Charge of the light brigade

• The Crimean war was fought between Britain and Imperial Russia, for the first time in history, newspaper carried eye witness reports. Tennyson was so moved by these accounts that he made this poem to honour the sacrifice made by the light brigade.
• Tennysons role was to write about significant / national events, this may explain why it was such a patriotic poem.
• “the six hundred” is repeated to remind the readers how many soldiers were killed.
• “Valley of death” is repeated. It is an evocative phrase to a Christian audience because it comes from a well known psalm. The psalm suggests that faith in g-d can enable people to be brave in dangerous places. It is a reference to placing your faith in g-d
• The soldiers are being “stormed at” by gunfire - linked to onomatopoeia- “thundered” - conveys the sound of violence - noisy and destructive.
• “Sabres” - all they had was swords - not guns / cannons - highlights a sort of desperate heroism.
• “Flash’d” Use of light imagery and verb at the start of the line could be viewed as the poet almost objectifying the soldiers as superhuman. They are presented as overcoming their fear and physical human frailties to create a powerful image of heroism.
• “jaws of death“ and “mouth of hell“ - the poet personifies the valley and compares it to a monster which the soldiers can’t escape from. This again reinforces the readers’ admiration of the solders’ bravery and sacrifice.
• “Storm’d at with shot and shell” - sibilance is used to create to recreate the sound in the valley. It may emphasise the idea of ammunition flying towards them.
• Six stanza structure purposefully created to remember the approximate number of soldiers.
• THEMES

  War and reality of war conflict

  Power of humans
• COMPARE

  ’Exposure’ - power of nature / weather

  ’Bayonet charge’ - representation of a soldier

  ‘Remains’ - representation of a soldier

  ‘Kamikaze’ - exploration of ‘duty’ in war
• KEY QUOTES

  “Valley / jaws of death”

  ”Storm’d at with shot and shell”

  ”Flash’d“ “charging” “plunged”