The Charge of the Light Brigade

• Key Message:

  We should honour the heroes who gave their lives. Also, hints at the dangers of blind patriotism
• Context:

  Set during the Crimean War. The charge happened accidentally after a miscommunication. The men were heavily outnumbered but followed orders anyway. Tennyson wrote the poem to make the charge sound like a success
• "Into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of hell"

  • 'jaws' & 'mouth' personify death as a living monster
  • Death is capitalised, further personifying it
  • 'hell', death is directly compared to hell - unpleasant
• "Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell"

  • 'thundered' alludes to the sound of cannons firing
  • 'stormed' & 'stormed' create lexical fields of extreme, violent weather
• "While horse and hero fell."