In this way, Tennyson’s motive remains entirely clear, and the men of the Light Brigade are immortalized through their actions, rather than their actions becoming immortalized instead. In poetry, the reader can easily get sucked into the situation being described to them however with each stanza ending with a reminder of who the poem is about, the reader is forced to stay on track, remembering that the poem is entirely about the men and not the events. The final and arguably most important aspect of Tennyson’s poem is the end of each stanza, which references the “six hundred”. This evokes in the reader the idea that the Light Brigade was triumphant and brave until they were finally overcome. Here is the first mention that the Light Brigade had incurred heavy losses, though the losses had been steady since the beginning of the battle. The fifth stanza is also the final stanza recounting the actions of the Light Brigade. This section of the third stanza is repeated at the beginning of the fifth stanza, nearing the end of the poem, reminding the reader of the brutal conditions with which the Brigade is faced. Tennyson also makes use of powerful imagery, describing the cannon fire as “volley’d and thunder’d,” mentioning also that the Brigade was “storm’d at with shot and shell,” and relating the cannon fire to that of an oppressive thunderstorm. By repeating the word “cannon”, the reader is forced to face the sense of ambush-of being boxed in-that the Brigade felt when charging. Here, he repeats the positions of the cannons used against the brigade in quick order to provide the reader a sense of the situation. Again, Tennyson makes use of repetition to make a point. The stanza that immediately follows alludes to the situation the Brigade faced when first entering the valley. Their obedience to their superiors is here made noble-an unquestionable faith in their superior officers in the British Army. Tennyson masterfully crafted these lines, using repetition to enforce the idea that their actions were their duty, regardless of the outcome. Tennyson recreated this situation with the repetitious lines: "The Crimean War." The Victorian Web: An Overview. Though the order to charge was incredibly puzzling and without much detail, the Light Brigade charged forwards. The sixth line of the first stanza reads “Charge for the guns’ he said,” alluding to the order given by army commander Lord Raglan that was infamously vague, and hence, misconstrued. The charge of the Light Brigade was approximately a mile and a half long through the valley, consistent with Tennyson's battle cry.įurthermore, details of the events leading up to the charge itself also appear to be accurate. However, a league is generally known to be about three miles. The measurement of a league varies wildly, owing to a league being defined as the distance a person or horse could walk in an hour. The iconic "Half a league onwards!" that Tennyson opens his poem with, is the first time we realize the accuracy of his writing. Combined with the fact that a so-called “gallery” of onlookers positioned up-land observed the Battle of Balaclava, this provided the media-and by extension Tennyson-with a detailed recounting of events. As the Crimean War was one of the first to be covered extensively by the media, aided by new and faster communications technologies, stories travelled quickly back to Britain. While the poem is not too intricate or full of detail, the account of the battle and the actions of the Light Brigade are correct-albeit romanticized to a degree. The answer is that Tennyson’s work is surprisingly accurate. But as the poem glorifies the actions of the Light Brigade, how accurate is the retelling when compared with historical facts? The matter is especially delicate as the poem was written little more than a month after the actual battle took place.
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