Charge of the light brigade

• The Charge of the Light Brigade is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson about a large brigade of soldiers who are commanded to march to their deaths.
• The poem describes the soldiers charging heroically but few remain as they retreat.
• The poem includes a brief synopsis of the battle, describing the light brigade charging through a valley after being ordered to charge the Russian guns.
• The soldiers in the light brigade had received an order and were unable to dispute it.
• There had been a mistake in the order, it was a "blunder".
• The light brigade were surrounded by cannons and artillery fire during the battle.
• The battle was a big heroic battle, with bayonets ("sabres") versus guns.
• Many soldiers were left behind dead after the battle.
• The light brigade were surrounded again as they retreated.
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson instructs the reader to remember, honour and glorify the "noble six hundred".
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson had an unhappy childhood caused by his abusive father who left his mother and her children fearful for their safety.
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson received a good education through his middle class family and rich relatives who allowed him to attend excellent grammar schools.
• The use of anaphora in "theirs not to make reply/reason why"...“theirs but to do an die” reiterates the phrase and the soldiers’ obedience, a desirable trait in Victorian England.
• The poem opens in medias res, thrusting the unprepared listener into the action with the repetition of "Half a league".
• The poem uses epistrophe in "Rode the six hundred" to focus the listener on the topic of the poem and act as a reprise for the ballad.
• The poem could be a criticism by Tennyson of how members of higher ranks should have protected those in the light brigade but they were instead forced to engage in dangerous conflict because of their low status.
• The poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" is a piece of propaganda that glorifies war.
• The phrase "valley of death" is a biblical allusion from Psalm 23 which refers to the protection provided by God, making it highly ironic when used in this context.
• The use of metaphors in the poem creates negative connotations for the listener, for example, "Jaws of death" and "Mouth of hell".
• The poem uses an imperative to close with the intention of glorifying the soldiers.
• The poem uses euphemisms instead of explicitly referring to death, stating that "horse and hero fell".
• After a period of experiencing intense poverty, Alfred, Lord Tennyson was given the role of poet laureate.
• In his role as poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson was duty bound to glorify war to the British public to defend the positions of the aristocracy.
• The Crimean War was a conflict between Russia and the Ottoman empire, but eventually France and Britain got involved to prevent Russian expansion.
• The light brigade in the Crimean War were often members of the lower class who were lightly armoured and on horseback.
• The poem The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson uses repetition of distance to emphasise the exposure and vulnerability of the soldiers.
• The poem includes a biblical allusion to create a grand sense of scale as well as foreshadowing death.
• The poem uses sibilance to create a sinister tone, increasing the aggressive tone of the violence being described.
• Both poets repeat phrases to criticize how violence and military mistakes continue to repeat themselves.
• Jesus went into hell in order to receive the souls of those who had been condemned there to allow them to achieve salvation.
• Tennyson is critical of military leader’s decisions by bluntly declaring "Someone had blundered" and stating "Honour the Light Brigade" at the end rather than their leaders.
• Owen did not have these restrictions as he was a soldier on the front line at the time of writing it.
• Owen is similarly negative and creates this effect by depicting the soldiers as isolated in "Worried by silence" which implies that they have been abandoned by the authority that put them there.
• Tennyson repeats "six hundred" to emphasize the vast number of lives lost as well as "Cannon" to remind the listener that the Light Brigade is surrounded by weaponry.
• Armitage uses modern language and vivid imagery to convey the solider’s internal struggles and the impact of war on the individual.
• The phrase "from the mouth of hell" in the poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" symbolizes the inevitability of the tragedy, with the image of a valley implying that the soldiers are penned in and surrounded on all sides by the opposition.
• Both poems criticize the leaders of war, with Bayonet Charge being more subtle and Charge of the Light Brigade being explicit.
• The soldiers in the poem were sacrificing their own freedom for the freedom of those back at home.
• The poem uses emphatic repetition to highlight the brutality of the situation.
• Tennyson was poet laureate at the time he would not have been able to be outwardly critical of the government hence why the poem contains lexis from the semantic field of propaganda in "glory", "Honour" and "Noble".