CHARGE OF A LIGHT BRIGADE

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?

Themes:

1. Heroism and courage

According to the poem by Tennyson, the soldiers knew that they were up against a

better armed enemy (Russians), yet they charged into battle with great courage. Now,

this is where everything come across very doubtful in the modern days where we have
lots of opinions and ideas. Logically, we were NOT going to charge at any battle, IF we

know enemy has better guns and bombs, right? But, that was not modern days, they

were not asked to think about them but the country. That was the vow that they took.

But, what can do, right? Some were just bluntly followed the ruler WITHOUT analysing

anything. Too bad.

2. Patriotism

This poem was written in the heyday of extreme nationalism and patriotism. As

mentioned above, people during the war were thinking 'the other way'. Meaning, they

were always agreed with their ruler without having 'the other thoughts'. In modern days,

people are more questioning and critical in their concept of patriotism.

3. Duty

From the poem, even though the soldiers knew that 'someone has blundered', still they

had a strong sense of duty. It almost like, its their duty to protect the country of their

own. They had this thought of they need to protect their families, their friends, their

parents and they had to. Why? because they obeyed the order given to them.

4. The tragedy of was

As we all know, war is not the best thing ever created by Man. We tend to think that by

having war, we could solve many problems, but do really think that Iran has Nuclear
powerplant? What has happened to those Middle East countries? And yet, those people

believe in war? The same concept can be applied in this poem. How many loved ones

had been sacrificed just for the sake of war? Yes, Tennyson wrote about the six hundred

soldiers who involved in the charge, but with a little bit of common sense, we could just

easily think about the counterpart, the Russians. They too must have been suffered from

loss, didn't they? Tragedy indeed.

5. Leadership failure

Now, my friend once said, if we want to kill the snake, we need to smack the head first.

So, in the failure of the charge by the 600 British soldiers, from what we understood

from the poem, that 'someone' needed to be blamed. Why? because he was the caused

of the unfortunate ambush. Now, the poem tells us that leadership is a serious

responsibility which should be exercised with care and sensitivity.

Moral Values:

1. Patriotism

We nowadays lack of patriotism. Why? I do no know what made the cause of lack of

patriotism, but we really need to change the attitude on that. We need to love our

country like we love ourselves. The poem tells us that the spirit of self-sacrifice shown

by the soldier even though they knew they might not survive the battle.
2. Duty

We need to be responsible person at all time. Why? because we are our own

responsibility. We need to have a sense of duty and obligation in our work. By doing the

best at any time, we have a step closer to a better person. As the soldiers in the poem,

they had to go the battle because its their duty. That came from the sense of obedience

that those soldiers had.

3. Anti-war sentiment

This is actually one of the moral values. Anti-war sentiment, have you ever heard of the

war in Vietnam? Thailand? Iraq? Syria? Iran? What would be benefits for BOTH

parties? Answer? Nothing. It only brought benefits to one party. We as human, who

happened to have great minds need to think about our environment. Wars did not just

effect the Man but also the nature and wars killed humans. The poem can also be seen

as subtle attack on the wastage of lives in war.

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.

Language and Style

When we talk about language and style, we need to refer to the literary items that I

believed you have learned from your teachers at school. If you have trouble

understanding it, please, refer to your teachers, ask them about the literary items.
Repetition

The poet makes intensive use of repetition (refrains) to create a hypnotic effect.

Examples of such refrains are half a league (repeated thrice) and Rode the six

hundred (repeated four times). The refrains also give us the impression of an army

marching forward.