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And ever weaker grows thro' acted crime,

Or seeming-genial venial fault,

Recurring and suggesting still!

He seems as one whose footsteps halt,

Toiling in immeasurable sand,

And o'er a weary sultry land,

Far beneath a blazing vault,

Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill,

The city sparkles like a grain of salt.

THE

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

1.

HALF a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!

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Charge for the guns!" he said:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

168

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"

Was there a man dismay'd?

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Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

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'd in air,

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

All the world wonder'd:

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right thro' 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.

5,

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

169

170

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

Cannon behind them

Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell,

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 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 !

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS

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