Summary

The poem begins with the cavalry charge of the Light Brigade, where “six hundred” soldiers (4) ride “onward” (2) into the “valley of Death” (3). The voice of a military superior commands the brigade to charge “forward” (5). The order seems to be for the soldiers to “charge” straight in the direction of the “guns” (6).

Although the soldiers know that a mistake had been made and “someone had blundered” (12), not a single one appears “dismayed” (10). It is not their duty or their place to “make reply” or to “reason why” (13-4); they cannot argue against orders issued to them from above. They can only follow, to “do and die” (15) – even if it means death. Once again the speaker affirms that the “six hundred” (17) men ride into the “valley of Death” (16).

Analysis

The first stanza of Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” establishes the poem’s setting...