91�ȱ�

Tennyson's job as poet laureate was to capture the public mood. The Charge of the Light Brigade is an emotive poem which both praises and laments the action of the battle.

During the Crimean War the idea of the heroic and brave British soldier emerged, whose moral duty was to fight for justice.

Previously military heroes were gentleman of the upper classes. But the heroes who returned from Crimea were the common, ordinary men who fought for their country.

Their actions were recognised for the first time in 1857, when Queen Victoria awarded the Victoria Cross to gallant servicemen regardless of class or rank.

Tennyson communicates disgust at the treatment of the men, "Someone had blundered" in the decision to attack. However, the poem also presents the view that taking orders and serving one's country is honourable, “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”.

The final stanza seems to show some delight at what they did, "O the wild charge they made!"

The poem ends with a command to the reader to remember the men and "Honour the charge they made!"

It could be argued therefore that Tennyson is more concerned with creating national heroes for a nation rather than mourning the dead soldiers or arguing against the war, “Honour the charge they made,/ Honour the Light Brigade,/ Noble six hundred!”