"Forward, the Light

Brigade!"
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier
knew
Someone had
blundered.
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.

"Forward, the Light

Brigade!"
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had
blundered.
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.

"Forward, the Light

Brigade!"
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had
blundered.
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.

The poem tells the story of a brigade consisting of ............................ who rode on horseback into
the valley of death for .................................... They were obeying a .............................. .....to
charge the enemy forces that had been seizing their .............................
Not a single soldier was ........................... or distressed by the command to .................. forward,
even though all the soldiers realized that their commander had made a .....................................:
Someone had blundered. The role of the soldier is to ......................................... and not to
make reply or not to ........................ why, so they followed ............................ and rode into the
valley of death.
The poem tells the story of a brigade consisting of ............................ who rode on horseback into
the valley of death for .................................... They were obeying a .............................. .....to
charge the enemy forces that had been seizing their .............................
Not a single soldier was ........................... or distressed by the command to .................. forward,
even though all the soldiers realized that their commander had made a .....................................:
Someone had blundered. The role of the soldier is to ......................................... and not to
make reply or not to ........................ why, so they followed ............................ and rode into the
valley of death.
The poem tells the story of a brigade consisting of ............................ who rode on horseback into
the valley of death for .................................... They were obeying a .............................. .....to
charge the enemy forces that had been seizing their .............................
Not a single soldier was ........................... or distressed by the command to .................. forward,

even though all the soldiers realized that their commander had made a .....................................:
Someone had blundered. The role of the soldier is to ......................................... and not to
make reply or not to ........................ why, so they followed ............................ and rode into the
valley of death.

The 600 soldiers were assaulted by the shots of shells of canons in front and on
both sides of them. Still, they rode courageously forward toward their own
deaths: Into the jaws of Death / Into the mouth of hell / Rode the six hundred.
The soldiers struck the enemy gunners with their unsheathed swords (sabres
bare) and charged at the enemy army while the rest of the world looked on in
wonder. They rode into the artillery smoke and broke through the enemy line,
destroying their Cossack and Russian opponents. Then they rode back from the
offensive, but they had lost many men so they were not the six hundred any
more.
Canons behind and on both sides of the soldiers now assaulted them with shots
and shells. As the brigade rode back from the mouth of hell, soldiers and horses
collapsed; few remained to make the journey back.
The world marvelled at the courage of the soldiers; indeed, their glory is undying:
the poem states these noble 600 men remain worthy of honor and tribute today.

The Charge of the Light Brigade Themes

Stanza 1
Lines 1-4
The first four lines of the poem have the rhythm of a determined chant that sets the scene for
a march into war. "Half a league" is the distance of about a mile and a half. The repetition of
this phrase creates a predictable dactylic pattern in which one accented syllable is placed
before two unaccented syllables, a pattern that structures the entire poem.
In the third line of the poem, the soldier's tragic fate appears imminent as they ride "in the
valley of Death," a phrase that is repeated (with slight variation, as "in" becomes "into")
twice in the first stanza, and once in the second. (A stanza is a division in a poem that is
composed of several lines with common meter, rhythm, or rhyme.) Tennyson's
contemporaries would have been very familiar with the scene he describes from the war
reports in the Times (London). They would have associated the poem's "valley" with the
unfortunate placement of the British troops in the North Valley in Balaclava, where they
were surrounded by enemy troops.
Many readers would also recall the well-known phrase from Psalm 23 in the King James
Version of the New Testament: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil." The psalm is meant to encourage confidence and spiritual bravery,
characteristics of the faithful that keep them safe and help them in their time of trouble.
Tennyson's reference, of course, makes the idyllic "green pastures" and "safe waters" of that
biblical scene ironic by juxtaposing, or comparing, them with the bloody battle. The
benevolent shepherd whom the psalmist trusts unquestioningly stands in sharp contrast to the
inept leader Tennyson mentions indirectly in the next section. Tennyson revises the biblical
passage to suggest that his valley is inhabited by Death itself, not just its shadow, an ominous
suggestion that is played out as Death becomes one of the major characters in the poem.

STANZA 2 SUMMARY
Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-by-line.

Line 9
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"

The order is repeated. The speaker really wants us to focus on those words,
on the command to move forward. The men are being sent to their doom.
Again, we don't know who's giving the orders here, but this disembodied voice
might make us pause and think about why these brave men are being sent
into "the valley of Death."

Line 10
Was there a man dismayed?

Now we're trying to get a peek into the heads of these soldiers, trying to
imagine how it must feel to charge toward death.
The speaker asks if any of the soldiers were "dismayed." In this case, to be
dismayed means to lose your courage, to be overcome by terror or sadness.
That would be a pretty normal reaction to a situation like this.

Line 11-12
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.

Of course the Light Brigade is too tough and loyal to feel dismayed.
That first word, "not," implies that these men don't feel discouraged at all.
They're ready to do their job, even though the order might be crazy.

This is a really important point in this poem. The soldiers aren't dumb. They
know this charge isn't a good idea, that someone has made a mistake, has
"blundered."

This is as close as the poem gets to criticizing the men who ordered this
attack. The speaker is no revolutionary, but we think you can feel some anger
at the commanders simmering under this poem, especially at this moment.

Lines 13-15
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.

This is a famous group of lines, and for good reason. Do you see how they fit
together, the way they share the same first word and the same rhyming sound
at the end? Do you see how simple they are, too? There's no showing off, no
fancy words (in fact almost all the words in these lines are one syllable).
The speaker uses these lines to sum up all of the honest, humble heroism of
these men. They're just doing their job. That job doesn't let permit them to talk
back to their commanders ("make reply") or to figure out the point of the
attack ("reason why"). All they can do is to ride and fight and possibly die ("do
and die").

Line 16-17
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

These last two lines are the same as the last two lines in the first stanza. In
poetry, that's called a refrain (like the chorus in a song). It emphasizes the
main action of the poem, which is these men riding to their death. It also gives
a smooth, dignified rhythm to the poem.

STANZA 3 SUMMARY
Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-by-line.

Line 18-20
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them

The valley of Death turns out to be just about as lousy as it sounds. The
soldiers are surrounded by enemy cannon, left, right, and front. Bad news for
the Light Brigade.
Notice how Tennyson stretches this simple information out over three lines.
What effect does that have?

Well, for one thing, it echoes the three lines in the section above (13-15),
which also all start with the same word.

It also makes the feeling of being surrounded much more intense. It's almost
as if we are right there, turning our heads right, left, and forward, and seeing
cannon everywhere. Scary, huh?

Line 21
Volleyed and thundered;

A little vocab here: a "volley" from a cannon is just a round of firing.

So these huge walls of cannon all around them are firing, and making a sound
like thunder.

Want to know what cannon fire is like? Check out this YouTube video.

Line 22
Stormed at with shot and shell,

The soldiers in the Light Brigade are being "stormed at," by gunfire, an image
that picks up on the word "thundered" in the line we just read.
The "shot" (bullets) and "shell" (big explosives fired from cannon) are a violent,
noisy, destructive force that reminds the speaker of a storm.

Line 23
Boldly they rode and well,

These guys aren't scared of some gunfire, though. In fact, they ride "boldly"
(bravely) even though this is looking more and more like a suicide mission.
The point of this poem is to show us how heroic these men were.

Line 24
Into the jaws of Death,

Tennyson has a lot of images for this scary valley, and he brings some more of
them in here. Now the valley of Death becomes the "jaws of Death."
We'll admit it's not a super-original image, but it works well here. It's almost as if
these guys were riding into the mouth of some kind of ferocious animal.

Lines 25-26
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.

This is the spot (at the end of the stanza) where the refrain belongs (see lines 7-8
and 16-17), but Tennyson switches things up a bit here. Instead of "Into the valley
of Death," now the men are riding "Into the mouth of hell."
The "mouth of hell" matches up nicely with the "jaws" in the line before, and it's
just one more way of emphasizing how bad the valley is and how brave these
men are.
Changing the refrain also helps to keep us on our toes a little, and keeps the
poem from seeming stale or repetitive.

Summary

The poem tells the story of a brigade consisting of 600 soldiers who rode
on horseback into the valley of death for half a league (about one and a
half miles). They were obeying a command to charge the enemy forces
that had been seizing their guns.

Not a single soldier was discouraged or distressed by the command to

charge forward, even though all the soldiers realized that their commander
had made a terrible mistake: Someone had blundered. The role of the
soldier is to obey and not to make reply...not to reason why, so they
followed orders and rode into the valley of death.

The 600 soldiers were assaulted by the shots of shells of canons in front
and on both sides of them. Still, they rode courageously forward toward
their own deaths: Into the jaws of Death / Into the mouth of hell / Rode the
six hundred.

The soldiers struck the enemy gunners with their unsheathed swords
(sabres bare) and charged at the enemy army while the rest of the world
looked on in wonder. They rode into the artillery smoke and broke through
the enemy line, destroying their Cossack and Russian opponents. Then
they rode back from the offensive, but they had lost many men so they
were not the six hundred any more.

Canons behind and on both sides of the soldiers now assaulted them with
shots and shells. As the brigade rode back from the mouth of hell,
soldiers and horses collapsed; few remained to make the journey back.

The world marvelled at the courage of the soldiers; indeed, their glory is
undying: the poem states these noble 600 men remain worthy of honor
and tribute today.

Language and Imagery

The language of the poem is understandably military: guns, soldiers, cannon, sabres and
gunners set the scene. The power of the poem, however, comes from the careful use of
imagery and sound effects.

Imagery
The strong central image of the "valley of Death" (lines 3,7 and 16) refers to a well-known
poem in the bible - Psalm 23 - about the 'valley of the shadow of death'. By using this
Biblical allusion, Tennyson shows how important the event is.

Sound
Tennyson uses a wide variety of techniques to provide the poem with highly effective sound
effects. Alliteration, for example, is used to express the sounds of battle. Note the sound of
bullets in line 22 ("shot and shell").
The poem has a strong rhythm. For example "half a league, half a league" two light
beats followed by a heavy beat expresses the sound of the horses galloping.
In the video below Sheila Parry talks about the language Tennyson uses in The Charge of
the Light Brigade.

Attitudes, themes and ideas

Tennyson's job as poet laureate was to capture the public mood and, given the poem is still so
well-known, he certainly did that. But the feelings in the poem can appear to be
ambiguous in other words, can be seen in two different ways.
How much outrage is there in this poem, though? Part of its success is the way Tennyson
recreates the energy of battle "half a league, half a league". The final stanza does not express
any anger at politicians and generals. It does, however, show delight at what they did: "O the
wild charge they made!"
The poem therefore seems to be more concerned with creating national heroes for a
nation than mourning the dead soldiers or arguing against the war.

Comparison
Mametz Wood this poem is also about remembering soldiers who have died in war but it
is the opposite both in its tone and its treatment of the theme. Tennyson, living at the time
of the events he describes, sets out to build a monument to them in poetry so
their "glory" will never "fade". Sheers is living long after the event. There is no glory here.
Instead he sets out to create a small hymn so the fallen soldiers will be remembered for
their own brave deeds in battle.
Bayonet Charge this poem is linked by subject matter: a soldier charging in battle. The
treatment, however, is different. Tennyson creates a rich impression of the whole action
from a kind of widescreen perspective (a brigade charging down a long valley). Hughes is
much closer to the action he describes. He focuses on the experience of one man. So
instead of exploring the impact of a military action on a nation, Hughes analyses the
emotional response of an individual within a nation's war.

Question
How does the poet present the experience of conflict in The Charge of the Light
Brigade?

Answer
Points you could make:

Tennyson presents the experience of conflict in several different ways.

He uses the form of the poem to illustrate both the battlefield he describes (the long,

narrow valley) and the memorials he wants built to honour those who took part (six
stanzas like memorial stones to the 600).
The structure of the story he tells presents the excitement of the battle: the stanzas

get longer and the rhymes more frequent after the calm opening stanza.
He uses rhythm to recreate the sound of the horses charging andrepetition to

recreate the sound and visual effects of battle ("cannon"lines 17-20

and "flash'd" lines 27-28 for example).
He gives important lines the heavy "-erd" rhyme to emphasise his anger:"Someone

had blunder'd".
Finally, he builds to a conclusion, in the final stanza, that suggests that the outcome

of this experience is positive: the world wonders, but not as in asking a question
such as 'why was the blunder made?' but wonders in awe at the bravery of the
British.
Tennyson shows that from this disaster national heroes have been born.