The Charge of the Light Brigade Flashcards
CLB
Repetition
Half a league x3
Cannon to the right/left/front of them x3
CLB : The changes to ‘the six hundred’
Rode the six hundred x3
Not the six hundred
left of six hundred (counting down as their numbers dwindle)
noble six hundred! (glorified in death)
CLB : Structure
Chronological,
shorter final stanza at the end acts as a calming moment out of the chaos and also represents the reduced army and the loss of structure + soldier alike
similar to a ballad
Strong rhythm
CLB : Rhyme, Rhythm, Context
Strong Rhyme and rhythm like a horse galloping or cannons firing - dactylic dimeter
Written so that it could be passed around orally - repetitions, rhythm, rhyme
CLB : Context
Written for educated people of higher classes who had little knowledge of the war.
Designed to glorify war and also based on a true story
Inspired by the news report - ‘someone had blundered’
CLB : ‘Theirs not…but to’ quote
Theirs not to make reply
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die
(monotonous - reflects the rigid, obedient manner of the soldiers)
CLB : Stanza 1
Troops moving forward - ‘half a league’
Repetition exaggerates distance
CLB : Stanza 2 - Blundered
They take their orders
“someone had blundered”
not identified who made the mistake
soldiers still obey even though we know a mistake has been made
CLB : Stanza 3 - Sound effects
Cannons as they charge 'Volleyed and thundered' sound effects 'boldly they rode and well' glorifying them, showing their best qualities
CLB : Stanza 4
The soldiers charge the Russian line and begin to cut down the Russian + Cossacks
verbs of courage and violence increase the pace of the poem - shorter lines
‘flashed’, ‘sabring’
sound effects
‘all the world wondered’
could be astonishment, could be questioning the blunder
‘shattered and sundered’
sibilance
CLB : The retreat
Similar to the march (stanza 3) 'while horse and hero fell' glorification - heroes, not soldiers 'all that was left of them left of six hundred' closer to the realities of war
CLB : Ending stanza structure & viewpoint of the soldiers
Much shorter - reflects the loss of soldiers and the destruction of the army
A step back for the narrator to tell us of how noble they were
Glorification of war
‘All the world wondered
Honour the charge they made
Honour the Light Brigade’
A new meaning of wondered from earlier - awe, amazement, adoration
CLB : on Power
Not very relevant
Could be the power of that someone who blundered over the obedient soldiers
CLB : on Conflict
Glorifies war and says we should honour our soldiers
literal conflict
