Programme 1

The Charge of the Light Brigade

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

What Tennyson described as his ‘newspaper verse’ were poems he composed, often rather hastily, in response to topical press reports. Exceptionally, one such poem became one of the nineteenth century’s most popular and enduring works.

‘The Charge of The Light Brigade’ was composed after reading an account in ‘The Times’ (December, 1854) of a suicidal British cavalry charge at Balaclava during the Crimean War. The event also prompted the famous observation by France’s Marshall Bosquet, ‘It is magnificent but it is not war’.

Tennyson’s great patriotic tribute ‘honouring bravery in the face of infuriating stupidity’ (Michael Donaghy) turns ‘the wonder of bafflement into the wonder of awe’, (Clare Pollard). Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, also contributes to the programme.

The poem’s memorable dramatic rhythm – which effectively magnifies both the danger and the courage – arises from repetition of the rarely-used 3-foot dactylic metre:

/	\	/	\	\
Their's	not	to	make	re-	ply
/	\	\	/	\	\
Their's	not	to	reas-	on	why
/	\	\	/	\	\
Their's	but	to	do	and	die