Charge of the Light Brigade (pt 2)

Charge of the Light Brigade (pt 2)

1. References to movement throughout the poem

   • 'Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them'
     • The soldiers are going into battle
     • 'Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them'
       • The soldiers are retreating
   • Positive verbs going into battle & negative when retreating
     • Represents the mood of the soldiers throughout

2. The men are always referred to collectively & it is perhaps that this is why this poem is so different to the others

   • Tennyson sees a glory within war, and he shows this through the poem in noble aspirations and collective action. He doesn't show the individual fear and corpses

3. The Brigade comes under fire in the third stanzas, engage the enemy in the fourth & those who survive retreat in the fifth, no longer soldiers but heroes

   • The final stanza is read as an epitaph for the Light Brigade giving them a lot of praise. Even the punctuation, specifically the exclamation marks, suggests glory rather than disaster