charge of the light brigade

• "all in the valley of death, rode the 600"

  • hyperbolic metaphor emphasises soldiers bravery
  • biblical allusion elevates the soldiers
  • unity and comerades
  • constantly repeated-soldiers were known by their military roles and denied ay personal identity
• "volleyed and thundered; stormed at with shot and shell"

  • onomatopoeia evokes the readers senses
  • sibilance creates a sinister tone - imitates hissing of bombs
• dactylic dimeter creates falling rhythm that gives the poem a plodding and somber sound.
• "into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell"

  • animalistic imagery, inhumane death, characterising russian soldiers as savage
  • consumed by violence
  • religious imagery - battle is a punishment
• context

  600 cavalrymen received incorrect orders to charge into russian cannons at the battle of crimea.