The Charge of the Light Brigade — Alfred, Lord Tennyson | Poem Set to Music

🐎 The order was disastrous. The courage was real. Ericorn & The AI Hobbits bring Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” into song: a story of soldiers sent into danger, and a poet determined that they be remembered. 🎧 LISTEN TO THIS TRACK Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/0VzBVl... Apple Music:   / charge-of-the-light-brigade   📜 THE STORY BEHIND THE POEM Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote “The Charge of the Light Brigade” on December 2, 1854, after reports of the Crimean War reached Britain through The Times. The poem appeared in The Examiner on December 9, only weeks after the cavalry charge it commemorated. Tennyson, who had been Poet Laureate since 1850, revised the work for Maud, and Other Poems in 1855 and revised it again afterward. The version we know took more than one draft. The charge occurred at Balaklava on October 25, 1854. Lord Raglan wanted British cavalry to prevent Russian forces from carrying away captured guns, but commanders below him could not see the battlefield as he did. Confusion over which guns he meant sent the Light Brigade toward a heavily defended Russian battery. The horsemen rode under artillery fire from three sides, reached the guns, and then fought their way back. The National Army Museum estimates that approximately 260 of the brigade’s 673 men were killed or wounded. Tennyson’s poem helped make the episode an enduring story of courage and sacrifice, while preserving the fact that command had failed. Its audience included the soldiers themselves: in 1855 he arranged for 1,000 copies to be printed for distribution to troops in the Crimea. The Morgan Library preserves a copy bearing his explanation of that gesture, dated August 8, 1855. 💭 WHAT IT MEANS Tennyson lets us admire the riders while keeping the failure of command in view. The poem charges forward with them, then asks us to look back and honor what they endured. Courage and catastrophe share the same battlefield. 🎶 ABOUT THIS VERSION The setting follows Tennyson’s six stanzas from the first order to the final appeal for remembrance. As the charge gathers momentum, listen for the uneasy space between duty, bravery, and the decisions made by those in command. Which part hits hardest: the charge, the return, or the call to remember? Tell us below, and subscribe for more classic poetry set to music. #ChargeOfTheLightBrigade #Tennyson #PoetryInMusic #MilitaryPoetry