are trying to get across to the reader. Also there are stylistic devices used in these poems that are common to both, such as both of the titles reveal very little about the poem, which allows the poets to go into more detail in their poem. The type of language used in The Destruction of Sennacherib is different to the language used in The Battle of Blenheim although they do have similarities; the differences are greater in this area. The Battle of Blenheim and The Destruction of Sennacherib present very different views on war but the background themes are very similar. Although, there are differences between these two themes for example The Battle of Blenheim discusses how the war was “a great victory” and The Destruction of Sennacherib discusses the negative affects of the war. However, in The Battle of Blenheim there is an underlying message given through out the poem and this is the devastating repercussions of war. (BOB, Para 8, line 3) “And many a childing mother then, And new born baby died; but tings like that you know must be at every famous victory.” Although one may think these two poems are quite different they have a lot in common with each others themes, than originally thought. The Destruction of Sennacherib discusses the negative affects of war in a more obvious manner: (DOS, Para 3, line 3, 4) “And the eyes of the sleepers, waxed deadly and shill, and there hearts but once heaved, forever grew still.” This is the main similarity between the two poems; the poets both want to convey that war and battle are an awful occurrence. There are a few differences between these poems themes, one would be the use of religious references and religious proper gander (DOS Para 3, line 1) “And the angel of death lay its wings on the blast” is one of many religious references. But BOB has no religious references and religion takes no place in this poem or its theme. Another difference between these two poems themes is that one The Battle of Blenheim is written as a victory and The Destruction of Sennacherib is a defeat. The stylistic devices used in these poems have some similarities but are more different then they are similar. A few small similarities are things such as the titles of both the poems do not revel very much about the poem itself. The titles only reveal just enough to give you a vague idea of what the poem could be about. The second similarity was that the first word of every stanza is only one syllable, starting of the paragraph simply and getting more in to depth as the paragraph continues. The differences between BOB and DOS are more commonly found in the area of the poems, because firstly they are totally different styles of writing for example BOB is a repetition poem and DOS is a rhyming poem, which help portray different sides to a similar story. BOB is about an army wining a war, no matter what they had to lose in the process and discusses what a famous victory it was. BOB is written as a recount of the event, stories told to generation to generation. Although DOS is more about losing an awful battle and been there and witnessing it first hand what an awful event it is. Another difference between the two poems is the length DOS is a lot shorter then the BOB. DOS is written in the sense that the person writing the poem was there through out the battle and alive at the end. DOS is written in third person and makes the reader feel as though the poet was there watching and experiencing the event. Although BOB was written in first person and it is discussing the event as an old memory told down from generation to generation. Another difference found was that the poem BOB is written in a 6 line stanza with the last word of every second and forth line rhyming. But DOS has four lines to every stanza with the last words of line one and two rhyming and lines three and four also rhyming, therefore rhyming couplets throughout the whole poem. Between these two poems there are a few stylistic devices that they have in common but overall there were a lot more differences, showing that the way these poems were written was almost completely different manner. The Battle of Blenheim and The Destruction of Sennacherib illustrate a very similar understanding and opinion of war shown by both the poets, although the language used to get that point across is extremely diverse. To begin with there is one similarity between these two poems language and that is the meaning behind the language used. The meaning they are both trying to get across to the reader is that war is unnecessary, not worth all the lives lost in the process and finally nobody knows what good can come from a war. (Example BOB, Para 11, lines 3, 5) “But what good came of it at last'” “Why, that I cannot tell,” said he;” (Example DOS, Para 4 line 2 & stanza 5, lines 4,5) “But through it there rolled not a breath of his pride” and “And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.” The differences between these two poems are extremely common for example the language used in BOB is simple as the poem is a short story been told to a child. Although the language is simple it is more old fashioned in the words that are used and are uncommon to young people of this era. Also DOS uses more modern language with words that are more common to this era but is constructed in more of an old fashioned style. The language used in DOS at first seems to have a deeper meaning then BOB, mainly because language with deeper meaning is used and written in a very straight forward manner. This is not the case, although BOB seems to be stating that war is good, as long as it’s a victory this is false once it’s read more deeply there seems to be a hidden meaning that is equally as meaningful as DOS. BOB seems to be less sensitive in the language used because it’s brushing off the fact that people died, ect because it was a great victory and DOS is more sensitive in its understanding but the language used to describe the event is not very sensitive at all. And finally DOS uses more imagery in the language used then BOB. So although these poems at first seem to be quite diverse they have a lot more in common then originally thought. The Battle of Blenheim and The destruction of Sennacherib demonstrate diverse views on the topic of war. Although there are similarities in terms of some stylistic devices, themes and some language used that are common to both poems, there are considerable differences in the poet’s opinion and approach to this topic. In the area of the themes, the poets have very similar opinions about war but there is still small differences in there approach. When it comes to the stylistic devices used in these two poems there are a lot more differences then there are similarities because the poets are using different techniques of getting their ideas across to the reader. Furthermore the language used in these two poems overall has almost equally similarities and differences as the language helps describe the themes used. In conclusion these two very different styles of poems, that are written about the same topic have similarities where thought none but overall more differences.