The Charge of the Light Brigade Flashcards
by Sir Alfred Tennyson
1
Q
Name two key ideas
A
- effects of conflict
- reality of war
- pride and honour
2
Q
Explain two pieces of context
A
- Tennyson was a Victorian poet who was awarded poet laureate meaning he had a duty to glorify war and British conquests to the public
- His poems reflected social + political dynamics of the time - zeitgeist
- Tennyson was a vocal supporter of the Crimean war
3
Q
What is the poets message
A
- Patriotic sacrifices should be celebrated
- Even if it shall lead to your demise, have pride and be determined to die for your cause
4
Q
What poems can it be compared to
A
- Bayonet charge
- Kamikaze
- Remains
5
Q
What are the structural features
A
- Ballad = commemorate and memorialise the soldiers
- Dactylic Dimeter = mirror unrelenting rhythm of the cavalry
- Irregular/Inconsistent rhyme = chaos, disorganised battlefield
- Refrain = reinforces the bravery and the determination of the soldiers sacrifice
- Enjambment = shows their determination and loyalty
6
Q
Half a league, half a league, half a league onward
A
- repetition
- media res
7
Q
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred
A
- Biblical allusions (Psalm 23:4)
8
Q
Was there a many dismay’d?
A
- rhetoric
9
Q
Someone had blunder’d
A
- foreshadowing
10
Q
Theirs not to make reply
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die
A
- anaphora
11
Q
Cannon to right of them
Cannon to left of them
Cannon in front of them
A
- anaphora
12
Q
volley’d and thunder’d
storm’d with shot and shell
A
- onomatopoeia
- sibilance
13
Q
jaws of Death … mouth of Hell
A
- semantic field
14
Q
Flash’d their sabres bare
Flash’d as they turn’d in air
A
- anaphora
- zoomorphism
15
Q
plunged in the battery-smoke
A
- symbolism
