charge of the light brigade- alfred lord tennyson

• "half a league, half a league, half a league onwards" -dactylic dimeter (heart beat/ foot hooves) -league is a measure of distance
• "blunder'd" -overlooked the mistake to glorify war -motion of a blunder is underplayed by the overall motion to honour war"
• "theirs not to reply... not to reason why... to do or die" -unquestioning loyalty -syntactic patterning=mechanical behaviour
• "volley'd and thunder'd" -dynamic verbs -auditory language
• "rode into the mouth of hell... jaws of death" -biblical language -sacrificial quality -emphasise bravery/valience
• "flash'd" -explosive/ overwhelming dynamic verbs
• "shatter'd and sunder'd" -dynamic verbs
• "honour the charge they made" -glorifies them -immortalises them
• "when can their glory fade" -rhetorical= can never fade
• themes: -war -patriotism -glorification
• form and structure: -dactylic dimeter (used in epics/ mirrors horses) -"falling" rhyme reflects blunder of the army -anaphora represent unrelenting assult
• language: -biblical
• context: -suicidal charge (247/637 died) -19th century attitude to war (glorifies/glamorised)