The Destruction of Sennacherib (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Your Edexcel GCSE English Literature Conflict Anthology includes 15 poems, and in your exam you will be given one of these poems – printed in full – and asked to compare it to another one from the anthology by theme. As this is a “closed book” exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will need to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, if you understand these four essential things about each poem, you will be able to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem
• The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey
• How the poet uses poetic methods to convey these ideas and messages
• How the ideas and themes in each poem compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of the other poems in the anthology

Here is a guide to Lord Byron’s 'The Destruction of Sennacherib', from the Conflict Anthology. It includes the following sections:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
• Writer’s methods: an analysis of the poet’s techniques and methods
• Context: an exploration of the poem’s context in relation to its themes
• What to compare it to: suggestions about which poems to compare it to in the exam

This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell
• An explanation of the poem, section-by-section
• An outline of Byron’s intention and message in each of these sections

'The Destruction of Sennacherib' in a nutshell

'The Destruction of Sennacherib' retells a biblical story from the Old Testament, in which God destroys King Sennacherib’s Assyrian army as it besieges the city of Jerusalem. God is on the side of the Jewish occupants of Jerusalem, who are far less powerful than the Assyrians, and the poem is told from their perspective. Although Sennacherib’s army is huge and intimidating, God sends an even mightier force – the Angel of Death – to destroy Jerusalem’s enemies. Byron’s focus on the dead Assyrians illustrates the suffering caused by conflict. The poem explores the power dynamics and tragic effects of war, as well as the idea that God’s power is greater than any human army.     

'The Destruction of Sennacherib' breakdown

Lines 1–4

“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; 

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.”

Explanation

• The Assyrian, King Sennacherib, approaches Jerusalem ferociously, like a wolf attacking sheep
• Sennacherib’s army looks splendid and powerful with their purple banners and gold armour
• Their spears shine in the light, and are as numerous as the stars reflected in the sea in Galilee (a coastal region in Israel)
  

Byron’s intention

• Byron dehumanises King Sennacherib by describing him as a wolf:
• He shows the terrifying power and violence of the Assyrian army by comparing it to a wolf attacking a herd of sheep
• The threat posed by Sennacherib’s army is implied by this simile, in which the citizens of Jerusalem are the sheep in the “fold”
• The poem emphasises the number and power of the Assyrian army by comparing their shining spears to stars, which are countless and indestructible

Lines 5–8

“Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 

That host with their banners at sunset were seen: 

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, 

That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strown.”

Explanation

• The huge number of Assyrian soldiers is as great as the leaves in the forest in summer
• However, the next day (“on the morrow”) they are all dead, dried up (“wither’d”) and scattered about (“strown”)
• Now, they are like the leaves in the forest after the autumn winds have blown them from the trees
  

Byron’s intention

• Byron conveys the huge number of soldiers in the Assyrian army in a simile comparing them to the number of leaves in the forest
• The soldiers are then compared with dead leaves, blown off the trees by autumn winds:
• This simile shows the complete destruction of the army
• It also implies that the force that destroyed them was natural and inevitable, like the coming of autumn:
• This is because the army was destroyed by God’s intervention in the conflict
• By juxtaposing the two similes in this stanza, Byron is illustrating how suddenly the change has happened and how decisively God has acted

Lines 9–12

“For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 

And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass’d; 

And the eyes of the sleepers wax’d deadly and chill, 

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!”

Explanation

• The army is destroyed because the Angel of Death has flown over it, carried on a mighty wind
• He has killed the enemy soldiers by breathing in their faces as they slept
• The soldiers’ eyes have become lifeless (“wax’d”) and their hearts have stopped forever after beating one final time

Byron’s intention

• These lines show the power of the Angel of Death, who only has to breathe in the faces of the sleeping soldiers to kill them
• By introducing this biblical figure, Byron increases the supernatural and mythical qualities of the poem
• Byron is illustrating God’s power, which is greater than the mighty Assyrian army

Lines 13–20

“And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, 

But through it there roll’d not the breath of his pride: 

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. 

And there lay the rider distorted and pale, 

With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail; 

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.”

Explanation

• A horse is lying, dead; its nostrils are wide and its mouth has foamed as it died:
• The white foam on the ground beside it is as cold as surf on the sea
• Its rider, an Assyrian soldier, is lying beside it:
• He is covered by the morning dew, and his armour is discoloured and corroded (“rusty”)
• The paleness of the soldier presents a dramatic contrast with the “purple and gold” splendour of the army at the start of the poem
• The tents of the Assyrian army are silent, their banners are unmanned, their lances are lying on the ground, and the war trumpets are not blown any longer, as they have been defeated

Byron’s intention

• These lines show the devastating impact of the angel’s destruction of the Assyrians; even the horses have died
• Byron uses the metaphor of one horse and one rider to symbolise all the horses and soldiers in the Assyrian army:
• This enables him to focus on the effects of the destruction in a more detailed and dramatic way
• The agony of the horse’s death is implied by its foaming mouth and flared nostrils
• The list of war equipment that remains, unused, demonstrates the complete wipeout of every aspect of the Assyrian army
  

Lines 21–24

“And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; 

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!”

Explanation

• Back in the Assyrian city of Assur, the widows of the soldiers cry out loudly in sorrow 
• The statues in the temple of Baal, an Assyrian deity, are broken
• The non-Jewish (“Gentile”) Assyrian army has been destroyed like melting snow by God, who has killed the soldiers without using weapons
  

Byron’s intention

• These lines show the aftermath for the Assyrian people following the destruction of their king and his army
• Ashur is the god of the city of Assur:
• Byron uses the name as a metonym for the city, which emphasises the non-Jewish nature of the Assyrians’ belief system
• Describing the widows crying for the lost men conveys sympathy for them, but it could also be read as a celebration of Jerusalem’s victory
• Referring to the idols of Baal as “broken” implies that the Assyrians’ religious beliefs are false, because the god of the Jews has destroyed the Assyrian army 
• The reference to the enemy’s forces melting “like snow” aligns God’s power with nature and natural processes, suggesting Byron’s belief that the outcome of the conflict was natural and just 

The final exclamation mark emphasises the triumphant tone of the final two lines 

Although this section is organised into three separate sections – form, structure and language – it is important to take an integrated approach to AO2. That means you should only consider how the poet is presenting their ideas to help you understand why they have made those choices. Think about how Byron’s language, structure and form contribute to his themes, message and intentions. 

Focusing on the themes, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. In the following sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, including the intentions behind Byron’s choices of:

• Form
• Structure
• Language

Form

Byron’s use of regular, rhyming quatrains give the poem a lively, dramatic feel, but this is contradicted by the tragic subject of his poem. The effect of this contrast between form and content reflects the contrast between Byron’s commemoration of Jerusalem’s triumph and the tragedy of war. Byron shows God’s power in defending the heavily outnumbered Jews, but details the terrible consequences of the conflict for the Assyrian soldiers and those they leave behind.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Conflict and power	The poem tells the story of the destruction of the Assyrian army in chronological order: It is a straightforward narrative poem	Events are narrated in the order in which they happened, which illustrates the initial aggressive act by the Assyrians and its tragic consequences:  Byron is showing that God defends Jerusalem because of the Assyrians’ attack The destruction of Sennacherib is a direct result of his actions
	Byron uses a third-person narrator to describe the events in the poem	This gives the narrative voice a feeling of unbiased reliability, although the poem is more sympathetic towards the people of Jerusalem

Structure

Byron uses a strict structure and rhyming scheme for his six stanzas, conveying a strong sense of control. Initially, this control characterises the ranks of the Assyrian army, but the focus soon switches to their loss of control in the face of God’s power. Byron uses poetic techniques to give the events in the poem a sense of inevitability and to emphasise his themes of power and control, and the violence of war.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Power and control	Each of the six equal quatrains of the poem contains two couplets that conform to a strict rhyming scheme	The regular stanza and rhyme scheme initially reflects the discipline of the Assyrian army, emphasising the threat it poses:
		Byron shows that the power and control ultimately belong to God when the poem focuses on the actions and consequences of the angel’s attack
	A volta (turning point) halfway through the second stanza switches the focus from the power of the Assyrian army to the power of God	Byron’s use of parallel syntax in the repetition of  “Like the leaves of the forest” / “That host” emphasises the way that the Assyrians’ situation changes from certain triumph to total destruction
		By reflecting the first couplet with the second, Byron shows the reversal of power and control of the situation from the Assyrian army to God
	Byron uses anaphora to emphasise the inevitability of the events in the poem	“And” is used repeatedly at the beginning of lines to speed up the pace and intensity of the poem, and to link the consequences of the Assyrians’ actions, which happen in quick succession
		Byron presents these consequences to emphasise the inevitable nature of God’s power and Jerusalem’s victory
The violence of war	Byron uses the extended metaphor of the sea to illustrate the violence of God’s destruction of Sennacherib’s army	In the first stanza, Byron compares the number and strength of the Assyrian army to a “blue wave”, showing their power as an unstoppable force
		In the fourth stanza, Byron returns to this metaphor, linking the horse’s death with the “spray of the rock-beating surf”: His second use of the sea metaphor increases the sense of strength and violence
		Byron is showing that, however powerful the Assyrians might be, God’s destructive power is even more violent and enduring

Language

The poem tells the story of 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' in a straightforward way. It uses a number of natural similes to convey the theme of power; first the Assyrian army’s, and then God’s. However, Byron’s language shows that his sympathy is with the people of Jerusalem, even when he details the terrible consequences of war for the Assyrian army and those they leave behind. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
War and power	Byron indicates from the start of the poem where his sympathies lie	King Sennacherib is referred to as “Sennacherib” and, in the first line of the poem, “The Assyrian
		Byron’s removal of his title – King – and his subsequent avoidance of using his name signals his lack of respect for the Assyrian leader
	Byron’s removal of his title – King – and his subsequent avoidance of using his name signals his lack of respect for the Assyrian leader   The Assyrian army is described in vivid terms, such as “gleaming”, “sheen” (shine) and “purple and gold”	The first simile conveys the dangerous fierceness of the army, while the “stars on the sea” and the “leaves in the forest” illustrate their huge and overwhelming power
		Byron wants to show how outnumbered and overpowered Jerusalem is, perhaps to justify God’s intervention on their behalf
		The brightness of the armour and spears illustrates the wealth of Sennacherib and his army: Purple and gold are symbolic (the colours of royalty)
		The repeated “s” sounds of line three remind readers of a snake and add a sinister tone to the Assyrians’ threat: This also emphasises the theme of religion in the poem by evoking the biblical story of the temptation of Eve
		Byron emphasises the army’s power to amplify God’s power in destroying them: He is also suggesting that their sinister intentions and their arrogant certainty that they will win makes their defeat more justifiable
	Byron’s use of similes comparing the army to aspects of nature simultaneously demonstrates their power and undermines it	The simile, “like the wolf”, makes Sennacherib sound powerful and dangerous: Describing his army’s spears as “like the stars” makes them sound both powerful and eternal
		However, nature is God’s creation, so the army cannot be more powerful than God:  Thus, Byron presents God’s destruction of the army as both natural and inevitable
The consequences of war	The descriptions of the dead soldiers also use similes comparing them to elements of nature	The dead soldiers are compared to dead leaves and sea surf, both natural elements:  This implies that God’s destruction of the army is also a natural consequence
	The alliteration of the description “their hearts but once heaved” (line 12) amplifies the dramatic nature of the soldiers’ deaths	The long “h” sounds of “hearts” and “heaved”, followed by the caesura of the comma, slows the line down and creates a pause:  Byron intends his readers to focus on the dramatic and supernatural nature of the deaths
	Byron also uses caesura in his descriptions of the war’s consequences for dramatic effect	The use of caesura create pauses, emphasising the eerie quietness of the Assyrian camp (by using commas after “silent” and “eerie”)
	The use of pathos emphasises the terrible consequences of war, even while Byron appears to be celebrating the victory over the Assyrians	The unsettling image of the rider, who is “distorted and pale”, as well as the description of the “widows” who “wail” for the dead, provoke pity and discomfort: This makes the reader ask: “Distorted how?”
		Despite Byron’s sympathy with the people of Jerusalem, he does focus on the negative consequences of the conflict and its tragic aftermath

Context is important, but it should only be used to support an answer about Byron’s ideas, themes and perspective. Examiners don’t want to see random chunks of information about Byron’s life or the times he lived in, because these don’t tell them anything about your understanding of the poem. The ideas explored in 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' revolve around the themes of war, conflict, power and control, so the contexts in which Byron formed his ideas about these things are the most relevant. Therefore, this section is divided into two themes:

• War and conflict
• Power and control

War and conflict

• George Gordon, Lord Byron, published 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' in 1815 in his poetry collection Hebrew Melodies
• At the time Byron wrote 'The Destruction of Sennacherib', Britain was fighting Napoleon’s armies in Europe: 
• The Napoleonic Wars had been going on for sixteen years, with immense loss of life on all sides – approximately 3.5 million died
• This horrific death toll is reflected in Byron’s retelling of the biblical story of Sennacherib
• The French, under Napoleon, had a powerful army and a huge, expanding empire:
• Like Sennacherib’s army, Napoleon’s fighting force seemed unstoppable
• Byron admired heroism in others and craved it for himself:
• In 1823, he supported the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire
• Prior to his death, he used his immense wealth to help victims from both sides of the war, showing his sympathy for oppressed people generally
• Byron was particularly sympathetic to the Jewish people, who he saw as historically oppressed in the same way as the Greeks he supported

Power and control

• Byron was born into an aristocratic Scottish family: 
• Although he did not reject his title, he refused to conform to many social conventions, regarding them as oppressive
• His behaviour made him notorious worldwide, and many people regard him as the first celebrity
• Despite his unconventional behaviour, Byron had a strong Christian faith and an interest in biblical stories, especially those of the Old Testament
• Byron is regarded as a Romantic poet, due to the period in which he was writing 
• He shared many of the same values as other Romantic artists and writers, including:
• The importance of liberty and freedom from oppression
• A strong interest in the stories and cultures of the Middle East and the Far East
• A fascination with the supernatural and mythical tales
• Byron’s hatred of oppression can be seen in his sympathy for the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem in 'The Destruction of Sennacherib':
• Like the other poems in Hebrew Melodies, 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' focuses on Jewish nationalism and freedom from oppression
• Byron’s detailed knowledge of Assyrian culture can be seen as a result of his interest in Middle Eastern cultures
• God’s intervention in the poem illustrates Byron’s love of the supernatural and stories with a mythical or mystical quality:
• It is also an illustration of Byron’s religious beliefs

What to compare it to

Your exam essay will be a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. Therefore, it’s essential to revise poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about conflict in relation to the other poets in the anthology. The main themes in 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' are war and conflict and power and control, so the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

• 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
• 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' and 'Exposure'

For each pair of poems, you will find:

• The comparison in a nutshell
• Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
• Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
• Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

'The Destruction of Sennacherib' and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Tennyson’s 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' explore the human cost of war and the results of an unequal conflict. Byron presents God’s intervention and the destruction of the Assyrian army as a righteous defence of Jerusalem, while Tennyson focuses on the patriotic heroism of the Light Brigade, despite the horror of their situation. Neither poem avoids the subject of death in conflict, but each presents it differently.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems show clear sympathies for one side in the conflict, but they also illustrate the violence and destruction of war and its aftermath
Evidence and analysis	'The Destruction of Sennacherib'	'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
	Byron demonstrates his sympathy for the people of Jerusalem by commemorating its victory over the Assyrians	Tennyson’s poem celebrates the heroism of the soldiers of the Light Brigade, and commemorates their bravery in battle
	Byron focuses on the threat of the powerful Assyrian army to justify God’s intervention in the conflict	Tennyson focuses on the overwhelming odds against the Light Brigade to emphasise their heroism
	Both poems emphasise the threat posed by the enemy to support their sympathy for one side in the conflict

Topic sentence	Both poems present the theme of death in conflict by using personification, repetition and symbolism
Evidence and analysis	'The Destruction of Sennacherib'	'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
	Death is a central theme in Byron’s poem, and is personified in the form of the Angel of Death	Tennyson’s emphasis on death can be seen in his repeated reference to the valley of Death: He also personifies Death by referring to its “jaws”
	The tragic scale of the destruction in Byron’s poem is reinforced by his initial focus on the huge numbers of the Assyrian army	The terrible loss of life in Tennyson’s poem is emphasised by his repetition of “the six hundred”, of whom only around half survived
	Byron focuses on one rider and one horse to describe the destruction of the entire army	Tennyson’s reference to a singular “horse and hero” similarly symbolises the many deaths in the conflict
	The tone of pathos in Byron’s description of the horse and its rider conveys a tone of regret, but his final assertion about the destruction of the Assyrians is more celebratory	Tennyson also mourns the loss of life in the conflict, but his tone throughout the poem celebrates the bravery of the Light Brigade: His final command is to “honour” the “noble six hundred”
	Byron’s focus on God’s intervention in the conflict demonstrates the role of religious faith in Jerusalem’s victory	Tennyson demonstrates the patriotic faith that compels the six hundred to charge towards an almost certain death
	Despite their focus on the tragedy and scale of death in conflict, both poems contain a celebratory tone and foreground the positive role of faith, either religious or patriotic

Differences:

Topic sentence	Each poem dramatises death and destruction in armed conflict differently
Evidence and analysis	'The Destruction of Sennacherib'	'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
	The soldiers of the Assyrian army are the enemies in Byron’s poem, which celebrates the destruction of the threat they posed to Jerusalem	The soldiers of the Light Brigade are the heroes of Tennyson’s poem, which celebrates their bravery and heroism in the context of their defeat in battle
	Byron provides explicit details in his description of the dead horse and rider, which elicit pity and force readers to confront the physical reality of death in conflict	Tennyson uses euphemism to allude to deaths in the battle, describing how “horse and hero fell” in order to protect his readers from the brutal reality of death in conflict
	The deaths of the Assyrians are quiet, almost mystical, as the angel  “breathed in the face of the foe”: The remainder of the poem focuses on the “chill”, stillness and extreme silence of the aftermath in the Assyrian camp	The deaths of the enemy soldiers are described in violent terms, as they are “Shatter’d and sunder’d”: The poem uses the semantic field of a storm to convey the noise and chaos of battle with terms like “flash’d”, “thunder’d”, “storm’d”
	Tennyson employs a vivid tone of chaos and motion to convey the conflict, while Byron promotes a sense of the uncanny quiet of the aftermath

'The Destruction of Sennacherib' and 'Exposure'

Both Wilfred Owen’s 'Exposure' and Byron’s 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' explore the themes of power and control in the context of armed conflict. Byron shows the complete loss of control experienced by the Assyrians, and Owen shows the disempowerment felt by the soldiers in the trenches. While Byron’s poem celebrates the liberation of Jerusalem from the Assyrian threat, Owen emphasises the overwhelming futility of the conflict.  

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems show the lack of control the soldiers have over their suffering and fates, and their deaths are presented as inevitable
Evidence and analysis	'The Destruction of Sennacherib'	'Exposure'
	The Assyrian soldiers are destroyed by the unstoppable force of the Angel of Death, who arrives on “the wings of the blast”, a fierce gust of wind	Owen’s soldiers contend with the unbeatable force of the weather conditions, such as the “merciless iced east winds” that “knive” them
	Byron’s description of the Assyrians deaths “on the morrow” illustrates their inevitability, because they happen as predictably as the dawn.	A sense of the inevitable also permeates Owen’s poem, which describes how the “the poignant misery of dawn” “attacks” the soldiers.
	The powerless dead are described as “wither’d and strown” after the angel’s attack, which happens while they sleep	The soldiers are defenceless against the natural forces of the weather, with the frost “shrivelling” and “puckering” their hands and foreheads
	The Assyrian camp is completely “silent” after the angel’s visitation, with “the trumpet unblown”, emphasising the lack of human control over the outcome	Owen emphasises the extreme silence of the trenches through repetition: They have no control over the silence, which “worries” them and keeps them awake, even though they are “wearied”
	Both Byron and Owen convey the lack of autonomy the soldiers have over their situations and destinies

Topic sentence	Both poems present death in conflict as unpredictable and outside their control
Evidence and analysis	'The Destruction of Sennacherib'	'Exposure'
	For the Assyrian soldiers, death comes unexpectedly, out of nowhere, and is not caused by a battle, but by the angel breathing in their faces as they sleep	Owen illustrates the unpredictable nature of the soldiers’ situation by repeating “nothing happens”, which makes an attack feel like “a dull rumour of some other war”
	Byron includes details of the dead soldiers, who have been unable to defend themselves, describing their eyes as “deadly and chill”: They did not see their deaths coming	Owen also focuses on physical details of the dead soldiers, emphasising “All their eyes are ice” with the use of a caesura just before it, making the description even more shocking
	The emphasis on eyes in both poems suggests that the dead soldiers did not see death coming

Differences:

Topic sentence	Byron describes the scene of devastation to illustrate God’s power and control, while Owen focuses on the powerlessness of the soldiers
Evidence and analysis	'The Destruction of Sennacherib'	'Exposure'
	Byron’s initial description of Sennacherib’s army emphasises its size and power in vivid similes, comparing its spears to “leaves in the forest”, and making God’s annihilation of it more impressive	Owen doesn’t describe the enemy’s army, because the soldiers in the trenches never see it: Instead, the poem shows the soldiers asking “What are we doing here?”, emphasising their powerlessness
	Byron ends the poem on a triumphant note, observing that the enemy’s might “Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord”	Owen shows that the hopelessness of the soldiers’ situation threatens their belief in what they are fighting for, as well as their religious faith: Even their “love of God seems dying”
	Byron describes the widows of the Assyrian soldiers with pathos in the last stanza, but his final lines return to the miraculous destruction of the “Gentile”, which undermines his sympathy	The futility of war is emphasised by Owen’s description of the burial party in the final stanza, who “Pause over half-known faces” in an image of pathos and deep sympathy for their suffering
	While Byron shows the conflict as reinforcing faith in God’s power, for Owen religious faith is undermined by the pointlessness of the soldiers’ suffering