Lots of six-syllable lines in there, and some sevens. I don’t think you notice the lack of neatness when you are reading it, but it’s not quite so neat as you’d expect.įirst the syllables. You’ll not notice yourself tripping over words.īut when you get down into the mechanics of those techniques, it’s not always so neat. The line breaks, the rhythm, the rhyme and the metre all make the poem very easy to read aloud. It reads like a poem designed for performance, not a poem designed to be constrained by the page. We’ll explore more about that later, but it’s a poem that’s very easy to read aloud. Then there’s also the way it reads, the way Tennyson has used rhythm. So I can wonder to myself if he’s just used the number of lines that felt natural to use, or whether there’s a kind of sense of build up to something in the fourth and fifth stanzas. There’s no real regularity, is there? 8 lines, 9 lines… then 9, 12, 11 and 6. I’ll do my usual as well: bit of feature spotting, which is all very well, but not worth very much, and a bit of commentary on the writer’s purpose as well as the effect on the reader.įirstly, the stanzas. I’ll be looking at how he uses these three techniques to give a really rollicking rhythm to the poem, and why he does that. One thing I know about Tennyson is that he loves rhyme, rhythm and metre. So how do I apply this to “The Charge of the Light Brigade”? Structure is the arrangement and sequence of the ideas, as well as some other aspects. This explores how the ideas are organised and sequenced, viewpoint/perspective (third person? First person?) TiP ToP – Time Place Topic Person – shifts? Shift in time? Place? Why are the ideas in this order? External actions (happenings) vs internal thoughts? Circular structure? Beginning, middle, end? How does the title weave through the poem? Does the ending link back or develop from the opening? Why does it look the way it does? What decisions has the poet made about what he has put on one line and what on another? Why this form? Structure ) phrase splits and the way the words fall on each line, which ideas are linked within the line or stanza and which are separate, caesura, enjambment.įorm is what makes it a poem and not prose. How it’s set out on the page line length, syllables, rhythm (metre) rhyme, what words are on what line, number of lines, sonnet, couplets, three lines, quatrains, regularity of the number of lines in a verse/stanza, capitals (or lack of) main punctuation at the end of lines or stanzas (. I have a kind of loose framework of things I might want to think about: Form Some of you may be wondering what I have in my head when I come to a poem to think about the form and structure. This post will look in more detail at the form and structure of the poem to help you write about it in any exam. The poem was one of the first real-time responses to war reportage in the newspapers, written in Tennyson’s role as Poet Laureate. In the last stanza, the speaker urges the British public to honor these soldiers, both the fallen and the survivors, as “noble” (Line 55).In last week’s post, I looked at the context behind Tennyson’s poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” in AQA’s GCSE English Literature poetry anthology, “Power and Conflict”.
As they retreat, more casualties occur as men and horses die. While this is effective, there are heavy casualties, and the men who survive are “not the six hundred” (Line 38). Despite the hellish surrounding, the men ”flas all their sabres bare” (Line 27) and strike to break through the “Russian” (Line 34) defenses. Surrounded by cannon launchers and gunners who fire at them, they perform bravely and with skill. As trained soldiers, they do not question the instructions of the commander, continuing into battle despite facing certain death. Even though “someone had blundered” (Line 15) and miscommunicated the command, specifically the location of the guns, the men don’t know it. They are told by their commander to go “forward” (Line 5) and “charge for the guns” (Line 6), even though they are the “light” brigade and this is an unusual order for heavy duty. As cavalry members, the men ride on horses and are armed with “sabres” (Line 27). The number of the brigade is listed as 600. It begins as the Light Brigade charges into the valley of the Ukrainian peninsula. The poem recounts the historic event of the Battle at Balaclava in the Crimean War (1853-1856).
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