Language
Rhythm
The rhythm of the opening lines, “Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward,” creates a relentless beat which is continued throughout the poem.
This rhythm echoes the sound and pace of the horses’ hooves whilst reflecting the Light Brigade’s gallop into battle on horseback.
Tennyson uses a ‘falling rhythm’. This means that the stress is on the first beat of each metrical unit, and then weakens for the rest of the length of the meter.
The use of falling rhythm is appropriate as The Charge of the Light Brigade focuses on the devastating fall of the army in this particular battle.
Repetition
Tennyson's heavy use of repetition also communicates the relentlessness of the charge, and the danger all around.
Anaphora
The poem also makes use of ‘anaphora’.
This means the same word is repeated at the beginning of several consecutive lines, “Cannon to the right of them, / Cannon to the left of them, / Cannon in front of them".
Here the method creates a sense of unrelenting assault. At each line our eyes meet the word “cannon,” just as the soldiers meet their flying shells at each turn.
Personification
These dangers are presented as being unavoidable - and death inevitable - with the use of personificationGiving human characteristics to something non-human., "Into the jaws of Death, / Into the mouth of Hell".
Militaristic language
The language of the poem is understandably militaristic – it bristles with guns, soldiers, cannon and sabres. However, the power of the poem comes from the careful use of imagery and sound effects.
Biblical language
The strong central image of the "valley of Death" refers to a poem in the Bible - Psalm 23 - about the “valley of the shadow of death”. By using this biblical allusionA quick reference - often to an image, character or place - from a work of literature or music or mythology. - which would have been very familiar to his audience - Tennyson elevates the event to great importance.
Alliteration
Tennyson's use of alliterationWhen a series of words in a row - or close together - begin with the same sound. creates a visceralTo evoke deep and powerful emotion, to really feel something. effect. For example, in "Storm'd at with shot and shell" the use of sibilanceProducing a hissing sound like that of 's' or 'sh'. reflects the viciousness of the attack.
Rhetorical questions
He also uses a rhetoricalA question asked just for effect with no answer expected. question at the beginning of the final stanzaA grouped set of lines within a poem., "When can their glory fade?" After the five previous stanzas the answer to this question is clear - their glory should not fade because their sacrifice is symbolic of all those who lay down their lives for their country.
Action
There’s a great deal of action and energy in the poem, but no detail of the blood, guts, terror and screams of the battlefield.
This is illustrated in these lines - which offer a glorious rather than a graphic description - “Flash’d all their sabres bare, / Flash’d as they turn’d in air, / Sabring the gunners there”.
Adjectives
Tennyson doesn’t use overly extravagant adjectives to describe the soldiers. He writes that they rode “boldly” and he uses the word “well” twice to describe how they fought, which is a very plain, restrained adjective.
Perhaps this is to increase the impact of his highest praise, which he saves for the end of the poem, when he calls them the “Noble six hundred”.
