War in The Charge of the Light Brigade
Alfred Lord Tennyson's Rendition of Glory and Foolishness
Based on a calvary charge during the Crimean war in 1854, The Charge of the Light Brigade is one of Tennyson’s most famous poems. The poem is crafted in the impeccable language that Tennyson is best known for, and considers two opposite perspectives on the charge through its narrative.
Glory in War
Part of the poem celebrates war for bringing out courage, honour and the best in Man. The poem begins with a measure of distance: “Half a league, half a league,/Half a league onward,”, and the dactylic rhythm serves to recreate the rousing gallop of the Brigade as it closes in upon its objective. This is accompanied by the idea of the brigade as a cohesive single fighting unit of “six hundred”, as it moves together spurred on by a resonant cry: “Forward, the Light Brigade!/Charge for the guns!”
The portray of combat is exquisite as the soldier’s sabers “Flash’d as they turn’d in air/Sabring the gunners there”, and they battle against ferocious odds; a mere six hundred pitted against the “Cossack and Russian” army. Nevertheless, there is a hint in superiority both in the side’s racial and numerical differences.
This idea of superiority is also developed through military vocation differences. The courage of swords-wielding calvary who “Plunged in the battery-smoke” is cast against an artillery line that while imbued with the mightiest firepower, is implicitly lacking in valour, creating an irony and greater sense of victory when the more vulnerable Light Brigade triumphs over the steel guns.
The Light Brigade deserves mention not only because it faced enemies and their cannon, but because the men faced a fear within them, as they tore “Into the valley of Death”. Some perished, but there remains a sense of victory as they ride “Back from the mouth of Hell”. Notably, the glory is not given just to the survivors, the final reference to the “Noble six hundred” again pointing to everlasting honour achieved as a single unit.
Foolishness in War
At the other end is a voice that rejects the charge for its foolishness. At the centre of the charge is a mistake: “Some one had blunder’d”. This is based on historical fact, but its role in the poem is to conceal the identity as a vague “some one”, suggesting that the actual perpetrator is unnecessary information. It also highlights the capriciousness of war and the dependence that the soldier’s survival have upon others, increasing a sense of tragedy and helplessness as the Brigade charges into the valley of cannons:
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die
At end of the fourth stanza, the Light Brigade “rode back, but not/Not the six hundred.” “Not” is significant as its obstruent sound creates a pause as the first line ends and the second begins. This pause contains hesitation, as the poem itself seems to draw back and question the cost of the victory. The loss in the breaking up of a fine Brigade of six hundred men is then reconfirmed in meaning with the second “Not.”
As such, their ride through “the jaws of Death” and the “mouth of Hell” is more aptly described as recklessness rather than bravery, and their losses, not quantified but imaginably significant makes their win pyrrhic. That their “glory” is gained in a "wild charge" is hence ironic, given the mindlessness of their actions.
Ultimately, the manner “all the world wonder’d” at the Light Brigade is left open. One could either be amazed and respectful of their heroism and valour, or stupefied by the foolishness and magnificent loss the Brigade suffers.
This poem, which focuses on social event, is markedly different from the intensely personal poems that Tennyson is also famous for, such as In The Valley of Cauteretz or Break, break, break.
Bibliography:
Alfred Lord Tennyson: Selected Poems Edited by Christopher Ricks
The Light Brigade
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Tennyson
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