Charge of the Light Brigade

Question 1

“valley of death”

Answer 1

Is a biblical allusion to show the horror of what they now face, connotation of hell

Question 2

“six hundred”

Answer 2

repetition to build the tension and prolonging the attack

Question 3

“Theirs”

Answer 3

repetition of “their” and “six hundred” objectifies them as a symbol rather then just men

Question 4

“Cannon”

Answer 4

Cannon links to war and conflict, demonstrates how the odds are against them. Repetition to show the scale of guns against them

Question 5

“jaws of death”

Answer 5

Personifies death, used to exaggerate the futility (pointless/useless) and bravery of the soldiers that they are going to die, but do so boldly

Question 6

“Flashed all their sabres bare”

Answer 6

sabre: swords, the flash is the sun shinning off the metal but also a metaphor for the glory they showed in their bravery which, like a flash, is short

Question 7

“All the world wondered”

Answer 7

Exaggerate (hyperbole) the scale of the mistake

Question 8

“Cossack and Russian”
“Shattered and sundered”

Answer 8

Cossack and Russian, the enemy. Here the poet is showing how the enemy were not equal to the British however were more of them. Consonance to shattered and sundered ‘-ered’ to emphasise devastation

Question 9

“Not the six hundred”

Answer 9

Changes in tone by inserting the word ‘not’ implies the six hundred have mostly died

Question 10

“Valleyed and Thundered”

Answer 10

repetition from before, gives the poem a parallel to mirror the charge, now they are running away