Poems & Quotes: Valley of Thunder (The Six Hundred) #tennyson

Over the years I’ve converted some famous Poems and quotes into song. This is the first one. The Charge of the Light Brigade was a disastrous British cavalry attack during the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, part of the Crimean War. Because of confused orders, around 670 cavalrymen charged directly into a valley surrounded by Russian artillery, suffering heavy casualties despite showing remarkable courage. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” commemorates the soldiers and celebrates their bravery, loyalty and sense of duty while also hinting at the terrible mistake that sent them into danger. Through repetition, strong rhythm and phrases such as “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die,” Tennyson recreates the relentless movement of the cavalry charge and presents the soldiers as heroic men who obeyed their orders even when those orders led them towards almost certain death.