The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem)
The Charge of the Light Brigade ( English "The attack of the light brigade" or "The death ride of the light brigade") is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson .
background
The poem described an attack by British cavalrymen at the Battle of Balaklava . She gained notoriety for the brigade's great losses and the circumstances that led to the attack. The Battle of Balaklava took place in the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and the Allies (British, French, Ottoman Empire) on October 25, 1854.
text
Half 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.
" Forward, the Light Brigade! "
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho 'the soldier knew
Someone 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.
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.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash ' d as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro 'the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the saber stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot an d 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.
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.
Transfers into German
The best-known adaptation in German-speaking countries is by Theodor Fontane and bears the title Balaklawa .
literature
- Jason Camlot: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854) . In: Victorian Review 35: 1, 2009, pp. 27-32.
- Helen Chambers: Fontane's Translation of The Charge of the Light Brigade . In: Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 22: 1, 1992, pp. 83-104.
- Jerome J. McGann: Tennyson and the Histories of Criticism . In: Jerome J. McGann: The Beauty of Inflections: Literary Investigations in Historical Method and Theory . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1988, ISBN 9780198117506 , pp. 173-203.
- Helen Groth: Technological Mediations and the Public Sphere: Roger Fenton's Crimea Exhibition and The Charge of the Light Brigade . In: Victorian Literature and Culture 30: 2, 2002, pp. 553-570.
- Peter Krahé: Rhetoric, History and Patriotism: Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade . In: Journal for English and American Studies 46: 2, 1998, pp. 114–124.
- Stefanie Markovits: Giving Voice to the Crimean War: Tennyson's Charge and Maud's Battle-song . In: Victorian Poetry 47: 3, 2009, pp. 481-503.
- Trudi Tate: On Not Knowing Why: Memorializing the Light Brigade . In: Helen Small and Trudi Tate (eds.): Literature, Science, Psychoanalysis, 1830–1970: Essays in Honor of Gillian Beer . Oxford University Press, New York 2003, pp. 160-180.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Balaklava. The German Poetry Library, accessed on September 25, 2014 .