The events had been reported in the press six weeks before Tennyson’s version appeared.

It relates a dramatic version of events of a key battle in the Crimean War. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is written in the third person. The Charge of the Light Brigade Poem was written in 1854.The “light brigade” references lightly-armoured cavalry soldiers.The Charge of the Light Brigade details a key battle in the Crimean War.It is a tribute to the British soldiers of the Light Brigade who died in the hopeless attack against a battery of Russian guns. The poem was written by Alfred Tennyson in 1854 when he was Poet Laureate of Britain.

The poem deals with the historical events of a key battle in the Crimean War, in which the British fought against the Russians for territory in the Crimea (north Black Sea region, now part of Russia).Ī ‘brigade’ is a small section of an army and it is called a ‘Light Brigade’ in the poem because it describes cavalry soldiers (riding horses) who are only lightly armoured and armed.

Tennyson’s work came to define the Victorian era.

In Memoriam prompted Tennyson to become Poet Laureate.

Famous works include: Claribel, Marianne, The Lady of Shallot and The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) was an English poet born in Lincolnshire.

He was the Poet Laureate for most of Queen Victoria’s reign and his writing came to define Victorian poetry. This post required him to write on themes of national importance and he wrote about the Great Exhibition and the death of Wellington, as well as the Crimean War.Īlfred Tennyson was the first man to be raised to a peerage because of his writing, accepting a baronetcy in 1883. In 1850, following the release of his longer poem, ‘In Memoriam A.H.H.’, Tennyson was named Poet Laureate. Some of his more famous poems include: ‘Claribel’, ‘Marianne’, ‘The Lady of Shallot’ and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. Tennyson is known predominantly for his shorter lyric poems and often chose mythological or ancient stories as the basis for his poems.

He was the son of a vicar and returned home from Cambridge to care for his mother and sisters after the death of his father in 1831. These are the lines Tennyson wants us to remember the Light Brigade by.Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) was an English poet born in Lincolnshire. It is also apparent in the use of more negative diction, “Plunged”, “Reel’d”, “Shattered”. The desperate attempt to retreat is expressed in the run of six longer lines - 43 to 48. Stanza five has only two short lines - 42 and 48. For example, the rhythm is broken by four shorter lines. The structure starts to vary from stanza four. In stanza two the Light Brigade has engaged the enemy so the longer stanzas describe the struggle. These lines remind the reader of the danger faced by the six hundred as they career through “the valley of Death” and into “the mouth of Hell”. The final two lines of the first three stanzas act as a refrain or a chorus. This pattern suggests the strong formation in which the cavalry charge and is consistent in the first five stanzas.

These are followed by a shorter line of five syllables: There is a strong structure in each stanza.įor example, the first stanza begins with three lines, each with six to seven syllables: In the first three stanzas the Light Brigade is approaching the guns. There are six stanzas, as if each stanza is a memorial stone to one hundred of the six hundred cavalrymen. This means that each stanza progresses the story of the attack. It is a narrative poem, with features of the ballad form. The poem is very regular in its structure, with several examples of repetition.

The charge of the light brigade meaning