"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of the reign of Queen Victoria in the mid to late 1800s. His poems are notable for very memorable language and he is one of the most quoted poets today.

In "The Charge of the Light Brigade",  Alfred Tennyson uses dactylic meter and repetition to create the imagery of a cavalry charge and to create a mood of impending doom. The poem commemorates one of the worse disasters in modern British military history, where the Light Brigade was slaughtered when it was accidentally ordered to attack Russian cannons in the Crimean war. Thus, the poem laments the error which sent hundreds of men to their deaths. Tennyson's use of dactylic meter creates a rhythm which resembles the thundering of hooves which characterizes most cavalry charges. Furthermore, the rhythm created by the meter serves to force the reader onward, just as the cavalry was forced onward, because it overrides normal stopping points such as lines and punctuation. This, along with the repetition of phrases such as "valley of death" and "half a league", creates a feeling of impending and inevitable doom. It is clear that the soldiers in the charge are doomed, yet just as the reader cannot stop his or her forward progress through the poem the soldiers cannot stop the charge to their deaths. The poet's use of anaphora in the second stanza when he repeats "Theirs not to..." additionally emphasizes the soldier's lack of control over their course towards impending doom. They cannot question or resist their orders, all they can do is carry them out and die, bleeding on the fields of the Crimean peninsula for a pointless war over minor disputes. Tennyson's use of dactylic meter and repetition shows the horror and uncontrollability of war.