Analysis of The Charge Of The Light Brigade
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809 – 1892
HALF a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade ?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
.
Scheme | xabCDxBC DdxaeeeBC FFfAGgbgC hhhxAiixiaxc FFfAGggbgfc ddAddc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101 10110 1001011 10110 100101 110111 0101011 10110 100101 110101 110101 11110 111101 111101 111101 0101011 10110 101111 101111 100111 1010 111101 101101 010111 010111 10110 111101 111101 10101 101101 10110 1001001 110111 10010 110101 1001 111111 10110 101111 101111 10011 1010 111101 110101 111111 110111 110111 111111 11110 111101 101111 10110 10111 10101 10110 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,526 |
Words | 264 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 9, 9, 12, 11, 7 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 182 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 901 Views
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"The Charge Of The Light Brigade" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1073/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade>.
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