| The Charge of the Light Brigade | |
|---|---|
 Richard Caton Woodville Jr.'s 1894 painting of the eponymous Charge of the Light Brigade, the event that inspired the poem | |
| Written | 2 December 1854 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publication date | 9 December 1854 |
| Metre | Dactylic metre |
| Full text | |
 The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson) atWikisource | |
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" is an 1854narrative poem byAlfred, Lord Tennyson about thecavalry charge of the same name at theBattle of Balaclava during theCrimean War. He wrote the original version on 2 December 1854, and it was published on 9 December 1854 inThe Examiner. He was thePoet Laureate of the United Kingdom at the time. The poem was subsequently revised and expanded for inclusion inMaud and Other Poems (1855).
During 1854, when the United Kingdom was engaged in theCrimean War, Tennyson wrote several patriotic poems under various pseudonyms. Scholars speculate that Tennyson created his pen names because these verses used a traditional structure Tennyson employed in his earlier career but suppressed during the 1840s,[1] worrying that poems like "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (which he initially signed only A.T.) "might prove not to be decorous for a poet laureate".[2]
The poem was written after theLight Cavalry Brigade suffered great casualties in theBattle of Balaclava. Tennyson wrote the poem based on two articles published inThe Times: the first, published on 13 November 1854, contained the sentence "The British soldier will do his duty, even to certain death, and is not paralyzed by the feeling that he is the victim of some hideous blunder," the last three words of which provided the inspiration for his phrase "Some one had blunder'd."[3] The poem was written in a few minutes on 2 December of the same year, based on a recollection ofThe Times's account;[4] Tennyson wrote other similar poems, like "Riflemen Form!", in a very similar manner.[5]
Tennyson made revisions to the poem due to criticisms by the American poetFrederick Goddard Tuckerman and others;[6] these were published in Tennyson's volumeMaud and Other Poems (1855). These changes were criticized by several, including both Tennyson and Tuckerman.[citation needed]
At the suggestion ofJane, Lady Franklin, Tennyson sent a thousand copies of a single-sheet version of the poem to be distributed among soldiers in the Crimea.[7] For this he rethought the revisions inMaud and Other Poems, and this rethought version was used for the second edition ofMaud, in 1856.[8]
Tennyson recited this poem onto awax cylinder in 1890.
Rudyard Kipling wrote "The Last of the Light Brigade" (1891) some 40 years after the appearance of "The Charge of the Light Brigade". His poem focuses on the terrible hardships faced in old age by veterans of theCrimean War, as exemplified by the cavalry men of the Light Brigade. Its purpose was to shame the British public into offering financial assistance.[9][page needed]
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