sir i used your fosse videos on poetry and got 29/30 on my marked essay by my teacher comparing poppies and war photographer! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Hello Sir. After buying your excellent 'Power and Conflict' revision guide, I used your FOTTES acronym to write an essay comparing how the effects of war are presented in Bayonet Charge and The Charge of the Light Brigade. I think my essay would fall into the Level 6 band, but I would really appreciate your feedback. Thank you so much. (By the way, your English Language guide is brilliant, too, and so are your AIC and Macbeth ones.) Both Ted Hughes’s Bayonet Charge and Alfred Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade explore the effects of war on soldiers. In the former poem, war is portrayed as having a bewildering and terror-inducing psychological effect on the lone soldier it describes, who, in a moment of epiphany, is awakened to the horrors of war. By contrast, in the narrative poem of The Charge of the Light Brigade, it is not so much on the ‘six hundred soldiers’ themselves that the spotlight is shone, but rather on their legacies, so that the poem itself is almost a eulogy of the British soldiers’ bravery, perhaps even pro-war. In short, then, Bayonet Charge commends the soldier for deserting war, while The Charge of the Light Brigade praises the soldiers for staying in it, for sacrificing their lives. This might reflect Hughes’s war-dominated upbringing, opposed to the bourgeois upbringing of Tennyson. Hughes’s Bayonet Charge has no distinct structure to it. It begins with a stanza so full of enjambment, so lacking in grammatical pauses, as to make the reader feel breathless. This breathlessness could mirror the extreme effort the soldier requires to stumble ‘across the field of clods’, an interpretation which the presence of aspirated consonants throughout seems to reinforce. Alternatively, the enjambment could reflect the soldier’s disjointed thinking, as if he cannot think clearly, as if his reasoning has been distorted, which is picked up on in the second stanza with the double entendre in ‘reason’. In both interpretations, war is portrayed as draining - both physically and psychologically. By contrast, in The Charge of the Light Brigade, the upbeat dactylic metre seems to invite the opposite: that the soldiers riding ‘into the Valley of Death’ are not ‘dismayed’, drained, but rather cheerful, carefree. On the one hand, this might reflect the soldiers’ bravery, their courage, which the anaphora of the verb ‘honour’ at the end seems to corroborate; moreover, given that the dactyl is employed in such epic poems as The Iliad, it could be argued that the soldiers display an element of heroism. On the other hand, the galloping metre could reflect the brainwashed attitude that the ‘six hundred’ have, as if war were trivial. In turn, this might demonstrate how the soldiers became desensitised through war, blinded, even: ‘theirs not to reason why/theirs but to do and die’. Perhaps this ambiguity was deliberate, given Tennyson’s position as Poet Laureate. Just as in The Charge of the Light Brigade, this idea of blindness to war is picked up on in Bayonet Charge. The soldier is described as having a ‘patriotic tear’ brim in his eye, ‘sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest’. By using the verb ‘brim’, Hughes could be suggesting that patriotism has blocked the soldier’s vision: the soldier can no longer see, having been blinded by his nationalism. However, where in The Charge of the Light Brigade, the soldiers rush into battle, into the ‘Mouth of Hell’, in Bayonet Charge the soldier in ‘bewilderment’ almost stopped, asking rhetorically in ‘what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations was he the hand pointing that second?’ The alliteration of the ‘c’ sound could imply that his mind has come to an epiphany, as if it has been clocked at the truth. In this way, then, the effects of war on the six hundred in The Charge of the Light Brigade are much worse than that on the soldier in Bayonet Charge, who realises the truth, perhaps mirroring Hughes’s anti-war views. While some might argue that the ‘six hundred’ in the Light Brigade were brainwashed into riding into the ‘Jaws of Death’, it could also be argued that war led them to be valiant. At the end of the narrative poem, there is a lexical field of greatness, consisting of the nouns ‘glory’ and ‘noble’ and the verb ‘honour’. This could imply that the battle instilled courage not just in the soldiers, as they ‘plunged’ in the battery smoke, but also in the general public; this is suggested by the use of the verb ‘wondered’, which indicates a degree of awe. War may be said to engender awe in the general public, which can be positive in that it makes them respect the heroism of soldiers, or negative in that it precludes comprehension. Given that Tennyson sourced his information from The Times, however, it is the former interpretation which is more plausible. The ending of Bayonet Charge reveals a different picture. The soldier dismisses the reasons for which is glorified - such as ‘king, honour, human dignity, etcetera’ - and views his own life as superior to glory. He describes his desire to ‘get out of the blue crackling air, his terror’s touchy dynamite’, with the noun ‘dynamite’ referring to his loathing of being regarded as a machine, reinforced erarlier by the noun ‘clockwork, as if he were just a robot. Thus, whereas in The Charge of the Light Brigade the soldiers seek glory, because of war, in Bayonet Charge the soldier avoids it, thinking it to be a problem. In conclusion, then, while both Bayonet Charge and The Charge of the Light Brigade deal with the effects of war on soldiers, the former explicitly portrays its effects as draining and blinding, the latter does not indeed portray its effects at all, focusing more on the associated glory.
Great essay bro, can you really hand write 900 words during the exam? Also, near to the end of the essay in the last analytical paragraph you mention that " 'dynamite' referring to his loathing of being regarded as a machine". I don't understand where you draw this interpretation of this quote from, although it seems interesting so if you could explain it to me that would be great for my own revision. Really well written nonetheless man, sounds sophisticated without using unnecessarily big words.
Hi sir. Usually when I get my english assignments back, Im only hitting level 4, and very so often having hints of level 5 in my essays. Is there anything I can do to get to the top band of level 6?
idk if u still need it or if this is helpful but 1. use subject terminology 2. use multiple interpretations- analyse one aspect of a quote and then write “perhaps, alternatively …” 3. be perceptive when analysing- instead of generalising an interpretation try to dig deep 4, work in chronological order
Hi sir quick question: when learning quotes, would you recommend learning quotes for separate characters, then linking them to themes or learning themes, then linking to characters? Thanks in advance :)
sir i used your fosse videos on poetry and got 29/30 on my marked essay by my teacher comparing poppies and war photographer! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Well done! Thanks for applying the method so well
Can you make some videos on grade 9 comparison essay of love and relationship please it would be extremely helpful I am actually quite lost right now
please may you do one like this for love and relationship anthology
:) thanks
if you could only pick a few poems to revise, what would they be? (your banker poems)
Power and Conflict Banker Poems to Revise
Hello Sir. After buying your excellent 'Power and Conflict' revision guide, I used your FOTTES acronym to write an essay comparing how the effects of war are presented in Bayonet Charge and The Charge of the Light Brigade. I think my essay would fall into the Level 6 band, but I would really appreciate your feedback. Thank you so much. (By the way, your English Language guide is brilliant, too, and so are your AIC and Macbeth ones.)
Both Ted Hughes’s Bayonet Charge and Alfred Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade explore the effects of war on soldiers. In the former poem, war is portrayed as having a bewildering and terror-inducing psychological effect on the lone soldier it describes, who, in a moment of epiphany, is awakened to the horrors of war. By contrast, in the narrative poem of The Charge of the Light Brigade, it is not so much on the ‘six hundred soldiers’ themselves that the spotlight is shone, but rather on their legacies, so that the poem itself is almost a eulogy of the British soldiers’ bravery, perhaps even pro-war. In short, then, Bayonet Charge commends the soldier for deserting war, while The Charge of the Light Brigade praises the soldiers for staying in it, for sacrificing their lives. This might reflect Hughes’s war-dominated upbringing, opposed to the bourgeois upbringing of Tennyson.
Hughes’s Bayonet Charge has no distinct structure to it. It begins with a stanza so full of enjambment, so lacking in grammatical pauses, as to make the reader feel breathless. This breathlessness could mirror the extreme effort the soldier requires to stumble ‘across the field of clods’, an interpretation which the presence of aspirated consonants throughout seems to reinforce. Alternatively, the enjambment could reflect the soldier’s disjointed thinking, as if he cannot think clearly, as if his reasoning has been distorted, which is picked up on in the second stanza with the double entendre in ‘reason’. In both interpretations, war is portrayed as draining - both physically and psychologically.
By contrast, in The Charge of the Light Brigade, the upbeat dactylic metre seems to invite the opposite: that the soldiers riding ‘into the Valley of Death’ are not ‘dismayed’, drained, but rather cheerful, carefree. On the one hand, this might reflect the soldiers’ bravery, their courage, which the anaphora of the verb ‘honour’ at the end seems to corroborate; moreover, given that the dactyl is employed in such epic poems as The Iliad, it could be argued that the soldiers display an element of heroism. On the other hand, the galloping metre could reflect the brainwashed attitude that the ‘six hundred’ have, as if war were trivial. In turn, this might demonstrate how the soldiers became desensitised through war, blinded, even: ‘theirs not to reason why/theirs but to do and die’. Perhaps this ambiguity was deliberate, given Tennyson’s position as Poet Laureate.
Just as in The Charge of the Light Brigade, this idea of blindness to war is picked up on in Bayonet Charge. The soldier is described as having a ‘patriotic tear’ brim in his eye, ‘sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest’. By using the verb ‘brim’, Hughes could be suggesting that patriotism has blocked the soldier’s vision: the soldier can no longer see, having been blinded by his nationalism. However, where in The Charge of the Light Brigade, the soldiers rush into battle, into the ‘Mouth of Hell’, in Bayonet Charge the soldier in ‘bewilderment’ almost stopped, asking rhetorically in ‘what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations was he the hand pointing that second?’ The alliteration of the ‘c’ sound could imply that his mind has come to an epiphany, as if it has been clocked at the truth. In this way, then, the effects of war on the six hundred in The Charge of the Light Brigade are much worse than that on the soldier in Bayonet Charge, who realises the truth, perhaps mirroring Hughes’s anti-war views.
While some might argue that the ‘six hundred’ in the Light Brigade were brainwashed into riding into the ‘Jaws of Death’, it could also be argued that war led them to be valiant. At the end of the narrative poem, there is a lexical field of greatness, consisting of the nouns ‘glory’ and ‘noble’ and the verb ‘honour’. This could imply that the battle instilled courage not just in the soldiers, as they ‘plunged’ in the battery smoke, but also in the general public; this is suggested by the use of the verb ‘wondered’, which indicates a degree of awe. War may be said to engender awe in the general public, which can be positive in that it makes them respect the heroism of soldiers, or negative in that it precludes comprehension. Given that Tennyson sourced his information from The Times, however, it is the former interpretation which is more plausible.
The ending of Bayonet Charge reveals a different picture. The soldier dismisses the reasons for which is glorified - such as ‘king, honour, human dignity, etcetera’ - and views his own life as superior to glory. He describes his desire to ‘get out of the blue crackling air, his terror’s touchy dynamite’, with the noun ‘dynamite’ referring to his loathing of being regarded as a machine, reinforced erarlier by the noun ‘clockwork, as if he were just a robot. Thus, whereas in The Charge of the Light Brigade the soldiers seek glory, because of war, in Bayonet Charge the soldier avoids it, thinking it to be a problem.
In conclusion, then, while both Bayonet Charge and The Charge of the Light Brigade deal with the effects of war on soldiers, the former explicitly portrays its effects as draining and blinding, the latter does not indeed portray its effects at all, focusing more on the associated glory.
Great essay bro, can you really hand write 900 words during the exam? Also, near to the end of the essay in the last analytical paragraph you mention that " 'dynamite' referring to his loathing of being regarded as a machine". I don't understand where you draw this interpretation of this quote from, although it seems interesting so if you could explain it to me that would be great for my own revision. Really well written nonetheless man, sounds sophisticated without using unnecessarily big words.
Hi sir. Usually when I get my english assignments back, Im only hitting level 4, and very so often having hints of level 5 in my essays. Is there anything I can do to get to the top band of level 6?
idk if u still need it or if this is helpful but
1. use subject terminology
2. use multiple interpretations- analyse one aspect of a quote and then write “perhaps, alternatively …”
3. be perceptive when analysing- instead of generalising an interpretation try to dig deep
4, work in chronological order
Thank you. I do edexcel but this was useful in an assessment where I compared Poppies to What Were They Like (theme of memories)
Very insightful video, I think the maker's purpose is to show viewers 10 steps to a grade 9 poetry comparison 🤔
Does writing a thesis statement get you marks?
If it includes the author’s purpose
The GOAT
can exposure and storm on the island be compared with each other
Sir would you ever consider making a level videos again? Structure videos like this i understand not making text analysis videos.
as well as remains what other poems should we revise?
Hi sir quick question: when learning quotes, would you recommend learning quotes for separate characters, then linking them to themes or learning themes, then linking to characters?
Thanks in advance :)
Pick quotes that do both - my next video will be about that this weekend
@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish great looking forward to it 😀
im assuming you're not making a love and relationship version
Do you know which poem comparison will come up on the GCSE literature paper
The fosse method doesn’t include a thesis? So shall I add a thesis or is form considered as a thesis?