The Charge Of The Light Brigade Compared to After Blenheim

Authors Avatar

Comparing “the charge of the light brigade”

 And “After Blenheim”

‘The charge of the light brigade’ written by Alfred Lord Tennyson in 1854 and ‘After Blenheim’ written by Robert Southey in 1796 are both poems which deal with the many aspects of war.

In this essay I am going to compare and discuss the poet’s use of ideas, attitudes, background, information, structure and language.

This poem was written to commemorate the suicidal charge made by the light cavalry brigade in the battle of balaclava

‘The charge of the light brigade’ written by Alfred Lord Tennyson after the battle of balaclava is about how a cock-up in the higher ranks led to the death of 673 brave soldiers and many horses. Out of 673 horses 2 survived.  This battle was one in the Crimean war, a war that the British were completely unprepared for. The total amount of dead were 20’813 however only 4’516 of these were caused by the battle, the other 16’297 were either caused by the heat, the cold, disease, or starvation. The lack of doctors and nurses let to the deaths of many more men. The British Media told the country that the battle had been won to make them feel safe.

Alfred Lord Tennyson give a real senses of being in the battle, hearing the guns and the horses screaming with his fast pace and repetition he repeats

Join now!

 “Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them”

Making you feel surrounded by these cannons, you fell like you are one of the soldiers charging at the enemy ranks. I think that the poet it bitter about this was and the whole ranking of authority, those with a high amount of money were highest ranked and the soldiers consisted of peasants off the streets. However those with money are not necessarily ones with lots of military knowledge and thus leading to the tragedy that occurred at balaclava. Captain Nolan tried to stop ...

This is a preview of the whole essay