The battle of Balaclava took place on October 25, 1854, and a tragic military disaster like no other, was about to be caught by the eyes of a nation. A blunder sparked by the animosity between two English Army leaders led to the death of over two hundred soldiers. The Battle took place during the Crimean War which was a war between Britain, Sardinia and France against Russia. Over six hundred soldiers forming the Light Brigade charged towards the Russian soldiers under orders of the two blundering army leaders. The miscommunication had cost the Light Brigade many lives. The valiant marching of the Brigade into the mouth of hell influenced the emergence of a new poetic figure. Alfred Tennyson was struck with the news of the event and unknowingly wrote what became, one of the most famous poems to date. He reflected his sense of nationalism through his piece “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Tennyson uses his influential position to cleverly create propaganda, not only for the purpose of magnifying the errors made during the patriotic charge, but also at the same time exemplifying the English Army’s loyal sense of obedience as a military success.
Alfred Lord Tennyson was a well known British poet in the late 19th and early 20th century. Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was published in 1954. This tragic poem is about a group of soldiers known as a “brigade” who rode selflessly into the “valley of death”. The soldiers obeyed their command to charge forward into enemy lines and attack. Tragically, the brigade of soldiers were thrown into the center of an impossible battle where they stood no chance. Nevertheless, the poem symbolizes the honor and heroism that each of the six-hundred men embodies as they fought, with courage, to the end of defeat.
