They were called ‘light’ because they wore almost no armour, as being light-weighted made them faster on the horses. VOCABULARYĬharge – in this case, a noun meaning ‘the act of charging forward, such as on horseback in battle’ The Light Brigade – the British light cavalry force, soldiers on horseback who rode into battle using lances (long, sharp poles) and sabers (swords) for weapons. Thanks for reading! If you find this page helpful, you can take a look at our full poetry course.Ĭheck out what other poems we have analysed from the AQA Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology by clicking here. It’s particularly useful for the following exam boards: AQA, CIE, OCR, WJEC, Edexcel, CCEA. This analysis is tailored towards GCSE / iGCSE, A Level and above (age 14+). It’s a complex poem, asking us to question our beliefs about war – are the soldiers stupid for following orders that didn’t make sense, or honourable because they fight with strength and conviction even when there’s almost no hope? Read the poem and decide for yourself. In some ways, we could say that he turns a defeat into a victory, concluding that these soldiers are a testament to their nation’s character and that we should all honour and remember them and their noble sacrifice. Tennyson acknowledges the mistake of the orders, without diminishing his respect for the soldiers that fought bravely against all odds in the face of cannons and certain death. Yet, the context was that these soldiers were charging into a battle they had no hope of winning, charging to almost certain death on orders that had been given by someone higher up who ‘blundered’, made a mistake that cost hundreds of lives. The atmosphere is honourable, brave, and admirable. ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ is such a perfect, powerful poem – it’s full of strength and momentum, that captures the movement of horses as they charge forwards into battle.
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