THE

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT

BRIGADE1

I

HALF a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

1 This poem, rapidly thrown off at the moment, and instantaneously popular, was, we are told, suggested by the phrase "Some one had blundered" in the morning's newspaper.

"On October 25, 1854, a Russian army had pushed forward to cut off communication between the port of Balaclava and the British force before Sebastopol. A charge by the Brigade of Heavy Cavalry drove back a huge mass of Russian horsemen. Lord Cardigan, who com. manded the Brigade of Light Cavalry, received an order vaguely worded to retake some guns captured by the Russians. The order was misunderstood, but the Light Brigade, knowing that it was riding to its destruction, but refusing to set an example of disobedience, charged, not in the direction of the guns, which they were unable to see, but into the very centre of the Russian army... 'It is magnificent,' said a French general, 'but it is not war' "(Gardiner's Short History of England, iii. 946).

The metre may have been unconsciously suggested by Michael Drayton's Ballad of Agincourt, to be found among his Odes, not the long poem called the Battle of Agincourt. The resemblance could hardly have been accidental.

"They now to fight are gone,
Armour on armour shone,
Drum now to drum did groan,
To hear, was wonder;

66

"Forward,1 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

Some one 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.

3

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;

That with [the] cries they make
The very earth did shake,
Trumpet to trumpet spake,
Thunder to thunder.

Well it thine age became,
O noble Erpingham,
Which did the signal aim

To our hid forces;

When from a meadow by,
Like a storm suddenly

The English archery

Stuck the French horses," etc.

1 Forward, etc.] 1st edition read:

66 6 'Charge' was the captain's cry,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's not to make reply,
Their's but to do and die,
Into," etc.

2 Verse 2 not in 1st edition.

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.

4

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd1 in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while

All the world wonder'd:

Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' 2 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.

Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,1
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.

6

When can 2 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 !

1 While horse and hero fell.] This line not in 1st edition. Next lines ran:

"They that had struck so well

Rode thro' the jaws of Death
Half a league back again
Up from the mouth," etc.

2 When can, etc.] This stanza not in 1st edition, which closes as follows:

"Honour the brave and bold,

Long shall the tale be told,
Yes, when our babes are old,
How they rode onward.'