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The Charge Of The Light Brigade Poem

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“The Charge of the Light Brigade” by the English poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson recounts the Battle of Balaclava between the British and the Russian Empire, which took place during the Crimean War. The poem deals with the honour of dying while serving ones’ country, and the mismanagement of the British Government.
Lord Tennyson’s assignment as Poet Laureate was to write patriotic poems celebrating and dealing with Britain. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” introduces and honours the values of duty, valour and obedience of the British Victorian society. The first stanza opens in the middle of a battle with “Charge for the guns!” and where it takes place. The no agency of the man who gives the order to attack underlines that the important figures of the poem are the six hundred men of the Light Brigade. The fearlessness of the soldiers appears represented in the second, third and fourth stanzas of the poem, together with the description of the events which took place. The rhetorical question of the second stanza presents the six hundred soldiers as being confident and brave, since any of them “dismay’d", despite knowing they were charging towards their deaths. “Boldly they rode and well” injects another value of the soldiers of the light brigade: valour. Despite the fact …show more content…

While the poem glorifies and honours the members of the Light Brigade and considers them heroes for dying for their nation, it also subtly suggests the bad decision making of the British Government, for taking part in a clear condemned battle against the Russian Empire, where hundreds of lives were lost. The failure of the battle appears throughout the text with the repetition of the term “Death” and by the use of different literary devices which remind the soldiers ' impossible situation to act according to their moral, as they had to obey the Government’s

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