ALFRED TENNYSON

 

 

Alfred Tennyson was born 6 August 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire. His initial education was conducted largely by his clergyman father, Dr. George Clayton Tennyson. The boy showed an early interest and talent in poetic composition, working original poems in a variety of meters. In 1827 Tennyson followed his two older brothers to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his tutor was William Whewell. While there he wrote a spirited blank-verse poem, "Timbuctoo" (1829), for which he received a prize, and published his first book on his own, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830), which includes "Mariana".

In 1831, following the death of his father, Tennyson left Cambridge without taking a degree. The success of his 1842 Poems made Tennyson a popular poet, and in 1845 he received a Civil List (government) pension of £200 a year.

In 1850 he married Emily Sarah Sellwood, whom he had been waiting to marry since 1836. Enormously popular, he was appointed poet laureate of Great Britain the same year, succeeding William Wordsworth in this honour.

By now Tennyson had written some of his greatest poetry, but he continued to write and to gain in popularity. In 1853 Prince Albert paid a visit to the Tennysons. His admiration for Tennyson's poetry helped solidify his position as the national poet, and Tennyson returned the favour by dedicating "The Idylls of the King" to his memory. Queen Victoria later summoned him to court several times, and at her insistence he accepted his title, having declined it when offered by both Disraeli and Gladstone.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson died on 6 October, 1892, at the age of 83. 9)

 

 

 

 

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

I

 

ALF a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

'Forward the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!' he said.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

 

 

 

 

II

 

'Forward the Light Brigade!'

Was there a man dismay'd?

Not tho' the soldier knew

Some one had blunder'd.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

 

III

 

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volley'd and thunder'd;

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.

 

IV

 

Flash'd all their sabres bare,

Flash'd as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

All the world wonder'd.

Plunged into 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.

 

V

 

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

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.

 

 

 

VI

 

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honor the charge they made!

Honor the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred! 4)

 

 

 

 

While Tennyson has been labeled "The Poet of the People," and has enjoyed much success as a writer of "public poetry," his poems are ironically very private. Much of his success may be attributed to his gift for making his poetry appeal to a large audience. This accomplishment is made possible by his extensive use of technique to serve a larger poetic function.

This poem is comprised of six numbered stanzas varying in length from six to twelve lines. Each line is in dimeter, which means it has two stressed syllables; moreover, each stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables, making the rhythm dactylic. The use of "falling" rhythm, in which the stress is on the first beat of each metrical unit, and then "falls off" for the rest of the length of the meter, is appropriate in a poem about the devastating fall of the British brigade. 1)

 

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" is an excellent example how Tennyson uses a structural technique to serve a larger poetic function. The structure of the entire poem is indeed essential to its theme. Like the story to which it refers, the poem has a definite beginning, middle and end. The beginning, consisting of stanzas 1 and 2, corresponds to the order (lines 5 and 6: "Forward the Light Brigade! / Charge for the guns!"), and the advancement of the brigade. The middle, consisting of stanzas 3 and 4, is characterized by the clashing of the brigade and the artillery, and the consequent slaying of the soldiers. The end, consisting of stanzas 5 and 6, is characterized by the retreat of the remaining soldiers, and the narrator's reflection, respectively. However, while this division of the stanzas appears balanced at a glance, Tennyson actually structures the entire poem asymmetrically, like a lopsided sea-saw. Using this analogy, stanza 4 serves as the balance point, separating stanzas 3 and 5, which use parallelism to give a "before-and-after" effect. Stanza 5 begins the same way as does stanza 3: "Cannon to right of them / Cannon to left of them." However, Tennyson changes "Cannon in front of them" (line 20) to "Cannon behind them" (line 41) because the brigade is retreating. Similarly, "Into the jaws of Death / Into the mouth of hell" (lines 24-25) becomes "Came through the jaws of Death / Back from the mouth of hell" (lines 46-47). Appropriately, only two stanzas follow stanza 4, or turning point, whereas three stanzas precede it. Therefore, the former part of the poem is "heavier" than the latter just as there are more men in the brigade before the charge than there are after it. Stanza 6 is the shortest in the poem, and the abruptness with which it ends represents the abruptness of the ending of the men's lives. 2)

Tennyson uses repetition of the last line of each stanza to help narrate the progression of events. While stanzas 1-3 conclude with "Rode the six hundred," the "turning point stanza" concludes with "Not the six hundred," stanza 5 concludes with "Left of the six hundred," and stanza 6 concludes with "Noble six hundred." Tennyson's use of repetition and variation is so effective that the outline of the story can be ascertained by reading only the last line of each stanza. He also uses alliteration to heighten the climax of action in stanzas 4 and 5. Lines such as "Reeled from the saber stroke / Shattered and sundered" (35-36) and "Stormed at with shot and shell / While horse and hero fell" (43-44)" intensify the action while the insistent-sounding meter gives the poem a military-sounding tone.

Tennyson uses the false rhyme between "blundered," "thundered," "sundered," "wondered" and "hundred" to represent what the Norton calls a "confusion of orders" (1280). In other words, the blunder in rhyme represents the historical blunder, or the call to charge. However, the poem does not criticize the one who is responsible for the blunder ("he" in line 6 and "someone" in line 12). On the contrary, it commemorates those soldiers who bravely followed their orders. There is no evidence to support the claim that Tennyson does not truly want the reader to "Honor the charge they made" (line 1281). "Noble six hundred" in the final line of the poem is genuine, and completely devoid of sarcasm. 3)

"In Memoriam A. H. H.," unlike "The Charge of the Light Brigade," is often inconsistent in tone because it is what T. S. Eliot called a "concentrated diary of a man confessing himself" (Norton 1230). However, while it is in many ways an episodic poem, it, too, has an element of structure that enhances its theme. The poem reflects the change in Tennyson's own feelings about Hallam's death from guilt and withdrawal to acceptance of grief. Stanzas 7 and 119 serve as markers for this notable change in emotion. In the same way that Tennyson uses parallelism and variation in stanzas 3 and 5 of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" to show that something has changed, he echoes some parts of #7 in # 119 of "In Memoriam" while varying others to show that he has come to terms with his grief. 5)

#7 begins with "Dark house," creating a mood that is immediately melancholic, while #119 begins with "Doors," which is not so bleak. The word "door" may even suggest openness, and may hold promise for a more positive tone. In #7, the proximity of the words "a hand" at the end of the first stanza and at the beginning of the second stanza conjures the image of Tennyson failing in an attempt to reach out to touch Hallam's hand, serving the larger purpose of illustrating how Tennyson cannot yet come to terms with his grief. In #119, however, the word "hand" appears in the last line: "I take the pressure of thine hand," which he could not do before, in #7. The second stanza of #7 begins, "A hand that can be clasped no more," while the second stanza of #119 begins, "I hear the chirp of birds." This latter sentence is a cue to the reader that Tennyson has made progress in handling his grief; in #7 the "noise of life begins again" (line 10), implying that it has stopped, while in #119 he can hear beautiful sounds again, like the "chirp of birds." Tennyson also uses colors in #119 in addition to sounds to illustrate how he has regained his sense of reality. In lines 5-7 he writes, "I see / Betwixt the black fronts long-withdrawn / A light blue lane of early dawn," using the contrast of black and a light color to represent hope shedding light over grief. 6)

Also characteristic of "In Memoriam" is Tennyson's ability to say one thing and mean another. One of the ways in which he accomplishes this is by repeating a particular word or series of words, as in #11. While Tennyson repeats the word "calm" in every stanza, there is nothing truly calm about the poem. Tennyson imposes calmness on things that are not at all calm, such as "waves that sway themselves" (line 18). In line 16, the phrase "a calm despair" undermines the meaning of "calm," since despair is not something that cannot really be "calm." The effect is to give the impression that Tennyson is only trying to make himself calm, or drown his grief in a false sense of tranquility. This is further enhanced by the poem's steady rhythm; it exhibits an almost Neo-Classical element of control juxtaposed with something that is incapable of being controlled.

Tennyson uses a similar technique of saying one thing and meaning another in #28. In line 11, he uses the rhetorical device known as chiasmus to accomplish such an effect: "Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace." Not only does Tennyson use the repetition and inversion of word order to sound like the ringing and echoing of the Christmas bells, but by repeating them he makes the words seem hollow and meaningless. The same is true of "The merry, merry bells of Yule" (line 20), which may be read in an ironic sense. The reader must consider Tennyson's choice of the word "merry": merriment implies transience whereas happiness implies permanence. There is a hollow sound in the assonance of "the merry merry bells," just like hollow sound of "Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace."

While Tennyson makes extensive use of literary techniques to serve a larger poetic function, he is still conscious of the fact that words alone cannot fully express human emotion. In #5 of "In Memoriam" he says, "wordshalf reveal and half conceal the Soul within" (lines 3-4). Thus, while words are the only means he has to express himself, they can only provide an "outline and no more" (line 12). Underlying Tennyson's use of rhyme, structure and other techniques is his own self-consciousness as a poet and a realization of the fallacy of language to express emotion. 7)

This poem is effective largely because of the way it conveys the movement and sound of the charge via a strong, repetitive falling meter: "Half a league, half a league / Half a league onward." The plodding pace of the repetitions seems to subsume all individual impulsiveness in ponderous collective action. The poem does not speak of individual troops but rather of "the six hundred" and then "all that was left of them." Even Lord Raglan, who played such an important role in the battle, is only vaguely referred to in the line "someone had blundered." Interestingly, Tennyson omitted this critical and somewhat subversive line in the 1855 version of this poem, but the writer John Ruskin later convinced him to restore it for the sake of the poem's artistry. Although it underwent several revisions following its initial publication in 1854, the poem as it stands today is a moving tribute to courage and heroism in the face of devastating defeat.

 

Tennyson’s use of literary devices to paint a mental picture of a heroic charge and the insight he gives the reader into the minds of the valiant men who made it make his “Charge of the Light Brigade” a powerful poem. It is a fitting tribute to the soldiers who fought the war that elicited the world’s highest military honour: the Victoria Cross. 8)

 

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

 

The “Charge of the Light Brigade” happened on October 25, 1854 during the Crimean War with the British fighting the Russians. The disaster happened for the same reason a lot of businesses fail: bad communication brought upon by a lethal collection of inflated egos.

In an act that appeared to be of unfathomable stupidity the British Lieutenant-General the Earl of Cardigan ordered his light brigade to attack the Russian artillery positions (the “light” was because they were lightly armed, as opposed to the “heavy brigade”). Success was impossible. The charge was through a narrow valley a mile and a quarter long. Russian guns were at the end of the valley and gunners were on both sides, forming a death box. In fact some of Cardigan’s men did manage to get through to the guns, but were then surrounded by the Russian troops. When they turned to retreat they were easy targets. The whole thing took about 20 minutes and cost about a third of his force. And of course there is the Tennyson poem to remind everybody about it forever .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1)   http://www.poetry-archive.com/t/the_charge_of_the_light_brigade.html

2)   http://www.geocities.com/sir_john_eh/lightbrigade.html

3)   http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/section9.rhtm

4)   l http://home.att.net/~tennysonpoetry/clb.htm

5)   http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/355.html

6)   http://parconresearch.com/corpcraft/light_brigade.htm

7)   http://incompetech.com/authors/tennyson/

8)   http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=426

9)   http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/tennybio.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mª LLANOS GARCIA MARTÍNEZ