charge of the light brigade - alfred tennyson

• context

  → Had a miserable childhood and an abusive father, however he had a good education at grammar school

  → Was made Poet Laureate

  → Was bound into glorifying British war effort and not making criticisms of British aristocracy

  → Based on Battle of Balaclava on 25th October 1854 – Crimean War

  → Charge made headfirst into enemy guns as a result of a communication error

  → Crimean War was between Russia & Ottoman Empire, France & Britain preventing Russian expansion

  → War effort was unpopular with the public

  → Light Brigade = lower classes, lightly armoured
• experience of war- topic sentence

  Presents an intriguing picture of war, as it shows us a conflicted picture of war whilst portraying it as a noble cause
• expirience of war - “storm’s at with shot and shell”


  • harsh plosive ”t” and “d”
  • repetitive pain of the soldiers in the belligerent war
  • harsh painful sound to impress the pain of war
• experience of war- semantic field of military language

  →”shot, sabre, cannon charge”

  → Show ubiquitous nature of suffering

  → Contrast of “sabre” of Light Brigade and “cannons” of enemy illustrates bravery and patriotism of the soldiers, as it shows their willingness to put their life on the line to follow order despite insurmountable odds

  → Lexis “sabre” evokes an almost medieval imagery in the mind of the reader

  → Subtle indictment that war is an archaic idea
• experience of war - “rode the 600”

  → Epistrophe of “rode the six hundred” in order to emphasise soldiers’ heroism at the end of each paragraph

  → lists the dangers and perils they face but always ends by emphasising the soldiers’ valour
• experience of war - hell

  → “Mouth of hell,” “jaws of death,” “death,” “sabre,” “saw”

  → Personification of hell and death

  → Biblical allusion shows despite the awareness death was imminent, they died as a martyr

  → Personification makes “death” and “hell” seem to possess human-like power

  → Exacerbates how the soldiers were powerless to these concepts, yet still selflessly sacrificed

  → Condemned by a modern readership who Understand the countless sacrifices of helpless individuals whose sacrifice contributed to nothing
• muse of power- topic sentence

  Due to his role as Poet Laureate, Tennyson was bound by his role in the criticisms he could make of those in power. Therefore, Tennyson is more conservative in his criticisms
• muse of power- “charge”

  → Double meaning of “charge” in the title

  → literal charge of Tennyson charging to lead or of the military for the needless, painful deaths; poem functions as an indictment of their error
• muse of power- “someone had blundered“


  → ambiguity of “someone” shows there was a profound lack of accountability for the massacre

  → Unable to criticise accountability/ aristocracy as freely as he liked
• muse of power - “valley of death“


  → Biblical reference to Psalm 23 – protection of God

  → Irony as soldiers were not protected by those who were meant to protect them
• form - ballad

  → Historically used to demarcate events that war commemorated and memorialised

  → Tennyson regards sacrifice of soldiers;

  → understood Futility of their sacrifice, despite not being able to be brazen about this, Tennyson uses ballad to immortalise their sacrifice
• form - irregular stanza length

  → Varied stanza length massively, never truly allowing the reader to settle in or feel any sense of consistency

  → Creates a sense of chaos, mimicking how the soldiers were being shot at by an enemy they could not fairly counter
• structure/ dactylic diameter 


  → Long syllable followed by two short syllables, in order to mimic the sound of a horse’s hooves running into battle

  → Repetition through meter thrusts reader into heat of the battle, feeling the charge

  → Communicates the soldiers have no choice but to follow the charge

  → Long syllable reflects lull or reluctancy

  → Short syllable highlights lack of choice
• structure - end stopped

  → Exacerbating idea of finality

  → Not ended with enjambment or flow does not accurately reflect finalisation of soldiers’ inevitable fate