The charge of the light brigade

• 'half a league, half a league, half a league onward'

  1. Suggests there wasn't nearly enough soldiers for the attack yet they still chose to fight bravely
  2. Repetition for emphasis
• 'valley of death'

  1. They knew they were going to die yet they carried on fighting
  2. Metaphor to show the fatality of the fight
• 'charge for the guns! He said'

  1. The soldiers have been given a command and can't disobey it
  2. Charge is a command word
  3. Quotation marks to show direct orders
• 'was there a man dismay'd?'

  1. Rhetorical question
  2. They couldn't question authority, they just did what they were asked
• 'some one had blunder'd'

  1. Blundered is quite informal and almost a euphemism to make the authority seem not as bad and almost downplaying the mistake
  2. Links in with poet laureate
• 'theirs not to make reply / theirs not to reason why / theirs but to do or die'

  1. They couldn't question orders from authority
  2. Repetition of 'theirs not' to emphasise
  3. 'do or die' they'd die if they disobeyed orders so they may as well go out the noble way
• 'canon to right of them / canon to left of them / canon in front of them'

  1. Show how they were surrounded by enemies with no escape
  2. Shows how out manned they were and how under prepare they actually were due to a 'blunder'
• 'storm'd at with shot and shell'

  1. Alliteration / onomatopoeia
  2. 's' is a harsh sound to replicate gunshots
• 'boldly they rode and well'

  1. Patriotism
  2. Praising them
• 'into the jaws of death'

  1. Personification as if to create the idea their deaths wasn't the fault of the commanding officer
• 'mouth of hell'

  1. Metaphor / personification
  2. There isn't any escape
• 'all the world wonder'd'

  1. People at home still had the lingering hope they'd win
  2. Patriotism
• 'not the six hundred'

  1. Tennyson won't specify how many died to avoid making the royals or commanding officers look bad
  2. Poet laureate
• 'cannon to right of them / cannon to left of them / cannon behind them'

  1. They're still trapped without escape
  2. Repetition
• 'hero fell'

  1. Hero suggests praise due to patriotism
• 'back from the mouth of hell'

  1. Some escaped
  2. He mentions this to make sure the commanding officers don't look bad as not all died
• 'left of the six hundred'

  1. Even more died but he won't specify how many
  2. Poet laureate
• 'when can their glory fade?'

  1. Rhetorical question
  2. He's suggesting it can't
• 'honour the light brigade / noble six hundred!'

  1. The exclamation mark makes it seem as if a positive despite us losing the battle and six hundred men
  2. Praising them
• The poem was based on the battle of Balaklava
• Tennyson wasn't in war but saw it in a newspaper report
• Tennyson was poet laureate so he had to be positive and couldn't have a go at the person who messed up the orders