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How Does Tennyson Use Language In The Charge Of The Light Brigade

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The poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” written by Alfred Tennyson is a mélange of diverse elements. At heart, it is a free verse epic designed to memorialize the bravery of the six hundred men who readily rode “into the valley of Death” under the aegis of patriotism. Tennyson uses this poem not glorify the battle itself but, rather the soldiers who were an epitome of obedience and valor in spite of the blunders made by their superiors.

In the first stanza, Tennyson, with his apt use of repetition and language, is able to offer the reader a ringside seat to the action on the battlefield as the “Light Brigade” is ordered to charge into enemy lines in the pursuit of guns. He quickly engages the reader by opening with: "HALF a league, …show more content…

They are not well equipped, yet they continue to fight. It is this due to demonstration of valiance that “All the world wonder’d”. The ambiguity in what exactly the people were perplexed about-- were they perplexed by the soldiers’ bravery or by the fact that they were consciously sent to fight a losing battle, gives the reader the freedom to use their imagination to explore the plethora of emotions felt by the people back home at the time of this battle. The theme of inescapability and inescapabilty are further established in the following line through strong diction: “Plunged in the battery-smoke”. The word “plunged” has connotations of helplessness, allowing the reader to imagine the utter desperation experienced by the soldier as he is consumed by smoke. The sheer horror of this image allows the reader to appreciate the soldier’s bravery in such horrible times. It is due to this valor that the soldiers seem to emerge victorious as suggested by the lines: “Reel’d from the sabre-stroke/ Shatter’d and sunder’d.” However, the victory is not as joyous as the reader would like to believe—“ They rode back, but not/ Not the six hundred.” The repetition of not is used to ensure that the reader is painfully aware of the fact that not everyone survived. Only the lucky few were able ride back, unscathed, from the “valley of

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