Poet's Corner

"The Charge of the Light Brigade"

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Poem explanation

	1 

1    Half a league, half a league,



     Half a league onward,



     All in the valley of Death



        Rode the six hundred.



5    "Forward the Light Brigade!



     Charge for the guns!" he said.



     Into the valley of Death



        Rode the six hundred.





	2

     "Forward, the Light Brigade!"



10   Was there a man dismayed?



     Not though the soldier knew



        Someone had blundered.



     Theirs not to make reply,



     Theirs not to reason why,



15   Theirs but to do and die.



     Into the valley of Death



        Rode the six hundred.





	3

     Cannon to right of them,



     Cannon to left of them,



20   Cannon in front of them



        Volleyed and thundered;



     Stormed at with shot and shell,



     Boldly they rode and well,



     Into the jaws of Death,



25   Into the mouth of hell



        Rode the six hundred.





	4

     Flashed all their sabers bare,



     Flashed as they turned in air



     Sab'ring the gunners there,



30   Charging an army, while



        All the world wondered.



     Plunged in the battery smoke



     Right through the line they broke;



     Cossack and Russian



35   Reeled from the saber stroke



        Shattered and sundered.



     Then they rode back, but not,



        Not the six hundred.





	5

     Cannon to right of them,



40   Cannon to left of them,



     Cannon behind them



        Volleyed and thundered;



     Stormed at with shot and shell,



     While horse and hero fell,



45   They that had fought so well



     Came through the jaws of Death,



     Back from the mouth of hell,



     All that was left of them,



        Left of six hundred.





	6

50   When can their glory fade?



     O the wild charge they made!



        All the world wondered.



     Honor the charge they made!



     Honor the Light Brigade,



55      Noble six hundred!

Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.