catatrophic mistake wiped nearly all of the 17th Lancers out, britains best cavalry brigade.
"The Charge of The Light Brigade"cosists of six stanzas which have short but effective
sentences, repitition, metaphors and rhetorical questions, Tennyson goes through the stages of
the battle during the course of the poem..
The poem opens up with a rhythm "Half a league, half a league, half a league onwards"
Tennyson uses repition here to establish the sound of galloping horses. "All in the valley of
death" is a metaphor and a effective sentence because the soldiers are entering the valley were
many of them died. Next follows "Rode the six hundred" as the light brigade consists of six
hendred soldiers. "Charge for the guns he said" this is one of Cardigans commands. "Into the
valley of death" is the next line and a repeat of the third, which is a metaphor, all the soldiers are
inside the dangerous valley by this point in the poem. The last line of the first stanza "Rode the
six hundred" is memorable as it is used throughout the poem.
Cardigans order "Forward The Light Brigade" is used to start the second stanza it is
repertition from the fifth line in the first stanza. Tennyson then uses a rhetorical question in his
poem asking "Was there a man dismayed" he then answer himself "Not tho' the soldier knew,
Some on had blundered". Tennyson is effectively stateing that their wasnt any men hesitant or
"dismayed" to charge even though they knew someone had blundered, their duties were to
follow orders and that was exactly what they were doing. The 17th Lancers were obviously a
very disiplined cavalry, who werent put off by such an unlikely command.
They knew somebody had made a mistake , because a prime rule in warfare is that
when attacking heavy artillary such as cannons, that u attack from the flank or from behind. This
makes it very difficult for the enemy to reposition their weapons and attack the advancing
enemy.
The following three lines of the stanza read "Their's not to make reply" "theirs not to
reason why" "Their's but to do and die" Tennyson is telling the reader the strong hearted
disipline what the 17th Lancers had, even though they knew someone had "blundered" they did
not question, pass comment or criticise the order. Instead they carried out the command as it
was their duty to do what their superior officer said. These three lines state the bravery and
disicpline of The Light Brigade."Into the valley of death" "Rode the six hundred" are repitition
from the 1st stanza. Tennyson as not only repeated himself but had Cardigans speech in both
stanzas, this makes the poem more memorable.
The third stanza begins