Jack Martin's English Journal

I’m going to write a short paragraph outlining the basic story of the poem the charge of the light brigade by Alfred Tennyson. This poem is telling us about the failing of the battle of Balaclava in 1854. Britain was in battle with France,  Sardinia and ottoman empire against Russian forces. This poem has a really simple story line which is war. The poem expresses the horrific features of war which are the pure suffering, pain, loud noises, deadly artillery, and the lost of lives in the war. It’s also explains the tactics and tasks the army’s took to try win the battle. The British was ordered to attack a very well organised russian army in which they knew they had no chance in winning, so they were defeated

In this short paragraph i would like to talk about a particular device and its effect within the poem. The poem i will be talking about is out of the blue by simon armitage. In this poem the man talking is an english worker in the north tower of the world trade centre when it was under attack in 2001. The device i have selected to talk about is the use of talking in the first person. Many poems contain this device because a lot of poets express personal emotions, opinions, story and subjects however in this poem this is not the case because the poet didn’t experience this ordeal. Talking in the first person can also make the reader more engaged and can picture exactly what is going on because they can make a relation as if it’s them. In this particular poem the poet switches between first and second person. For example ‘I am still breathing’ and ‘are your eyes believing’. The example shown is a very clever device being as the poet would say something and ask you the question after to ensure your thinking and understanding what is going on. To conclude talking in the first person within poetry can help understanding, keep the reader engaged, tell if its a personal subject, emotion or story etc and shows who the speaker is.