The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennison focuses on part of the battle of balaclava the Russians had taken a beating by the British and were retreating however as they were retreating it became clear that they were trying to remove some captured heavy guns the Light Brigade made up of lightly armored troops on Horseback was ordered to ride in to protect the guns but there was a mixup and communication somewhere between the three leaders in charge that day instead the Light Brigade launched itself at the enemy artillery at the end of a valley rather
than chasing off retreating Russian troops the Light Brigade charged down a valley that was surrounded by heavily armed Russians who were shooting at them instead of retreating the 600 strong Light Brigade bravely kept going they were committed to it and they were Torn to Pieces by gunfire even when they got to the end of the valley those who were still alive were faced with Russians firing musket guns and the Light Brigade only had their Sabers their swords over 150 soldiers were killed and another 150 were injured in what was a TR magic futile Mission the
poem praises the bravery and honor of the soldiers it also questions the leadership blunder that led to the unnecessary Death let me just point out this video as a quick recap of the poem to learn more watch my full analysis which I'll link at the end Alfred Tennison was born in 1809 and was serving as the poet Laurette when he wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade The Poet Laurette is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the UK in tennison's case Queen Victoria now this poem is a ballad a historic form of poetry
which often used to be sung it's a poem which tells a story and it contains a refrain a line or phrase which is repeated regularly throughout the poem in The Charge of the Light Brigade The refrain is the use of 600 at the end of each stanza ballads tell important stories associated with histories in other words things we should never forget what shouldn't we forget in this poem both the soldiers How brave they were and also the leadership errors which led to the soldiers avoidable deaths in terms of structure most of the poem is clearly
written in daic diameter a dactil is made up of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables if we break the poem up with the forward slashes you can see that many of the lines are made up of two daic feet and when there are two feet per line we call that diameter so the poem is written largely in dilic diameter we also call this a falling rhythm with two unstressed syllables following the stressed syllable and this falling Rhythm could be argued to reflect the Fallen Soldiers now one of the lines that does not conform
to dilic diameter is this one someone had blundered see how there's only one syllable after the stressed blun the change in structure from the previous three lines emphasizes the word blundered but why Tenison read about The Charge of the Light Brigade in a newspaper report which said this the British soldier will do his duty even to certain death and is not paralyzed by feeling that he is the victim vitim of some hideous blunder so through a change in structure in this line Tennison is emphasizing the blunder he's criticizing the leadership eror which led to this
practically suicidal Mission taking place and is subtly drawing our attention to the mistake the word blunder means stupid or careless mistake so tanis's drawing our attention to his disgust at the blunder that caused the fatalities he had to do it subtly as dictated by his role of poet Laurette but it is there finally to a point on language there are a number of biblical references within the poem The Valley of Death is referenced and that refers to Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death this
biblical imagery highlights the all inspiring nature of The solders Bravery that it's almost biblical in the way we should respect it and remember it there's also a reference here to David and Goliath it was David who wrote Psalm 23 talking about the Valley of the shadow of death the battle of David and Goliath took place in a valley The Charge of the Light Brigade took place in a valley so it's significant that both took place in the same kind of location and both contain an underdog taking on a powerful enemy David takes on Goliath the
Light Brigade take on the Russian Artillery and soldiers so the biblical imagery is a literary illusion to the story not only of Psalm 23 but also perhaps to David and Goliath highlighting The Bravery of the soldiers for more on this poem pick up a c Cy of Mr bruff's guide to power and conflict poetry available exclusively in ebook form and Linked In the description and remember this video isn't intended to tell you everything you need to know about the poem it's a recap for revision purposes for the full lesson check out the video linked here
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