The charge of the light brigade
Adapted from
http://www.shmoop.com/charge-of-light-brigade-poem/analysis.html
Symbolism, Imagery and Wordplay
Valley of Death - setting, associations?
Jaws of Death – death turned into a kind of
character, ready to gobble them up! “D” is
capitalized!
Play with ways of saying …
However, a few soldiers have escaped the jaws …
DEATH
VALLEY
Symbolism, Imagery and Wordplay
Mouth of Hell – again, Why?
The Light ? Brigade - different to heavy cavalry
It´s a mass! Connotation?
The Guns – challenge of war and heroic deeds
Sabres – symbol of the power of the British
Army
Musicality and context
http://benjaminhale.tumblr.com/post/2324354
4687/play-the-video-while-reading-the-articlefor
Form and Meter: Rhyme pattern
• "Forward, the Light Brigade!" (A) Was there a
man dismayed? (A) Not though the soldier
knew (B) Someone had blundered. (C) Theirs
not to make reply, (D) Theirs not to reason
why, (D) Theirs but to do and die. (D) Into
the valley of Death (E) Rode the six hundred.
(C)
* Rhyming Couplet at the beginning
Form and Meter: Stressed and
unstressed syllables
"Forward, the | Light Brigade!" Was there a |
man dismayed? Not though the | soldier knew
Someone had | blundered. Theirs not to |
make reply, Theirs not to | reason why, Theirs
but to | do and die.
Form and Meter: “Feet”
Try saying that first line out loud:
"For-ward, the / Light Bri-gade!"
DUM dada DUM dada!
Those little groups of syllables between the
slashes are called "feet" …
Form and Meter: “Feet”
• When the feet look like this – with a stressed
syllable followed by two unstressed syllables –
we call that a dactyl. When there are two feet
per line, that's called dimeter. So the full,
fancy English teacher name for the rhythm of
this poem is dactylic dimeter.
Lyric Speaker
Who is telling the story and what is the poem´s
motif?
Setting and Context
Where It All Goes Down
The poem is based on an actual historical event: the Charge of the
Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava (which happened during
the Crimean War). This went down in Crimea in 1854.
Here's the quick and dirty version of the history: The Crimean War,
which took place between 1853 and 1856. This was essentially a battle
between Britain (with its allies) and Russia for control over the
territory occupied by the crumbling Ottoman Empire. In late 1854, the
allied troops tried to capture the Russian city of Sebastopol, and the
Battle of Balaclava was one of several fights in that campaign. During
this battle, the British commanders ordered a disastrous charge by the
Light Brigade, which took many casualties. That's the basic story.
The title
A "brigade" is group of soldiers. They're called
"Light" to separate them from the "Heavy
Brigade," another kind of cavalry unit at the
time.