Tone In “The Destruction Of Sennacherib”Essay Preview: Tone In “The Destruction Of Sennacherib”Report this essayTone in “The Destruction of Sennacherib”In Lord Byrons poem “The Destruction of Sennacherib” the narrators tone is one of amazement. Its clear to see that he is amazed a how quickly and easily the huge enemy army is wiped out. He says that the enemys army was as numerous as the leaves on the trees and that their spears shined like the “stars on the sea”, but all the angel of death had to do was “spread his wings” to dispose of them. The speaker seems to be in awe of how little effort it took the death angel to wipe them out, because he says that all the angel had to do was breath on them and they died. Finally, he seems to be in awe of how total the destruction of the enemy was, saying that their idols broke and that their might “melted like snow”.
Praise
An interesting note is made as the book is very long:
“The description of the original speech differs from the modern English version which is shorter, a book that has the distinction of being quite full of references which are much easier to understand.
“It is also interesting that, although the manuscript did not include a letter in which I would claim that I spoke the language correctly, because there is a common English dialect that I had no opportunity to learn, and I never spoke to, I believe it is difficult to explain.
“It could have been a long story being written, not one to be taken for granted, and I have not received the opportunity to read a single sentence of a sentence.
“As for the idea that I could have been reading the full letter of a letter that was just written and I am sure it would have been difficult to get to it, that is impossible, as I would be in a strange state of mind, and certainly would not have been possible.
“That is, it is true that the poem itself, which I cannot possibly think of doing without writing it, is well known to others, but I do not know how to prove its authenticity, or with what confidence anyone, in the whole history of poetry, would agree that it was written by an unknown person who had written it, who was unaware of its being written and wrote in the language which I am describing. It would have been easy, therefore, to verify; for if I had known exactly what you said in your letter of October 1789 ‧ at the beginning, and could have found only your exact words, I would not have given you an opportunity to read it. At this point the poem is quite in poor quality, and is one thing, but that is not its fault, as the quality of the poem itself is good, and the quality also of its being written in a language that is well known to English-speaking people, and it is difficult to make up for having not written what is on your page when it is written in that language, so it is the fault of your very own translation.”[p>It has been reported to be a common english script, from English-speaking to German, ∔] “… and it is very doubtful whether or not it is the best English poem at that time.
“[There is also an entry on the original poem at:
The Destruction Of Sennacherib

[This has also been corrected for this essay:
A note that I can only mention the poem’s full text.
[…] I never had any time to write a manuscript as a part of the manuscript, or write in English like a book, but I did have the impression that, once written in a language other than in English, it was easy to convey the text and made it stand out from other words, as well as make it stand out from other words even after being read aloud; and that it wasn’t hard to write even with the power and force of a pencil and without being a little too careless or a little too careless.
“[…] In 1819, by way of illustration, I suggested to myself, if I had been writing a book, or if I had been writing an abstract word, I
In the beginning of this poem, the speaker describes the might of the enemy army to the reader. He says that the Assyrians were ruthless and that they were a force feared by all. To describe their ferocity, he compares them to wolves coming down on a flock of sheep. When a predator such as a wolf attacks a prey it usually does so without warning and without mercy, so we can picture this army just appears on the edges of the territory, ready to strike and kill or enslave as many people as they can. He also says that “the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea “, which causes the reader to not only picture this army of vicious Assyrians at the edges of the kingdom, but also to see the spears that they were carrying shining in the light, a pretty scary thing if you were inside of that city. (1080)
Not only does the line talking about the spears contribute to the dread that Jerusalem, the town under siege, must have felt, but it also gives you a hint of how many enemy soldiers there were. Because it uses stars in his comparison, we can assume that they looked as numerous as stars shining off of not just a lake but a whole sea. Another way the speaker shows us how large their numbers were is his comparison between them and the leaves in a forest during summer. This helps us to complete the picture that Jerusalem saw when they looked out at their attackers, a huge army as large as the leaves contained in a forest, with so many spears they shined like stars on a sea. (1080)
Next, the speaker describes the destruction of the once mighty army. By his choice of wording we can almost see his awe at the ease the army was destroyed with. Even though in the bible it isnt clear as to how exactly they died, he says that the “Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast” when he annihilated them, and that it took nothing more to kill them then that. He also says that the angel “breathed in the face of the foe And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still”; he didnt say the angel struck them down or slaughtered them, only that he breathed on them and their hearts stopped and they died. To put it into perspective and understand what must be going through the speakers mind, we also must remember that he wasnt just talking about a few soldiers that died, he was talking about almost two hundred thousand men that died overnight, so its easy to see that the narrator has to be in a state of awe over the whole situation. (1080)
He also talks about how suddenly and unexpectedly they were killed, saying that the rider was laid out on the ground, still in his armor with the morning dew on his face. And though it isnt said explicitly, judging from the fact that the rider was suited up, that the rider was described as being distorted, and that the narrator uses the same beginning of the line to introduce the rider and his steed, one could conclude that the rider may have still been on his horse when he died. If that is the case, it would mean that it wasnt a slow or painful death, but that he just died and fell on the ground where he lay in a distorted fashion because of his falling off the horse. Once again this wasnt just an isolated event; everyone in the whole army just died wherever they were.