The Charge of the Light Brigade

• Tennyson was given a role of a poet laureate , in his position he was duty bound to glorify war to the British public to defend the position of the aristocracy
• Britain and France got involved to prevent Russian expansion . This was unpopular with the British public who saw it as unnecessary. The light brigade were often members of the lower class who were lightly armoured and on horseback
• media res- the unprepared listener is thrust into action with the repetition of "Half a league" . This establishes a tense atmosphere from the onset which causes the listener to view the poem through the lens of threat and risk.
• This poem takes on the form of a ballad which is a historic poetry form used to commemorate a story for future generations to hear. The ballad poem acts to memorialise the people who were killed and demonstrates that what soldiers did was inspiring.
• Tennyson's use of metaphors to create negative connotations for the listener : "Jaws of death". "Jaws" has claustrophobic connotations which imply that the solider's will be eaten up by or shredded by bullets.
• " Valley of death " - biblical allusion from psalm 23 which refers to the protection provided by God so is highly ironic when used in this context