The Charge of the Light Brigade

Written in December 1854, shortly after the disastrous Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War, The Charge of the Light Brigade commemorates the cavalrymen who rode into overwhelming Russian artillery after a mistaken order. Tennyson's poem is both celebration and memorial: it acknowledges that “someone had blundered,” yet deliberately places the soldiers' courage and obedience at the center of the poem. It was first published on December 9, 1854, only weeks after the battle.The poem's extraordinary force comes from its rhythm. Repeated phrases and the pounding dactylic meter create the sensation of horses charging forward without pause, while the recurring image of the “six hundred” turns individual soldiers into a collective symbol of courage and sacrifice.Yet the poem should not be reduced to a simple lesson about obeying orders. Its most interesting tension lies between military obedience and human judgment. The soldiers know that a mistake has been made, but their role leaves them no opportunity to correct it. Tennyson consequently separates the failure of command from the courage of those who carried out the command.