The Analysis

Poem Analysis
The Charge of the Light Brigade

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          The Charge of the Light Brigade is a poem written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in century XIX and published six weeks after the charge led by Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava. Its words highlights the brave cavalry that instead of pondering the order received marched against the enemy.
          The poem raises the idea of an attack that was made and that was unsuccessful. Even if you do not know what is a charge you are capable of understanding that what is narrated is a movement of war and that there were many casualties.
          There is this “valley of Death” named by Lord Tennyson in his poem which is a valley at the foot of the hill of Fedyukhin in which the Russian artillery was positioned around. It used to be a clean field in the time that the battle happened but it is now occupied by vineyards. The name was given because of the fatalities that occurred during the charge.
          When we read the 2nd strophe we see that there was something wrong about this attack. Why would the men be dismayed? Had someone blundered? Yes, there was. But, as it is said in the poem, “theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die”, the men did not ponder the order, they did not hesitate, they did not runaway. They fought. And because of their bravery the disastrous charge was made a symbol of courage.
          “Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them”. The 3rd strophe situates the very time that the charge happened. When the British cavalry attacked the Russian artillery fired its cannons against them and yet the firepower was completely superior to the horsemen's, they rode. “The jaws of Death” and “the mouth of hell” are symbolic ways used by Lord Tennyson to explain that the cavalry was surrounded and that death was the only outcome.
          Strophe number four narrates the moment in which the charge concretizes. When the few horsemen that were still alive went through the Russian battery fighting them with theirs sabres. “All the world wondered” describes that the high commanders of the British army and some members of the nobility were, from above the hill, observing the messy charge and expecting that the result could be less disastrous than it looked.
           The fifth and the sixth strophes allude the retreat and the glorification of their actions. The cavalry horsemen were made into heroes. “Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!” were the words used by Lord Tennyson to glorify the bolt men that fought the battle they knew they could not win. The men that did not hesitate in front of their superiors misunderstood orders and that would sacrifice their lives to safe their homeland.

- AGUIAR, Filipe