How do I analyse The Charge of the Light Brigade for GCSE?

What is The Charge of the Light Brigade about?

The poem retells a real cavalry charge, a charge by soldiers on horseback. Six hundred riders go "Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward", about a mile and a half, into "the valley of Death". The order is "Forward, the Light Brigade!" and not one man hesitates, even though the soldiers know that someone has "blunder'd", made a terrible mistake. It is not their job to question it.

Guns fire at them from both sides and from the front. The riders reach the enemy's guns, fight the gunners with their swords and break through the Russian line. Then they ride back, "but not / Not the six hundred": far fewer return than set out. The final stanza asks "When can their glory fade?" and tells the reader to "Honour the charge they made!"

What is the context of The Charge of the Light Brigade?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 to 1892) was Poet Laureate, the poet officially appointed to write for the nation, from 1850 until his death. He took over the role from William Wordsworth. He wrote this poem on 2 December 1854, and it was published a week later in The Examiner, the same London paper that had first printed Shelley's Ozymandias. Tennyson changed the poem more than once after that, so different versions exist. Learn the lines as your anthology prints them.

The Crimean War (1853 to 1856) was fought between Russia and an alliance that included Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. On 25 October 1854, at the Battle of Balaclava, an order from the British commanders was misunderstood as it passed from one officer to another. The Light Brigade, a force of lightly armed cavalry, charged down a valley towards a battery of Russian guns, with more guns on the hills on either side. Many men and horses were killed or wounded.

This was one of the first wars that people at home could follow closely in the newspapers, through reports sent from the front. Tennyson wrote the poem after reading about the charge in The Times. The Victorians prized duty and patriotism, and as Poet Laureate Tennyson turned a military disaster into a story of heroism the whole country could share.

How does Tennyson present courage and duty in The Charge of the Light Brigade?

From the first stanza the men ride "Into the valley of Death". This is a metaphor, describing something as if it were something else: the valley becomes death's own territory. It also echoes Psalm 23 in the Bible, "the valley of the shadow of death", which gives the charge a solemn, religious weight. The refrain "Rode the six hundred" treats the soldiers as one body. No single man is named, so they stand for every British soldier.

The second stanza is about obedience. The rhetorical question "Was there a man dismay'd?" expects the answer no. Then three lines in a row begin with "Theirs", building to "Theirs but to do and die". This is anaphora, repeating the same word at the start of lines, and it drums in the idea that a soldier's duty is to obey. Tennyson admits that someone "blunder'd", yet he never says who. The blame fades and the courage stays in focus.

The danger is made to feel overwhelming. "Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them" begins a list that ends with cannon in front of them too, and the repeated word hems the men in on every side. In "Storm'd at with shot and shell", the "sh" sounds suggest the hiss and crash of gunfire. Then personification, giving human or animal qualities to something that is not alive, turns death into a monster: they ride "Into the jaws of Death, / Into the mouth of Hell".

The fighting itself is written to thrill. "Flash'd all their sabres bare" puts the verb first, so the swords seem to flash before we even know what they are. "All the world wonder'd" makes the charge something the whole world watched in amazement. Near its end the poem gives two imperatives, commands to the reader: "Honour the charge they made! / Honour the Light Brigade". The poem becomes a memorial, built out of words.

Tennyson does not hide the cost, though. "Then they rode back, but not / Not the six hundred" repeats "not" across a line break, which makes the reader stumble and count the missing men. In "While horse and hero fell", the alliteration joins the animals and the men in a single sound as they go down together, and "All that was left of them" is quiet after the noise of battle.

What do the form and structure of The Charge of the Light Brigade add?

The poem is a narrative poem, one that tells a story, and the speaker is not one of the soldiers. The voice is public, like a news report or an old ballad sung to a crowd. That suits a Poet Laureate speaking for the nation, and it keeps the reader watching the charge from the outside.

The metre, the pattern of beats, is mostly dactylic dimeter. A dactyl is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, DUM-da-da, and dimeter means two of them per line. Say "Half a league, half a league" aloud and the stresses fall on each "Half". The rhythm sounds like galloping hooves. Most lines are end-stopped, meaning they finish with punctuation, which keeps the beat driving on like the charge itself.

There are six stanzas of different lengths, from six lines to twelve, and every one ends with "six hundred". The words before it change as the story does: "Rode the six hundred", then "Not the six hundred", then "Left of six hundred", and finally "Noble six hundred!" You can trace the whole charge through that one refrain.

The structure mirrors itself. The third stanza has "Cannon in front of them"; the fifth, on the ride back, has cannon behind them. In the third stanza the men ride into the jaws of Death, and in the fifth they come back out of them. The mirror makes the reader feel the return journey, and notice who is missing from it.

The rhymes are packed together in clusters, such as "reply", "why" and "die". Listen too for the half-rhymes on "hundred": "blunder'd", "thunder'd", "wonder'd" and "sunder'd". The sound ties the six hundred to the mistake that sent them and to the guns that met them.

Which poems does The Charge of the Light Brigade compare well with?

Pick a partner poem that lets you say something different, not just something similar. These three work well.

What could an exam question on The Charge of the Light Brigade ask?

On AQA, Paper 2 Section B prints one named poem from the Power and Conflict cluster. You compare it with one other poem from the cluster, which you choose and quote from memory. The question is worth 30 marks and is assessed on AO1, AO2 and AO3, the assessment objectives. There are no marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar in this section.

Two focuses to practise, written for this guide:

Focus 1: Compare how poets present the reality of conflict in The Charge of the Light Brigade and in one other poem from Power and Conflict.

Focus 2: Compare how poets present bravery in The Charge of the Light Brigade and in one other poem from Power and Conflict.

Here is an original model opening for the second focus, comparing The Charge of the Light Brigade with Bayonet Charge:

Tennyson and Hughes both describe soldiers charging into gunfire, but they reach opposite conclusions about bravery. Tennyson's riders move as one body: the refrain "Rode the six hundred" never singles out a man, and the galloping rhythm carries them forward without a pause. The repetition in "Theirs not to reason why" makes obedience sound noble. Hughes zooms in on one terrified soldier, and as he runs, ideas such as king and honour fall away from him. Tennyson, writing as Poet Laureate, builds a public memorial; Hughes shows bravery as panic.

Bringing in Tennyson's role as Poet Laureate links the context (AO3) straight to the poem's purpose, which is stronger than adding history for its own sake.

Key quotations from The Charge of the Light Brigade to learn

These six carry the poem from the first gallop to the final salute.

• "Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward": the repetition and the dactylic rhythm sound like galloping hooves.
• "Into the valley of Death": a metaphor that echoes Psalm 23 and makes the valley death's own territory.
• "Theirs not to reason why": a soldier's duty is to obey, not to question.
• "Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them": the repetition surrounds the soldiers with guns.
• "Into the jaws of Death, / Into the mouth of Hell": personification turns death into a monster swallowing the men.
• "Honour the charge they made!": an imperative that turns the poem into a memorial.