Tennyson's The Charge Of The Light Brigade

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" tells the story of a battle that took place during the Crimean war. The battle started because Russia wanted to defeat Turkey and take her land, but didn't know that England, France and Austria would defend Turkey. The Allies banded together in a province of Russia and landed an attack leaving Russia scrambling for an army. Shortly after several victories, Russia attacked with a large army. The forces met at Balaklava with allied cannons on several hills. The captured cannons reclaimed by the Allies and an English general sent a note to the man directing the battle. The note was misinterpreted and thought to mean that he wanted the men to go after the main body of troops taking the cannons from the hills. The captain of the Brigade was surprised at his orders but followed them, telling his men "The Brigade will now advance!" 1, and without hesitation they rode to their deaths. The first shot killed their leader and after only five minutes, over half of the 600 were dead. When they rode back only 195 men survived but they were hero's to many.

In the first stanza of this poem it says "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward" (1-2), which helps you to understand that the Brigade is moving forward, and the third line telling us where, which is "In the valley of death" (3). The third stanza has the Brigade still moving forward. It mentions they are trapped in the jaws of death and that the jaws of death are also the mouth of hell. It says, "Cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them" (18-20) meaning they are being shot at from two sides and the front, which helps you to understand how it says that they are riding into the jaws of the