The Charge Of The Light Brigade Rhetorical Devices

Tennyson’s poem The Charge of the Light Brigade is dedicated to the soldiers who unknowingly rode to a doomed battle. The battle included six hundred British soldiers riding to a valley, surrounded by enemy soldiers. The author uses rhetorical devices such as patriotic diction, imagery, and tone to paint us a picture of the doomed situation the soldiers were up against.

First, patriotic diction shows how brave and heroic the soldiers acted toward their doom. For example, “Forward, the Light Brigade,” and “Charge for the Guns.” These quotes show the pride, courage, and willingness to follow orders the soldiers displayed. Even though Tennyson states, “someone had blundered,” he shows the soldiers’ dedication to the top brass. The lines, “Theirs

The horrors of war were shown through, “Cannon to the right / Cannon to the left / Cannon in front,” and “Volley’d and Thunder’d / Storm’d at with shot and shell.” As well as showing us the intensity of the war and the outnumbered British troops. Other lines such as, “Flash’d their sabers bare, / flash’d as they turn’d in air,” and, “Plunged in the battery smoke / Right through the lake they broke,” give us a picture of the battlefield: Smokey, dangerous, a place where you have to keep your head on a swivel. Also, the success of pulling through the smoke, in spite of being outnumbered. Finally, the line, “Rode the six hundred,” is repeated throughout the poem showing just how few soldiers there are. In the end, the line, “Then they rode back, / Not the six hundred,” gives us a picture of the remaining soldiers riding back to the town, to their awaiting loves, with news of sorrow and loss. Used in the poem, imagery places pictures in our minds of what the soldiers faced and what they went

The author sets the tone as reverent, the poem memorializes the battle and the heroic men who sacrificed their lives. The lines, “Into the valley of death / Rode the six hundred,” show the mistake someone made when leading the noble soldiers into a surrounded valley, but this mistake led to the soldiers pursuing victory instead of retreating The line, “Forward the Light Brigade!” shows them not shying away revealing their bravery. At the end of the poem, the lines, “When can their glory fade? / O the wild charge they made! / All the world wonder’d. / Honor the charge they made! / Honor the Light Brigade, / Noble six hundred,” show how respected and commemorated the soldiers were. “How can their glory fade” shows how their sacrifice and memory should live on. The tone, used in this poem, memorializes the Battle of Balaklava and the soldiers who laid down their lives for