‘The Charge of the
Light Brigade’
Alfred Tennyson
What is the poem about?
The poem was written in
1854.
It tells the story of a brave,
but suicidal British cavalry
charge during the Crimean
War.
Lord Cardigan attacked a
valley with 673 cavalrymen.
The British were surrounded
by cannons and, in minutes,
half were dead.
What happens in the poem?
The Light Brigade move into
position.
The order comes to ‘Charge for
the guns’ and the men charge –
they do not ‘reason why’.
Surrounded by ‘cannon’ on all
sides they continue to ride ‘boldly’
They disappear into the ‘smoke’ –
the enemy lines are ‘shatter’d’ but
the Brigade’s losses have been
terrible.
The last stanza asks readers to
‘Honour the Light Brigade’.
What does the poem
mean?
The poem suggests that:
The experience of Battle can be
both thrilling and terrifying at the
same time.
That the sacrifice and bravery of
British soldiers should be
celebrated.
Some readers think that the poem
is too patriotic and glorifies war.
The ‘wild charge’ is called ‘Noble’.
On the other hand …
Tennyson may use the poem
to criticise British generals
who ‘blundered’
‘Belfast
Confetti’
Ciaran Carson
How could we
describe the voice?
-Patriotic
‘Honour the charge they
made’
-Breathless and excited
‘O the wild charge they
made’
The speaker could be:
-an excited observer
-a proud British patriot
-critical of the generals
Why are they writing the poem?
Tennyson’s use of repetition is
signficant.
A good example of this is the
anaphora in every stanza of
the poem.
‘Half a league, half a league, Half a
league onward’ …
‘Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon behind them’
Can you find the other repetitions in the
poem?
How do they help to tell the story?
The anaphora has a slightly different
effect in each stanza.
The first quotation conveys a
sense of unstoppable
movement. The second
reinforces that the men are
trapped.
‘Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die’
Tennyson structures his
poem using an unstoppable
rhythm and regular rhyme.
The rhythm gives the poem its energy,
recreating the surge of the cavalry charge – you
can almost hear the hooves in the rhythm. The
rhyme helps to keep up this forward
momentum, as if the reader (like the horses)
cannot turn back.
Can we also feel a reckless madness in the
pounding rhythm?
Celebrating the
heroism of the Brigade
‘glory’, ‘honour,’noble’
Trnnyson celebrates the
heroism of the Brigade.
Not the personal terror
of the individual men.
The ‘Cossack and
Russian’
The Light Brigade lost this
battle – do you this sense
get from the poem. Is it
propoganda?
How does the ‘enemy’
appear in stanza four?
Who’s to blame?
‘Some one had
blunder’d’
What does this line
suggest about the
role of soldiers and
generals in a battle?