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Ellice Spence
Poetry analysis

The Charge of the Light Brigade Poetry Analysis
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The Charge of the Light Brigade - written by Alfred Lord Tennyson

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About 600 British men, bravely rode into battle for Russian weaponry - men did not
question orders, put their lives on the line

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Due to confused orders, men were sent into a battle they could not win

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Many men lost their lives - poem’s purpose is to inform reader of the incident in the
Crimean War and highlight their courage
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Secondary target audience could be someone interested in historic events as the
poem is informative
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The men were loyal to their country - ‘Theirs but to do and die’ (line 15) and would
even die to protect it
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Sentence types mainly declarative due to narrative structure - sentences are used to
convey story and give impression of factual account
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Tennyson uses examples of enjambment ‘Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six
hundred
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Rhyme scheme varies throughout poem and is unpredictable - could be constructed to
signify the men’s fate was unpredictable after they were given wrong orders
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For instance: ‘Plunged in the battery-smoke Right
through the line they broke,’ (line 32-33)
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For example:

‘Flashed all their sabers bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,’ (lines 27-29)

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Ellice Spence
Poetry analysis

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Couplets and triplets used to fasten pace of the poem, it corresponds with the war
imagery because war is fast paced - the men rapidly rode to battle and lost their lives
in seconds
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Strengthens meaning of the poem, which is to act as tribute towards British soldiers
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The lines have two metric feet called dimeters
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They were likely anxious but could not question orders they had been given - meter
may also convey sound of galloping horses
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Throughout the poem Tennyson uses repetition - last line, from stanza one to three, he
repeats the phrase ‘Rode the six hundred’ - may be deliberately constructed to suggest
men were unified as one, would follow any orders to protect their country
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However, as poem progresses the last line changes to ‘Not
the six hundred
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’ (line 48)
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The reader pays more attention to it and recognises that
some of the men were lost during the battle
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Another example of repetition is ‘Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them’
(lines 18 and 19)
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This helps the reader get a clearer understanding
of the war setting
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He uses evidence
of personification, ‘jaws of Death’ (line 24)
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It also implies that war is
like a monster and has no mercy
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This creates a
gruesome image, it gives the impression that war is like Hell and is the men’s worst
nightmare
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It conveys the men’s bravery, as the descriptive
language infers how dangerous the conditions of war were
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He compares war to ‘Hell’, which signifies that he believes it is evil and the place of
torment and misery
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It highlights that war is created by
mankind and how unnatural the act of killing is
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In the
title, he refers to the men as the ‘Light Brigade’
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Everyone had confidence and believed that the soldiers would protect
them, therefore the men are saviours
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This is because many of the men lost
their lives therefore, ‘light’ could signify that they are in heaven
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These
terms are used to show the horror of war, and the ‘hell’ the men suffered
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The reader is likely to feel sympathy for the fallen soldiers, and gives them an
understanding of the conditions

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