What is the rhythm of this poem?

Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” consists of six stanzas, each with an irregular number of lines. The poem starts out with seeming regularity, as the first eight lines consist of two blocks of four lines each, where the fourth line is indented. The fourth line, also, is repeated: “Rode the six hundred” (4, 8). This structure of indentation quickly breaks down, moving into the second stanza, which itself consists of nine rather than eight lines. Whereas the first stanza might be aimed at setting the scene, conjuring a mythic tone and feel, the second stanza rapidly disorders this structure. The disarray, and the irregularity in number of lines across stanzas, might hint at the disorder brought about by war.

At the same time, if the poem is recited out loud, it has a clearly discernible meter and rhyme. There are a number of rhyming couplets, such as “Theirs not to make reply, / Theirs not to reason why” (13-4), or “Stormed at with shot and shell, / Boldly they rode and well” (22-3). Despite the chaos of war, there is a sense of order lurking beneath the surface of the poem, perhaps symbolizing the fact that the soldiers’ fates are sealed even before the battle has begun. They know, because of their poor equipment, that they will die. The rhyme scheme creates a sense of inevitability, causing the poem to hurtle towards its doomed end.