"The Charge of the Light Brigade" is an 1854 narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.
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Overview
Tennyson's poem, published December 9, 1854 in The Examiner, praises the Brigade, "When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made!", while mourning the appalling futility of the charge: "Not tho' the soldier knew, someone had blunder'd… Charging an army, while all the world wonder'd." According to his grandson Sir Charles Tennyson, Tennyson wrote the poem in only a few minutes after reading an account of the battle in The Times, . It immediately became hugely popular, even reaching the troops in the Crimean, where it was distributed in pamphlet form.
Each stanza tells a different part of the story, and there is a delicate balance between nobility and brutality throughout. Although Tennyson's subject is the nobleness of supporting one's country, and the poem's tone and hoofbeat cadences are rousing, it pulls no punches about the horror of war: "cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them, volley'd and thunder'd". With "into the valley of Death" Tennyson works in resonance with "the shadow of the valley of Death" from Psalm 23; then and now, it is often read at funerals. Tennyson's Crimea does not offer the abstract tranquil death of the psalm but is instead predatory and menacing: "into the jaws of Death" and "into the mouth of Hell". The alliterative "Storm'd at with shot and shell" echoes the whistling of ball as the cavalry charge through it. After the fury of the charge, the final notes are gentle, reflective and laden with sorrow: "Then they rode back, but not the six hundred".
Tennyson recited this poem onto a wax cylinder in 1890 (see below). Jamie Renell and various volunteers at Librivox have also made recordings of the poem. All of them are available online.12
Kipling's postscript
Written some forty years after the appearance of "The Charge of the Light Brigade", in 1891, Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Last of the Light Brigade" focuses on the terrible hardships faced in old age by veterans of the Crimean War, as exemplified by the cavalry men of the Light Brigade, in attempt to shame the British public into offering financial assistance.
In popular culture
- In Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse, the patriarch, Mr. Ramsay, frequently quotes the poem, specifically the lines "Stormed at with shot and shell" and "Someone had blundered".
- In the film Saving Private Ryan, Corporal Upham quotes the "Ours is not to reason why . . ." line in reference to the search for Private Ryan.
- In the television show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air the poem is dramatically read by the butler, Geoffrey Butler.
- The sixth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, entitled "Sacrifice of Angels", featured two main characters, Chief O'Brien and Dr. Bashir, reciting the third stanza before going into a battle against The Dominion.
- The cult British comedy radio panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue featured the poem sung to the tune of the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music.
- In the show, Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore didn't write a speech for her stepping down as editor of the Yale Daily News, and jokingly offers to recite this poem.
- The Iron Maiden song "The Trooper" is heavily inspired by Tennyson's poem.
- Industrial rock band KMFDM uses the poem in their song "Professional Killer", where it is quoted several times.
- In the episode "Station Sale" (S2E11) of NBC television sitcom NewsRadio, Bill McNeal (played by Phil Hartman) paraphrases the line "Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die," incorrectly attributing it to John Keats. The date he gives, 1776, is 19 years before Keats was born and 76 years before the poem was published.
- In a scene in the film Magic Town, Rip (James Stewart) recites the poem, while Mary (Jane Wyman) simultaneously recites Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha", as the two of them sit in an empty classroom.
- In the M*A*S*H episode "Welcome to Korea", Hawkeye tells B.J. (referring to the wounded they're treating), "Ours not to reason why, ours not to let 'em die."
- In the 1936 Our Gang (Little Rascals) short film Two Too Young, Alfalfa recites the poem in front of his class, while Porky focuses light with a magnifying glass on the fuse of firecrackers Alfalfa had stolen and put in his pants pocket. They ignite in rhythmic meter following the line "Cannon to the right of them..."
- "The Light Brigade" is an episode of The Outer Limits (season 2, episode 18). Parts of the poem are recited in a story about a crew on a suicide mission, attempting to destroy an alien enemy home world. http://www.hulu.com/watch/6340/outer-limits-the-light-brigade#x-0,vepisode,1
- "In a song written by Freddie Mercury of the rock band Queen entitled "Millionaire Waltz" he sings "bring on the charge of the love brigade" in reference to the charge of the light brigade.
- In a tactical video game called "Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn", the player controls the "Dawn Brigade" throughout much of the game, and the game also includes a country called 'Crimea'.
Media
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References
See also
- Alfred Tennyson's poem The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava.
- Rudyard Kipling's poem The Last of the Light Brigade.
External links
- Reely's Poetry Pages audio reading by actor Jamie Renell with background music
- Manuscript in Tennyson's handwriting Archive.org Link
- "The Charge of the Light Brigade" poem
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 7 January 2009, at 14:18.
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