The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade”
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!’ he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;

Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash’d all their sabres bare,
Flash’d as they turn’d in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder’d:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre-stroke
Shatter’d and sunder’d.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade ?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!


Explication
The poem tells the story of a brigade of 600 cavalry soldiers who rode into the “valley of death.” They were given a command to charge the enemy forces which outnumbered them greatly.
The soldiers rode on courageously despite realizing that their commander made a terrible mistake. They were neither discouraged nor distressed, as it was a soldier’s job to follow orders. The horsemen faced cannon fire all around, but still reached the enemy lines and slashed at the gunners. The rest of the world looked on in wonder as the cavalry beat back their opponents, and began to ride back.
Cannons still fired at them, and most of the soldiers died. The world marvelled at the courage of the soldiers; indeed, their glory is undying: the poem states these noble 600 men remain worthy of honor and tribute today.

The poem is separated into six stanzas, each varying in length from six to twelve lines. Each line is in dimeter, which means it has two stressed syllables; moreover, each stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables, making the rhythm dactylic. The rhyme scheme varies with each stanza. Often, Tennyson uses the same rhyme (and occasionally even the same final word) for several consecutive lines: “Flashed all their sabres bare / Flashed as they turned in air / Sab’ring the gunners there.” Lastly, the use of repetition with the lines “Cannon to the…” creates a sense that the soldiers are completing an impossible deed.

This poem is comprised of six numbered stanzas varying in length from six to twelve lines. The use of “falling” rhythm, in which the stress is on the first beat of each metrical unit, and then “falls off” for the rest of the length of the meter, is appropriate in a poem about the devastating fall of the British brigade.
The poem also makes use of anaphora, in which the same word is repeated at the beginning of several consecutive lines: “Cannon to right of them / Cannon to left of them / Cannon in front of them.” Here the method creates a sense of unrelenting assault; at each line our eyes meet the word “cannon,” just as the soldiers meet their flying shells at each turn.

Nameless

By Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Norfolk sprang thee, Lambeth holds thee dead,
Clere of the County of Cleremont though hight;
Within the womb of Ormond’s race thou bred,
And saw’st thy cousin crowned in thy sight.
Shelton for love, Surrey for Lord thou chase:
Ay me, while life did last that league was tender;
Tracing whose steps thou saw’st Kelsal blaze,
Laundersey burnt, and battered Bullen render.
At Muttrell gates, hopeless of all recure,
Thine Earl half dead gave 1in thy hand his Will;
Which cause did thee this pining death procure,
Ere summers four times seven thou couldn’st fulfil.
Ah Clere, if loved had booted, care, or cost,
Heaven had not won, nor Earth so timely lost.


This poem is a Shakespearean Sonnet. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Thomas Clere, his squire and companion, fought together in expeditions to Kelsal in Scotland, Landrecy in the Netherlands, and Boulogne in France. At the siege of Montreuil, on 19 September 1544, Clere received wounds while protecting Surrey, from which he died the following spring. He was buried at Lambeth, in the chapel assigned to the Howards.
This Shakespearean Sonnet has the defining rhyming couplet at the end. The poems employs alliteration heavily, such as in line 2 with the hard “c” sound (Clere, County, and Cleremont) and then again in line 6 with a hard “l” sound (life, last, and league). There is also consonance of the “s” sound in line 7 and line 12. As the Earl participated in the battle, he uses lots of allusions to the specific people and places that were related to the events.
The poem is describing what led to Clere’s death during a medieval siege, which is strongly related to the theme of war.

Winter Blossom - Original

Winter Blossom
Crimson battlefield,
Silent snow falls on the dead.
Peace for the living.

Explication:
This is an original poem written in a haiku form, with a standard 5-7-5-syllable format. A haiku usually involves a theme of a season, so this poem describes the aftermath of a battle scene in the middle of winter. The pure white landscape is stained with the red of blood. However, with an end to the war, peace is restored, so the war is not in vain.
I tried to use some literary devices in the poem, though it is difficult to fit much in such a short poem. Alliteration of the sound “s” is used in the line “silent snow.” This is also a personification of snow. A haiku stresses on imagery, so the words selected are meant to appeal to the senses, such as “crimson” and “silent.”
This poem fits the theme of war as a calm and still snapshot of war.

Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries
By Hugh MacDiarmid

It is a God-damned lie to say that these
Saved, or knew, anything worth a man's pride.
They were professional murderers and they took
Their blood money and impious risks and died.
In spite of all their kind some elements of worth
With difficulty persist here and there on earth.


This is an epitaph about mercenaries. The poem condemns the trade of a mercenary, as the author believes mercenaries lack all sense of decency and righteousness. The life stories of these “professional murderers” are only about money and death. However, at the end, the author does offer a sense of optimism, as there is still good in the world.
This poem is a fairly literal piece. It is a syllabic verse, with 10 syllables in each of the first two lines and 12 syllables in each of the last four lines. Line 2 and 4 rhyme, and last two lines rhyme. “Blood money” is a metaphoric description of the unrighteous way mercenaries earn a living. Lastly, the words that the author chose are very charged, such as “murderers” and “impious”, to highlight the malevolence of mercenaries.

The Concord Hymn

The Concord Hymn
Ralph Waldo Emerson
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We place with joy a votive stone,
That memory may their deeds redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free, --
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raised to them and Thee.


Explication:
This poem is a hymn for the dedication of the Obelisk, a battle monument in Concord, Massachusetts that commemorated the Battle of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775), the first battle of the American Revolution. In 1837, the hymn was sung to the tune "Old Hundredth" during Concord's 4th of July celebration. The poem tells the story of the farmers who had to take up arms to fight against the enemy in a battle that would change the world. A long time has passed since that battle (even the bridge is now gone), and the great enemy is now no more. To remember those brave soldiers, a monument is set. Lastly, a prayer is made in hopes that the monument will be forever preserved, so that it can preserve the memories of past deeds.
The hymn is written as quatrains in iambic tetrameter (8 syllables per line), and has rhymes on alternating lines. The poem has many literary devices throughout. Firstly, the whole poem is an allusion to the American Revolution, and the specific battle at Concord. Next, “rude bridge” is an example of personification. The use of alliteration is present, such as in lines 5 and 6 with the “s” sound in “silence slept” and “silent sleeps”. There is also use of assonance, such as line 11’s “deeds redeem” repetition of the “ee” sound. In line 8, the author switches the order of the words “seaward” and “creeps” to fit the rhyme scheme. Lastly, the 4th stanza has an apostrophe, as the author is calling out to an invisible entity that guided the soldiers to carry out such great and selfless deeds.