POEM FOR SPM

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!' he said :

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred. 

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

Some one had blundered :

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die :

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of Hell,

Rode the six hundred.

Alfred Lord Tennyson.

About the Poem

This poem is about the 600 British soldiers as mentioned in the poet's background. It also about the heroism and courage of a brigade. Well, many died in that battle which is called by Crimean War (1854-1856). The soldier belonged to a light brigade which means they were on horseback and armed only with sabres and baton (light arms). By some mistake by one *in the poem said so, and they were ordered into a valley which had heavily armed Russian enemy battalions on three sides - front, left and right. The Russians were fully armed and they were very powerful and they had powerful cannons. Now, when the light brigade charged into this "valley of death", they were massacred by the cannons fire.Yes, most of them died but they showed great heroism and patriotism in battle. On one side, well, we can see how heroism and patriotism took part in the way we think, but hey! the coin has two sides right? another side would be the challenging ideas of the concept of obedience, patriotism and nationalism. Don't you think so? 

Now, the themes for this poet are,

1. Heroism and courage

2. Patriotism

3. Duty

4. The tragedy of was

5. Leadership failure

Moral values:

1. Patriotism

2. Duty

3. Anti-war sentiment

The persona :

The poem is narrated by an omniscient (all-seeing) narrator who reports not only the action but the thoughts and spirit of the 600 men as a collective unit. There is also a reference that "someone has blundered".

Tone/Mood

Since the poem is about war so, it is clear that the tone and mood is quite intense and as the overall mood, it would be collective action, rather than individual impulse. The poem has the sound of military march and also the feeling of exhaustion, something like that. But to me, as long as you could imagine how war is about then, marks are waiting for you students! but make sure you relate your answer with the poem. Easy right?

As for the Language and Style, well, as you can see, there were Repetition. Why? As you all know, we repeat things because we want to make a bold statement by saying a few times. In this poem, the repetition (refrains) was used  to create hypnotic effect and the refrains give us the impression of an army marching forward. *I will explain more on Language and Style of this poem, once I read it VERY thoroughly, ok?

Point of view :

The poem is narrated by an omniscient (third person) narrator. 

Now, later, on maybe next two entries I will write on the Language and Style and also I will explain more on Themes and Moral Values of "The Charge of the Light Brigade". To me, this poem is very, very good. It was a very good poem indeed, but I could not run from thinking of if you know someone has blundered, why do you have to follow the instructions given? But it was not mine to ask why? hehe... *I used the same sentence structure as in the poem. You can detect that right? yesss... hehe...