The Charge of the Light Brigade By Tennyson

Plot of the Poem The Charge of the Light Brigade By Tennyson

Tennyson published "The Charge of the Light Brigade" in an English newspaper called The Examiner on December 9, 1854. By that point, he had been the Poet Laureate of England for more than four years, and he was well on his way to being the most famous and successful poet of his time.

While reading this poem, it's important to know that at the time, the British were fighting the Russian Empire in the Crimean War. Tennyson read a newspaper story about the Battle of Balaclava (not to be confused with baklava, the delicious dessert). In this battle, a small group of British soldiers on horseback (called the Light Brigade) made a desperate and doomed attack, and suffered heavy casualties. Apparently, Tennyson was so moved by what he read that he dashed off this poem, which has turned into one of the most famous poems ever about the tragic heroism of soldiers.

Line by Line summary

Lines 1-2

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,

• This poem starts with the same three words, "Half a league" repeated three times.
• First of all, what does that mean? Well, a league is an old way to measure distance, and it was equal to about 3 miles. So half a league is roughly a mile and a half.
• Second of all, why start a poem like this? Well, we think it sets up a nice rhythm, a kind of rolling, hypnotic sound. Maybe even a bit like a military march: Left! Left! Left, right, left!
• We also think these opening lines make the speaker of the poem sound exhausted, like he is at the end of a race, just trying to force himself through the last few laps. That mood will be really important later in the poem

Line 3

All in the valley of Death

• Now this isn't half a league on a sunny day in the park. Nope, it turns out we're traveling in "the valley of Death." Scary, huh?
• We don't know exactly what that means at this point, but it's sure meant to make us feel a little scared and uncertain.
• We're pretty sure Tennyson and his readers would also have been thinking of the famous line in Psalm 23: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death."

Line 4

Rode the six hundred.

• Tennyson is slowly introducing us to the setting and the action of the poem.
• Notice that he isn't being too specific. We already know that someone is covering a certain distance in a scary place. Now we learn that there are six hundred people, and that they are riding, probably on horseback. We mean, would you want to take your bicycle out for a spin in the valley of Death?
• We'll get more details soon, but things are already taking shape.

Line 5

"Forward, the Light Brigade!

• Now someone speaks, shouting out a military order to move forward. We don't know who this fellow is, but he introduces the heroes of this poem, the fearless men of the Light Brigade. Who are these guys?
• Well, they are a group of soldiers – a "brigade" is a way of dividing up an army.
• They are "cavalry" soldiers, meaning they are riding on horseback.
• Finally, they are called "Light" to separate them from the "Heavy Brigade," another kind of cavalry unit at the time. Make sense? We just didn't want you to think they were actually glowing or anything.
• Also, Tennyson's poem is based on real events. In 1854, there was a Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War.

Line 6

Charge for the guns!" he said.

• Imagine you're a soldier in 1854. We think "charge for the guns" would probably be the last thing you'd want to hear. That sounds dangerous, right? Especially if you're on a horse. Most folks would probably rather charge away from the guns.
• Who is this guy shouting out such a crazy order? We're not quite sure, and we think Tennyson left him invisible on purpose, to keep us focused on the amazing, tough guys in the Light Brigade.

Line 7-8

Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

• The speaker ends the first section of the poem with a little refrain, a kind of recap of what we've learned so far (in lines 3-4).
• The brigade has been ordered into the valley, and they're riding in, even though they know that guns and "Death" are waiting for them.

Line 9

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"

• The order is repeated. The speaker really wants us to focus on those words, on the command to move forward. The men are being sent to their doom.
• Again, we don't know who's giving the orders here, but this disembodied voice might make us pause and think about why these brave men are being sent into "the valley of Death."

Line 10

Was there a man dismayed?

• Now we're trying to get a peek into the heads of these soldiers, trying to imagine how it must feel to charge toward death.
• The speaker asks if any of the soldiers were "dismayed." In this case, to be dismayed means to lose your courage, to be overcome by terror or sadness. That would be a pretty normal reaction to a situation like this.

Line 11-12

Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.

• Of course the Light Brigade is too tough and loyal to feel dismayed.
• That first word, "not," implies that these men don't feel discouraged at all. They're ready to do their job, even though the order might be crazy.
• This is a really important point in this poem. The soldiers aren't dumb. They know this charge isn't a good idea, that someone has made a mistake, has "blundered."
• This is as close as the poem gets to criticizing the men who ordered this attack. The speaker is no revolutionary, but we think you can feel some anger at the commanders simmering under this poem, especially at this moment.

Lines 13-15

Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.

• This is a famous group of lines, and for good reason. Do you see how they fit together, the way they share the same first word and the same rhyming sound at the end? Do you see how simple they are, too? There's no showing off, no fancy words (in fact almost all the words in these lines are one syllable).
• The speaker uses these lines to sum up all of the honest, humble heroism of these men. They're just doing their job. That job doesn't let permit them to talk back to their commanders ("make reply") or to figure out the point of the attack ("reason why"). All they can do is to ride and fight and possibly die ("do and die").

Line 16-17

Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

• These last two lines are the same as the last two lines in the first stanza. In poetry, that's called a refrain (like the chorus in a song). It emphasizes the main action of the poem, which is these men riding to their death. It also gives a smooth, dignified rhythm to the poem.

Line 18-20

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them

• The valley of Death turns out to be just about as lousy as it sounds. The soldiers are surrounded by enemy cannon, left, right, and front. Bad news for the Light Brigade.
• Notice how Tennyson stretches this simple information out over three lines. What effect does that have?
• Well, for one thing, it echoes the three lines in the section above (13-15), which also all start with the same word.
• It also makes the feeling of being surrounded much more intense. It's almost as if we are right there, turning our heads right, left, and forward, and seeing cannon everywhere. Scary, huh?

Line 21

Volleyed and thundered;

• A little vocab here: a "volley" from a cannon is just a round of firing.
• So these huge walls of cannon all around them are firing, and making a sound like thunder.
• Want to know what cannon fire is like? Check out this YouTube video.

Line 22

Stormed at with shot and shell,

• The soldiers in the Light Brigade are being "stormed at," by gunfire, an image that picks up on the word "thundered" in the line we just read.
• The "shot" (bullets) and "shell" (big explosives fired from cannon) are a violent, noisy, destructive force that reminds the speaker of a storm.

Line 23

Boldly they rode and well,

• These guys aren't scared of some gunfire, though. In fact, they ride "boldly" (bravely) even though this is looking more and more like a suicide mission.
• The point of this poem is to show us how heroic these men were.

Line 24

Into the jaws of Death,

• Tennyson has a lot of images for this scary valley, and he brings some more of them in here. Now the valley of Death becomes the "jaws of Death."
• We'll admit it's not a super-original image, but it works well here. It's almost as if these guys were riding into the mouth of some kind of ferocious animal.

Lines 25-26

Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.

• This is the spot (at the end of the stanza) where the refrain belongs (see lines 7-8 and 16-17), but Tennyson switches things up a bit here. Instead of "Into the valley of Death," now the men are riding "Into the mouth of hell."
• The "mouth of hell" matches up nicely with the "jaws" in the line before, and it's just one more way of emphasizing how bad the valley is and how brave these men are.
• Changing the refrain also helps to keep us on our toes a little, and keeps the poem from seeming stale or repetitive.

Line 27

Flashed all their sabres bare,

• Keep in mind that these guys weren't carrying machine guns. They were riding through this storm of bullets, on horses, carrying…swords.
• Well "sabres," to be exact. That's the kind of curved sword a cavalrymen would have carried. Here's a picture of a sabre.

Line 28

Flashed as they turned in air

• The image of these flashing swords makes us think of Medieval knights fighting.
• At this point, during the Crimean War, fighting with swords was already becoming obsolete. Can you imagine charging on horseback with a sword toward an enemy with guns and cannon? Focusing on these old-fashioned sabres is another way to point out the desperate heroism of the Light Brigade, and also a way to connect them to English warriors of the past.

Line 29

Sab'ring the gunners there,

• It turns out that the Light Brigade has some luck. They reach the guns and stab the men who are operating them.
• It's a vivid image, isn't it? You can just imagine those swords slicing, chopping, and stabbing. This is serious, brutal warfare.

Lines 30-31

Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.

• The doomed bravery of these 600 guys "charging an army" jumps out at us again.
• The speaker imagines that "all the world wondered" at this charge. That line needs a little unpacking. In this case, to "wonder" means to be amazed by something. That means that the people who "wondered" were filled with awe as they watched the battle.
• What does the speaker mean by "all the world"? Well, Tennyson wrote this poem because he read about the battle in the newspaper. The men of the Light Brigade are world famous.
• Now it's not just the people on the battlefield who are amazed by their bravery, but "all the world."

Line 32-33

Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;

• The Light Brigade is still kicking butt. They move right through the smoke that's coming from the "battery" (that's a group of cannon).
• They even break through the line. That's a major moment in a battle at this time. Back in the day, soldiers would line up on a field and shoot or run or ride at each other. For an attack (a "charge") like this to succeed, the soldiers need to get through the enemy line in order to do damage. Think of this like a really brutal game of capture the flag.

Line 34-36

Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.

• This is actually the first time we hear about who, exactly, the Light Brigade is attacking. In these lines, they are slicing "Cossack and Russian" soldiers with their swords.
• This poem is describing the Crimean War, when Britain and its allies were fighting the Russian Empire. The Cossacks were famously fierce soldiers allied with the Russian Empire.
• The soldiers of the Light Brigade are so effective that these enemies are "shattered" and "sundered" (which means broken in two).

Line 37-38

Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

• This is a key moment in the poem. The main action so far, the charge, has gone as far as it can. Now the soldiers have to turn back where they came from.
• Not all of them though. Some have died. The simple phrase "Not the six hundred" is our first hint of the terrible casualties the Light Brigade has suffered.
• The poem has been a little grim, but now it starts to become really mournful, like it was meant for a funeral.

Lines 39-43

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,

• Feeling a bit of déjà vu? You should be, because these lines are almost an exact repeat of the beginning of the third stanza (lines 18-22). The only change is in line 41. The cannon that were in front of them are now behind them, which means that the Light Brigade has turned around and leaving the enemy behind them.
• The return trip is just as deadly and terrifying, it's just turned around.
• Even though he's describing really awful stuff, Tennyson still manages to give this poem a nice feeling of balance. Repetition is an important tool that helps him achieve that effect.

Line 44

While horse and hero fell.

• As we learn about the retreat from the charge, the poem emphasizes the loss of life.
• Here we get an image of horses and soldiers collapsing under the rain of gunfire.
• Notice also that this is the first time that the speaker comes out and calls these men heroes, although that's clearly been the message from the beginning.

Line 45-46

They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,

• Now, a part of the Light Brigade returns back to safety, after having "fought so well."
• At the beginning of the poem we heard about how they were going "Into the jaws of Death" and now they are coming out again. In a way, it's almost like watching a movie played backward. They charge forward…they charge back. They run into the mouth…they run back again.
• Of course the big difference is that there are a lot fewer of them now.

Line 47-49

Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

• This stanza ends with the words "six hundred" just like all the others did.
• In this case, though, the tone is much darker, and the emphasis is on how many men have died. The speaker doesn't say how many make it to safety, but we're guessing that it's a small number.
• That's the final image we get off the battle itself, the remnants of the Light Brigade moving back across the field.

Line 50

When can their glory fade?

• Now the poem swings into high gear. We're watching Tennyson turn the soldiers of the Light Brigade into legends.
• This line – "When can their glory fade?" – bursts in like the sound of a trumpet.
• The job of this poem is to make the courage of these British soldiers immortal. You know what? So far it seems to have worked. You're reading this poem, right? Which means the bravery of the Light Brigade has been remembered for over 150 years. This is an example of poetry having a real effect on how we remember history.

Line 51-52

O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.

• It is the Light Brigade's desperate, "wild" charge that the speaker wants us to remember.
• Line 52 is a repeat of line 31, and a reminder that this is a story meant to amaze the entire world. This poem is spreading the word, telling us all that we should "wonder" at this incredible display of bravery.

Lines 53-55

Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

• The poem ends with a couple of commands. The speaker orders us, as if he was a general, to "Honour the Light Brigade."
• This is a really public poem with a single purpose and Tennyson doesn't have time to be subtle at the end. He tells us, point blank, to respect and remember these noble war heroes.