Charge Of The Light Brigade Flashcards
“Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the valley of death”
Uses ‘dactyl’ which is accent on the first word out of 3 syllables , gives the rhythm of the Somg which shows the celebration of the heroic acts of the light brigade.
-‘half’ anaphora (religion of the beginning of the line) to create a sense of a rhythm recreates the sound of the charge.
-‘valley of death’ literary allusion which is a reference to the bible Psalm 23 which gives the poem a Christian background and suggests that the light brigade are charging to murder people in war but actually not murder as god is on our side. Suggests that the souls of the dead soldiers will be accepted into heaven by god- Christian perspective.
- repetition of ‘half a league’ emphasises the danger that the soldiers are in and slows down time so that they will never get to the Russian guns and they remember that it’s half way and need to come back show the repetition forces us to realise that their fate is likely to be death as they have been exposed to the guns for so long
“Theirs but to do and die”
- alliteration emphasises the idea that death is inevitable
- ‘and’ uses this deliberately to show that there is no escape to death and death is almost certain, emphasises the great heroism of the soldiers and it contrasts the fact that they knew someone will die. They still do the terrible order for their country.
One level, Tennyson is celebrating that as an essential to the British concept and the true mark of the hero who put themselves at risk no matter the consequences
“While All the world wondered”
Disrupts the dactyls because he is disrupted by this thought - why have these men been sacrificed
- use of the rhyme- ‘wondered’, ‘six hundred’ ‘blundered’- emphasises the ‘blundered’ and the number of men that are going to die - ‘six hundred’ and linking to the word- ‘wondered’ on one hand, their sacrifices are so glorious that when people hear it around the world they’re celebrate. At a deeper level he is also leaving it as a question- questioning how we would fight this foreign war against the Russians and sacrifice the men. This is a subliminal message as the opposite message is that it is celebrating British bravery and not blaming the generals that have given the wrong order
-this is repeated again which emphasises that Tennyson does not want the readers to get away without actually questioning what’s happened. Although the poem is celebrating the honour of these men sacrificing their lives for the readers, he still wants us to wonder about it but with an element of questioning and disapproval.
Tennyson may not be aware of this but his own unconsciousness thoughts leaking out here, or it is a deliberate act and wants to undermine the patriotic culture of the poem.
‘Honour’
- anaphora of imperative verbs giving us instructions so he is leaving the readers with the leaders to celebrate the charge that the men of the light brigade have made.
This links to the newspapers at that time which started to criticise the decisions in the first place and the leader ship. As poet laureate he feels a duty of patriotism the duty to keep the establishment in place so he cannot publicly accuse the generals of being wrong and sides with the generals and celebrates the bravery and glory of the men.
In the ending this is his true belief where he’s starting to question this order and question the British involvement in the Crimean war however it is a secret questioning and he has to celebrate the war and British bravery.
