![]() ![]() Image: The Charge of the Light Brigade, by William Simpson (1855) Wikimedia Commons. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem. With the use of figurative language, effective structure and techniques he achieve to show the determination and bravery of the six hundred soldiers that fought in the Brigade. The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. In the poem 'The Charge Of The Light Brigade' Alfred Tennyson tries to convey the readers to honor the qualities of the actual Light Brigade. ![]() You can listen to Tennyson reading the poem here: it’s one of the very first recordings of a poet reading their own work (though not quite the first: that honour goes to Robert Browning). Its meaning is relatively straightforward, but some of its linguistic effects are worth commenting on. Here is the poem, followed by a few words by way of textual analysis. Tennyson’s use of the word ‘left’ (‘All that was left of them, / Left of six hundred’) picks up on the word’s use earlier in the same stanza (‘Cannon to left of them’), but shifts the word’s meaning from a spatial sense to one denoting the sacrifice the men have made.Īs the old line attributed to Bertrand Russell has it, war doesn’t determine who is right – only who is left. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is one of Alfred, Lord Tennyson ‘s most famous poems. Why are these men, members of this light brigade, being ordered to charge into the heavy cannon-fire of the enemy?Īfter the charge, not much remains of the ‘six hundred’ who rode into battle – nearly half of them had sustained heavy injuries or been killed, while the other half felt that the whole charge had been a colossal waste of life. The absence of ‘the’ from the line also makes it sound a little odd or unnatural, once again suggesting that there is something wrong here. Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images. They will do it and die, for queen and country.Īnother line that is often misremembered is ‘Cannon to right of them’, which is sometimes erroneously rendered as ‘Cannon to the right of them’, which disrupts the rigid rhythm of the line (the poem is written largely in dactylic metre): the omission of ‘the’ makes the line sound slightly curtailed and hurried, evoking the rashness of the charge itself. But Tennyson’s point is that there is no question of whether the soldiers will fail to carry out their military duty, even when presented with such a wrongheaded command to charge. The famous line of the poem, ‘Their’s but to do and die’, is often misquoted as ‘Their’s but to do or die’, which gives the poem a different inflection. Many of Tennyson’s Victorian readers would have found such a message comforting, despite some of them – and Tennyson himself – harbouring doubts over the literal truth of Christianity. ![]() And every soldier knew it.As with much war poetry – and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is, after all, a war poem – Tennyson uses biblical allusions to bring home the grand sacrifice made by the soldiers: ‘the valley of death’ is from the 23rd Psalm (that’s the one that begins ‘The Lord is my shepherd…’): ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.’Īs well as contributing to the sonorous note of the poem, this allusion also offers comfort: men may make blunders, but the Lord will see that good overcomes evil. Light units were mainly used for communication, reconnaissance and skirmishes. ![]() The Light Brigade got its name because its soldiers carried only light weaponry like a saber or a pistol. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” probably would have been doomed even if the numbers had been more equal. 'Forward, the Light Brigade' Was there a man dismayd Not tho the soldier. 'Forward, the Light Brigade 'Charge for the guns' he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. A small band of 670 soldiers received orders to attack a Russian cavalry of 5,240 heavily armed men. 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' is set in the Crimean War and is a testament to the heroic bravery of a group of men who fought in this particular battle. Title: Maud, and Other Poems Author: Alfred Tennyson Release Date: ApEBook 56913 Last Updated: Febru. The charge that led Lord Tennyson to put pen to paper occurred during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. The British journal, “The Examiner,” published it a few weeks later in December, 1854. The poet was so moved when he received news of the battle that inspired his work, he wrote the poem in a single day. When people seek poems about soldiers valiantly facing death, they often turn to “ The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. ![]()
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