The Charge of the Light Brigade

• Half a league, half a league,

  Half a league onward,

  All in the valley of Death

  Rode the six hundred.

  ‘Forward, the Light Brigade!

  Charge for the guns!’ he said: 

  Into the valley of Death

  Rode the six hundred
• Forward, the Light Brigade!’

  Was there a man dismay’d?

  Not tho’ the soldier knew

  Some one had blunder’d:

  Theirs not to make reply,

  Theirs not to reason why,

  Theirs but to do and die:

  Into the valley of Death

  Rode the six hundred
• Cannon to right of them,

  Cannon to left of them,

  Cannon in front of them

  Volley’d and thunder’d;

  Storm’d at with shot and shell,

  Boldly they rode and well,

  Into the jaws of Death,

  Into the mouth of Hell

  Rode the six hundred
• Flash’d all their sabres bare,

  Flash’d as they turn’d in air

  Sabring the gunners there,

  Charging an army, while

  All the world wonder’d:

  Plunged in the battery-smoke

  Right thro’ the line they broke;

  Cossack and Russian

  Reel’d from the sabre-stroke

  Shatter’d and sunder’d.

  Then they rode back, but not

  Not the six hundred
• Cannon to the right of them,

  Cannon to the left of them,

  Cannon behind them

  Volley’d and thunder’d;

  Storm’d at with shot and shell,

  While horse and hero fell,

  They that had fought so well

  Came thro’ the jaws of Death

  Back from the mouth of Hell,

  All that was left of them,

  Left of the six hundred
• When can their glory fade?

  O the wild charge they made!

  All the world wonder’d.

  Honour the charge they made!

  Honour the Light Brigade,

  Noble six hundred!