Form, structure and tone
‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred Tennyson
Structure
The structure of the poem can be easily understood by most students. One way to help
them to get started is to ask them to give a title to each stanza which suggests what the
stanza is about.
After feeding back some of their suggestions, students should answer the following
questions:

Do your titles tell you when the troops were advancing, fighting with the enemy
and retreating?

What makes the last stanza different?
Rhythm
Working in pairs, one student reads the first two lines of the poem while the other
student tries to tap out the rhythm.
Students could then take it in turn to tap out the rhythm to each other. Ask them to
consider:

What does the rhythm remind you of?
For higher attaining students:

Where does the rhythm change?

Why does it change?
Rhyme
Ask students to highlight all the words that rhyme, such as, ‘bare’, ‘air’ and ‘there’
(some of these words are repeated).

Tell them that rhyme often links words together as well as emphasising them.
Then ask them to explain how the rhyming words are connected.

An alternative to this activity (for lower attaining students) is to present them
with the rhyming words and ask them how they might be linked.

The final step is to examine how the links between rhyming words contribute to
the meaning of the poem. For example, 'shatter'd', 'sunder'd', 'volley'd' and
'thunder'd' can all be connected by the concepts of loud noise and destruction,
and suggest the volume of the battle.
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Form, structure and tone
‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred Tennyson
Atmosphere, mood and feelings

Ask students to say the word 'cannon' several times, focusing on its onomatopoeic and
syllabic qualities (longer first syllable and a shorter second syllable). Higher attaining
students could be asked to look for other examples of onomatopoeia and for other
aural techniques such as sibilance, alliteration and consonance in the poem.

Repetition is so important to the mood of this poem. One approach is to get the
students to write down five words they think of when the following sections are read
to them: lines 1–2, 13–15, 24–25, 27–28, and 53–54. It is worth reading each section
more than once.

When students have given feedback on their choice of words, ask them to work in
groups on particular lines and to explore the atmosphere, mood and feelings
associated with these lines.

Ask higher attaining students to focus on the actual sounds of the words. For
example, 'half' is a soft sound, whereas 'theirs' is a very strong sound. The qualities of
the words influence the rhythm of the poem and therefore the effect of each line.
For example, the first line suggests the cantering of horses.

Another useful approach is to look for repeated words and their effects. For
example, the repetition of 'wondered' suggests that the actions of soldiers were not
easily understood by those outside and the repetition of 'them' emphasises the
distance between the poet (and the reader) and the combatants.
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