Answer:
This poem was written several weeks after a disastrous engagement during the Crimean War. At the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854, the 607 cavalrymen of the Light Brigade, acting on a misinterpreted order, directly charged the Russian artillery-a costly mistake.
It is interesting to study poems of the First World War and to compare them with Tennyson's. For example, Wilfred Owen's 'Futility' also deals with the waste and tragedy of war. The two approaches differ, however. Tennyson's focus is more distant, as if watching the charge and admiring the bravery and nobility of the men and their sacrifice. Wilfred Owen and the other poets describe the feelings of the men and those who loved them in a more personal way, dealing with their fear, grief and comradeship.
The poem comprises six stanzas, from eight lines to twelve lines long. The rhyme is highly complex, each stanza with a different pattern. For example, stanza two is AABCDDDCF; the others are variations on this. He also uses assonant rhyme, as in 'hundred' and 'blunder'd'.
As will be seen in the analysis, Tennyson is skilled in his use of language and in manipulating words. Most are monosyllabic, the rest two syllable, to suggest military abruptness. He uses sharp, percussive consonants and masculine endings. The lines have a hypnotic, rhythmic quality, with the dactylic metrical emphasis on the first syllable.
Themes include: Courage and nobility of fighting men.
The waste of war, and sadness at the loss of life.
Incompetence of high command.
The effect on the reader is to create a feeling of sadness and yet spiritual uplift at the men's bravery and sacrifice.
Explanation:
