Charge of the LIght Brigade

Question 1

what is the poem about(4)

Answer 1

1 600 soldiers (the light brigade) on horse back charge forward directly towards the Russian guns and into a valley to fight.
2 In the valley they meet the enemy and are badly disadvantaged. The soldiers press on bravely not acknowledging their leaders have made an error in sending them into the situation
3 The sounds and sights of the battle are described along with a few returning soldiers
4 The poem closes with a call to celebrate their bravery

Question 2

What form does the poem take (3)

Answer 2

1 Third person -gives the poem a grand scale as it allows the battle to be described by an outsider and gives it a story like quality which implies the soldiers will be immortalised for their bravery

2 Rhyming couplets and triplets creating a driving momentum in the poem
3 No regular rhyme scheme - sense of chaos

Question 3

what is the structure of the poem (3)

Answer 3

1 Chronologically tells the story of the battle
2 Stanzas are numbered and ordered -militaristic nature
3 Final stanza is shortest it highlights heroism

Question 4

What is the poets message (2)

Answer 4

1 Questions the morality of sending men into conflict
2 Glorifies the ordinary soldiers devotion to duty

Question 5

What are the key quotations (4)

Answer 5

1 theirs not to make reply theirs not to reason why their but to do and die- soldiers have no power to choose how to act but demonstrate bravery
2 Into the jaws of death. Into the mouth of hell- imagery, personifying death death is unavoidable
4 Honour the charge they made. Honour the light brigade- imperative verb instructs audience to respond
5 cannons to the right of them cannons to the left of them cannon in front of them - suggests the soldiers are being trapped by death - reader shares the soldiers sense of dread as more cannons are revealed
valley of death - creates ominous feeling
6 short and shell - sibilance mimics the sound of the ammunition whizzing past the soldiers
7 o the wild charge they made - the poet makes the charge as being heroic, exciting and filled with glory in
8 contrast to line some one hard blunder’d which undermines the glory of their sacrifice by hinting it was unnecessary. it s the mistake

Question 6

which poem would you compare it with

Answer 6

remains

Question 7

how would you compare

Answer 7

1 in the charge of the light brigade violent verbs such as shatter’d and sunder’d illustrate the horrors of war and describe the effect of the battle on the soldiers- this effect is lessened by figurative imagery such as jaws of death which distances the reader from the graphic images and of war
2 on the other hand the violence in remains is created through graphic imagery described with colloquial language. The narrators description of the looters as “sort of inside out” shows that the horrors of war seem normal .
3 In charge of the light brigade the repetition of lines such as “rode the 600” emphasises the extensiveness of the violence . In remains the use of the first person makes the violence seem personal