Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Charge of the Light Brigade

I
Half a league, half a league, 1 III
Half a league onward, 2 Cannon to right of them, 18
All in the valley of Death 3 Cannon to left of them, 19
Rode the six hundred. 4 Cannon in front of them 20
"Forward, the Light Brigade! 5 Volleyed and thundered; 21
Charge for the guns!" he said. 6 Stormed at with shot and shell, 22
Into the valley of Death 7 Boldly they rode and well, 23
Rode the six hundred. 8 Into the jaws of Death, 24
II Into the mouth of hell 25
"Forward, the Light Brigade!" 9 Rode the six hundred 26
Was there a man dismayed? 10
Not though the soldier knew 11
Someone had blundered. 12
Theirs not to make reply, 13
Theirs not to reason why, 14
Theirs but to do and die. 15
Into the valley of Death 16
Rode the six hundred. 17
 The poet
• Lord Alfred Tennyson
• born on August 6, 1809, in Somersby,
Lincolnshire, England
• At the age of twelve he wrote a 6,000-line epic
poem
• Studied at Trinity College at Cambridge
• Was named Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria in
1890.
• Wrote many poem which are Morte d’ Arthur, The
Two Voices and The Vision of Sin
• In 1892, he was awarded with the Chancellor’s
Gold Medal for his literary works.
 Synopsis of the poem
• The poem was written by Lord Alfred Tennyson, in honour of the Light
Brigade after reading a newspaper report about the Battle of Balaclava in
1854 .
• This poem based on a true incident which tells about the failed charge of the
British cavalrymen in the Battle of Balaclava.
• This poem tells the struggle of the British soldiers fight in the war.
• Tennyson relates how the cavalry (the ‘Light Brigade’) attacked, showing
heroic bravery and discipline, despite severe artillery fire from three
directions. They failed to defeat the gunners and were forced to retreat, losing
more than two hundred killed outright, wounded or captured.
RHYME SCHEME OF THE POEM
Example: stanza 2
"Forward, the Light Brigade!" (A)
• Not predictable Was there a man dismayed? (A)
Not though the soldier knew (B)
• AABCDDDEC
Someone had blundered. (C)
Theirs not to make reply, (D)
Theirs not to reason why, (D)
Theirs but to do and die. (D)
Into the valley of Death (E)
Rode the six hundred. (C)
• Rhyming couplet : Brigade, dismayed
• Rhyming triplet : reply, why, die
 Meaning of the poem
Stanza 1
• The poem starts with description of the
Half a league, half a
soldier moves half of the league which is
league,
troop by troop to half of the battlefield.
Half a league onward,
• The 600 soldiers on horseback ride half a
All in the valley of Death
league to the valley surrounded by the
Rode the six hundred.
Russian army.
"Forward, the Light
• Their commander ordered them to move
Brigade!
forward.
Charge for the guns!" he
• The brigade has been ordered to move
said.
forward, and they keep riding in even though
Into the valley of Death
they know guns were waiting for them.
Rode the six hundred.
 Stanza 2
"Forward, the Light
Brigade!"
• The soldiers were still moving forward.
Was there a man No one was discouraged by the fact
dismayed? that somebody had made a foolish
Not though the soldier mistake by giving them a wrong order.
knew • They were not in the position to answer
Someone had blundered. any questions nor to ask why.
Theirs not to make reply, • Even if they were fated to die, all the six
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
hundred of them were still moving
Into the valley of Death forward.
Rode the six hundred.
 Stanza 3
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them, • The soldiers were attacked from their
Cannon in front of them right, their left by enemy cannons
Volleyed and thundered;
but they still moved forward.
Stormed at with shot and
shell, • True enough, they were also attacked
Boldly they rode and from the front. But they marched
well, fearlessly to the Valley of Death and
Into the jaws of Death, fought until their last breaths
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.
 Figurative meaning
Line 3
All in the Valley of Death
• It shows that the cavalrymen were in a losing battle and that
they might lose their lives in the battle.
• The battle was like the valley of death just like committing
suicide.
Line 10
Was there a man dismayed?
• Dismayed means to lose courage, to be overcome by terror or
sadness.
• The Light Brigade was too tough and loyal to be dismayed and
keep move forward.
Line 11-12
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered
• Word ‘not’ implies that the soldiers did not feel discouraged at all.
• The soldiers knew this charge was not a good idea, that someone
had made a mistake, had ‘blundered’ (means made a stupid and
clumsy mistake)

Line 21
Volleyed and thundered
• The word ‘volley’ from a cannon suggests a round of firing
(simultaneous discharge of a number missile weapons)
• These huge walls of cannon all around them are firing and making
sound like thunder
Line 22
Stormed at with shot and shell
• The soldiers in the Light Brigade were being attacked by
gunfire.
• The shot (bullets) and shell (big explosives fired from
cannon) are a violent, noisy, destructive force that
reminds the poet of a storm .
SETTING OF THE POEM
Time
-25th October, 1854
-during the Battle of Balaclava
(Crimean War)
Place
- near the city of Balaclava in Ukraine
 Mood and tone
Tone : Praise and amazement
Shows the poet amazement and admired the
bravery and heroism of the soldiers in the
Light Brigade .
Solemn
Can be seen through the use of words like
‘valley of death’, mouth of hell and ‘jaws of
death’
Mood : Energetic but grim
CHARACTER ANALYSES
• The 600 cavalry soldiers
- Fight in the war (stanza 3)
-Even though they know they are going to die, they still
fight for their country (stanza 2)

• The commander of the army

-Responsible to give orders to his soldiers (line 5-6)
-Make mistake giving order to attack the armed troops with
cannons and guns. (line 9)
 Themes
• This poem is a poem about a battle.
• It spends a lot of time describing the confusion, the
1. Warfare terror, the bloodshed and also the heroism of armed
combat.
• The poet honored the bravery and heroism of the Light
Brigade
2. Courage • The men of the Light Brigade deserved our respect.
• Every last one of them charges forward to the enemy
and Heroism
line and does their job.
• The soldiers know exactly how dangerous and
hopeless the job is, but they stand up and do it
anyway.
 • The soldiers followed the commander’s order
3. Loyalty without asking and they did not blundered,
and duty they keep moving forward to attack the Russian
armed troops even though they know they are
going to die.

• The poem tells us that leadership is a

4.Leadership serious responsibility which should be
failure exercised with care and sensitivity.
 MORAL VALUES
1. We must have loyalty and courage.
2. We must instill the spirit of patriotism in our life.
3. We must ask questions at times for our own sake.
4. We must infuse anti-war sentiment in our mind
because war not only affect the environment but
also killed humans and destroyed things.
 Literary devices
3. Symbolism
1. Alliteration 2. Assonance Example: ‘Into the valley of
Example: ‘shot and Example: Death’
shell’ (line 22) Half a league, half a -The valley was the setting
-to express the sounds league. where the charge took place. It
of battle. Half a league onward, also illustrated the soldiers were
charging to their death.

4. Personification
Example: ‘Into the jaws of Death’ (jaws refer to the animal’s or human
opening mouth) which conveys the meaning that the soldiers’ lives ripped/
eaten by the death
‘Into the mouth of hell’ (mouth is a part of human body, which conveys the
meaning the soldier will fall into the worst way of dead)
5. Repetition
Examples:
-‘Rode the six hundred’ (line 4,
8, 17, 26)
-Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them,
-Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs not to reason why,
*All the repetition adds to the
powerfulness of the poem and
is the speaker’s way of getting
its point across.

6. Metaphor
Example:
‘Into the jaws of Death’
‘Into the mouth of Hell’
7. Imagery Half a league, half a league,
Example: Guns and cannons Half a league onward,
A key image for the enemy, for *The distance shows the
the threat of death. struggle of the