The Charge of the Light Brigade

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Mervin Anthony Dale ENC1101-02 Mr. Baker 31 September 2013 MLA Style The Charge of the Light Brigade Thesis Statement: The Purpose of Tennyson writing of The Charge of the Light Brigade is to help the survivors of this failed military endeavor avoid the disdain of the British public that soldiers returning from defeat often face. The Charge of the Light Brigade The Charge of the Light Brigade was written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in response to a disastrous charge by the light British cavalry. The brigade was given orders to attack a retreating Russian artillery unit, which they were well suited for, but do to a miscommunication they instead attacked a well-armed Russian position. According to the Eyewitness to History website, one eyewitness to the charge, a French Marshall said: "It is magnificent, but it is not war. It is madness." The Russian position they attacked was at the end of a one mile long valley with twenty battalions of infantry and three artillery positions, one on the west side, one on the east side, and one on the north side. All of the Russians and the Cossacks had excellent lines of sight. The charge was nothing less than suicide and the men of the British Light Brigade knew that it was certain death to follow their orders but follow them, they must and follow them, they did. Their blind obedience which Tennyson counts as valor condemned many of them to an early grave. Tennyson writes of the “Charge” to help the survivors of this failed military endeavor avoid the disdain of the British public that soldiers returning from defeat often face. Tennyson begins his poem by invoking the feelings of sadness and dread in the readers. He does this by reminding them of the fact that all the men of the Light Brigade had faced Death, not just the ones that perished. By using a lowercase “v” for valley and an
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