Summary

In Section III, the poem shifts to describing the scene of the battlefield and its conditions. All around the soldiers – to their “right” (18), “left” (19) and “front” (20) – are cannons being “volleyed” (21). The soldiers are being “stormed at” (22), attacked by guns and cannons. Yet they continue to charge “boldly” (23), knowing that they will die.

The soldiers of the Light Brigade make use of their “sabres” (28) – a kind of sword with a curved blade associated with this period of history. The soldiers “flashed” (28) their weapons, turning them “in air” (29) in order to strike at the opposing side’s “gunners” (30). In the meantime, other ordinary people not involved in the war all around “the world” (32) “wondered” (32) about the fates of these soldiers.

The atmosphere is saturated with the “battery-smoke” (33) from the guns and cannons. The soldiers manage to break “through the line” (34) of the opposing Russian side, whose...