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Immortalizing War in Tennyson's "The Charge of The Light Brigade"

Matthew and Todd

TENNYSON
TENNYSON
William Holman Hunt
As any first-year English student will eagerly tell you, one of poetry’s most important functions is its ability to evoke an emotional response. In this respect, Lord Alfred Tennyson’s "The Charge of the Light Brigade"@ is a shining example. The poem is a well-known British classic, powerful in its imagery and structure, but necessarily so due to the social climate—a time of conflict—in which it was introduced.

The Crimean War, fought from 1853-1856@, involved both British and French military forces fighting against Russian expansionism for control of the Ottoman Empire. According to historian John R. Reed, the conflict marked the beginning of modern war correspondence, thanks to first-hand accounts and photographic images from the battlefield that were quickly published in weekly newspapers and periodicals. New inventions, such as the telegraph and railroad, helped accelerate the typical news cycle, bringing far away news to readers in a matter of days or weeks—not months.@

In fact, it is exactly these accounts that prompted Lord Alfred Tennyson, as Poet Laureate for the United Kingdom (from 1850-1892)@, to pen one of the most famous retellings of British involvement in the Crimean War to date. Responding to a newspaper account of the Battle of Balaclava—in which a misunderstood order, carried out bravely but foolishly, leads to glory for British troops—Tennyson published his poem, The Charge of The Light Brigade, in London's Examiner on December 9, 1854@.

However, the "unprecedented" level of media coverage also increased awareness of the perceived government blunder, so much so that it was credited as the reason the Aberdeen Ministry was voted out in the next election.@ In fact, the Crimean War was so notoriously unpopular with British citizens for the duration of the campaign that many treated news of the conflict—including Tennyson’s poem—with contempt.

Nevertheless, the effect of Tennyson’s poem was simple: it mythologized the event as an example of British bravery, heroism and bravado at a time when the war was largely unpopular with the country’s citizens. This effect, however, was not achieved by Tennyson’s written work alone. While Tennyson’s poem may have immortalized the atrocities of war and British heroism, the events as heard through the filter of the author’s voice—recorded on wax cylinder in 1890@, almost forty years after the poem’s initial publication—give listeners a markedly different perspective.

Immortalizing War in Tennyson's "The Charge of The Light Brigade"

Matthew and Todd

Working as the United Kingdom’s Poet Laureate placed Lord Tennyson in a difficult position; he was under the employ of the government, and would have risked losing his title had he written on any state event in an unfavourable manner. Thus, Tennyson settled on creating a heroic recount of the battle, to capitalize upon the patriotism of his readers—as well as to commemorate one of the biggest follies of the Crimean War. Evidence of this is in the poem itself. The final stanza reads:

Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred! (ll. 53-55)
Picture
Charge of the Heavy Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava 25th October 1854
Felix Philippoteaux
Here, Tennyson uses repetition to emphasize the goals of his poem. In these final lines, Tennyson clearly wished to encapsulate the emotions he believed present during the "Charge". The stanza as quoted reads that we should honour the actions of the Light Brigade, which leads to the honouring of the Brigade itself for possessing the qualities that make them the "noble six hundred". Line 50 of the poem, the first line of the final stanza, reads "When can their glory fade?" not only catapulting the actions of the Brigade into the realm of the "glorious," but also invoking the idea that their heroic deeds will be remembered for eternity, never fading. This first stanza also makes the first mention of the valley as being the “valley of Death”. This is a fantastic use of foreshadowing, allowing the reader to consider the actions of the Brigade knowing they faced certain defeat.
But as the poem glorifies the actions of the Light Brigade, how accurate is the retelling when compared with historical facts? The matter is especially delicate as the poem was written little more than a month after the actual battle took place. The answer is that Tennyson’s work is surprisingly accurate. While the poem is not too intricate or full of detail, the account of the battle and the actions of the Light Brigade are correct—albeit romanticized to a degree. As the Crimean War was one of the first to be covered extensively by the media, aided by new and faster communications technologies, stories travelled quickly back to Britain. Combined with the fact that a so-called “gallery” of onlookers positioned up-land observed the Battle of Balaclava, this provided the media—and by extension Tennyson—with a detailed recounting of events.@
Picture
Map to Charge of the Light Brigade
Victorian Web
The iconic "Half a league onwards!" that Tennyson opens his poem with, is the first time we realize the accuracy of his writing. The measurement of a league varies wildly, owing to a league being defined as the distance a person or horse could walk in an hour. However, a league is generally known to be about three miles. The charge of the Light Brigade was approximately a mile and a half long through the valley, consistent with Tennyson's battle cry.

Furthermore, details of the events leading up to the charge itself also appear to be accurate. The sixth line of the first stanza reads “Charge for the guns’ he said,” alluding to the order given by army commander Lord Raglan that was infamously vague, and hence, misconstrued. Though the order to charge was incredibly puzzling and without much detail, the Light Brigade charged forwards.@ Tennyson recreated this situation with the repetitious lines:

Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death (ll. 13-16)

Tennyson masterfully crafted these lines, using repetition to enforce the idea that their actions were their duty, regardless of the outcome. Their obedience to their superiors is here made noble—an unquestionable faith in their superior officers in the British Army.
The stanza that immediately follows alludes to the situation the Brigade faced when first entering the valley. Again, Tennyson makes use of repetition to make a point. Here, he repeats the positions of the cannons used against the brigade in quick order to provide the reader a sense of the situation. By repeating the word “cannon”, the reader is forced to face the sense of ambush—of being boxed in—that the Brigade felt when charging. Tennyson also makes use of powerful imagery, describing the cannon fire as “volley’d and thunder’d,” mentioning also that the Brigade was “storm’d at with shot and shell,” and relating the cannon fire to that of an oppressive thunderstorm.

This section of the third stanza is repeated at the beginning of the fifth stanza, nearing the end of the poem, reminding the reader of the brutal conditions with which the Brigade is faced. The fifth stanza is also the final stanza recounting the actions of the Light Brigade. Here is the first mention that the Light Brigade had incurred heavy losses, though the losses had been steady since the beginning of the battle.@ This evokes in the reader the idea that the Light Brigade was triumphant and brave until they were finally overcome.

The final and arguably most important aspect of Tennyson’s poem is the end of each stanza, which references the “six hundred”. In poetry, the reader can easily get sucked into the situation being described to them; however with each stanza ending with a reminder of who the poem is about, the reader is forced to stay on track, remembering that the poem is entirely about the men and not the events. In this way, Tennyson’s motive remains entirely clear, and the men of the Light Brigade are immortalized through their actions, rather than their actions becoming immortalized instead. That is what makes Tennyson’s poem bold and brave; it is a memorial to the heroes lost on the battlefield, and who died admirably in the face of insurmountable adversity.
Picture
Illustration of the Battle, Point of View Russian Cannons

Immortalizing War in Tennyson's "The Charge of The Light Brigade"

Matthew and Todd

Picture
Thomas Edison with cylinder phonograph in 1878
Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Interior
In later years, however, Tennyson worked not only to immortalize those depicted in his tale, but the poem itself. The author’s 1890 recording@ of “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was made in order to raise money for survivors of the Crimean War@, but more importantly, would serve as a permanent record of his voice for years to come. But while Tennyson was no doubt aware of the significance of this unique opportunity, he could hardly anticipate the effect it would have upon the average listener; the phonograph, after all, was unlike anything the public had seen before.

First demonstrated in 1878@, even Thomas A. Edison regarded the phonograph, perhaps arrogantly, as one of the most revolutionary technological developments of the Victorian age. In an essay written later that year for the North American Review, Edison outlined a number of potential uses for the phonograph — one of which was, unsurprisingly, the recording of books and poems. A single 10” plate, for example, could apparently record approximately 40,000 words, and be mailed to friends and family for later listening@.

This offered a number of advantages over the traditional printed word, or so Edison claimed. For example, it would not only be possible to hear what had been written, but experience both the author’s intended tone and diction. But most importantly, according to Edison, “it [would] henceforth be possible to preserve for future generations the voices as well as the words of our Washingtons [and] our Lincolns.”@
However, some modern historians dispute Edison’s notion of the immortal author. While the inventor believed it advantageous to have the works of Washington, Lincoln — and in this case, Tennyson — preserved for all of time, not all have been as quick to agree. For example, professor Yopie Prins at the University of Michigan describes Edison’s reasoning as a “phonographic fallacy”@ — essentially, the tendency to consider an author’s recording an authoritative representation of their work. In fact, both Prins and writer Bernard Richards (who reviewed the compilation of wax cylinder recordings in which Tennyson was included) caution against allowing such recordings to determine the final voice of a poem or text.@ Whereas listeners may have once drawn their own conclusions regarding the dubious actions and heroism of the brigade’s troops, the presence of Tennyson’s own tone and diction makes that decision for them.

Surprisingly, it seems that author Mark Twain agreed. While attempting to dictate his novel The American Claimant, Twain was adamant that the machine was no good for writing, and could “mock and betray” authors as easily as it might “delight and affirm those recording their voice.”@ What he referred to was no doubt the inherent shortcomings of the early invention — it’s tendency to compress and warp “even the most benign speech into a monotonous rant that sounded diabolical, perhaps even terrifying@.” This is particularly present in Tennyson’s own recording, and in fact, makes the author’s speech hard to recognize throughout most of the duration.
Picture
An Edison wax cylinder
Via Flickr user camerondaigle
"Mr. Welch, National Phonograph Co."
"Mr. Welch, National Phonograph Co."
Johnston, Frances Benjamin
Even as Edison himself praised the phonograph’s ability to preserve tone and rhythm, there is a something of a contradiction in his North American Review piece. Specifically, he notes that an author must actually adjust the volume of his or her voice to be properly heard on the resulting record — potentially altering the manner in which the poem is recited or read.@ Furthermore, Edison even notes the phonograph’s fantastic ability to alter and accentuate speech and pronunciation as a side effect of the recording process.@ Both of these effects are more than enough proof that Edison’s invention was not yet advanced enough to preserve the voice of its speaker as perfectly as he led readers to believe — and something that is readily apparent in Tennyson’s recording today. In fact, you might even argue the recording diminishes much of the immediacy present in his original poem, falling ill to the monotonous, diabolical ramblings that Twain so famously described.

But viewed today, Tennyson’s recording does something that the author no doubt never intended — the phonograph shifts the listener’s focus from the content to that of the author instead.@ Tennyson chose to record his poem in order to raise funds for those affected by the Crimean War, further cementing the war’s presence in the public conscience, even decades after the initial event on which he wrote. However, viewed today, it is not the Crimean war we regard, but the novelty of hearing Tennyson’s own voice read his creation.

In a recording by fellow poet Robert Browning, the author actually regarded Edison’s “wonderful invention” with more awe and reverence than the words he was present to record@ — even stopping mid-verse to marvel at the preserving powers of the machine. And while Tennyson doesn’t quite go this far, it’s clear the magic of the recorded voice was as much a novelty for the listener as it was for those being recorded. In fact, it is because of the scarcity of recordings from the Victorian era, contrary to what Edison or even Tennyson may have intended, that the phonograph immortalized the medium more than the message.

Immortalizing War in Tennyson's "The Charge of The Light Brigade"

Matthew and Todd

General Bosquet giving orders to his staff
General Bosquet giving orders to his staff
Fenton, Roger
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" is, in modern times, known as one of the most famous of Lord Alfred Tennyson's poems, and for good reason. As discussed, its imagery, use of literary devices, and powerful message have cemented it in literary history. While not a lengthy poem by any means, the six stanzas covered all that was necessary. The fact that it was written for a politically hostile audience that not only accepted it, but cherished it, is evidence of its power.

But the talents of Tennyson are not the only reason that the "Charge" is historically important. Being one of the first poems recorded using audio recording equipment, it became one of the first poems to be immortalized in sound — spoken in the author's own voice, no less. In fact, along with such luminaries as Robert Browning and Mark Twain@, Tennyson's voice is one of the few to survive the Victorian era to date.

Regardless of medium, it's clear that generally, the Crimean War is of little interest for readers and listeners today. It is an event long removed from our own history and experiences, in an era filled with many wars and conflicts. But the subject of Tennyson's tale — the honourable and brave men of the light brigade — represent a moment in time with which we can all relate, a scenario that could have just as easily occurred in our own time, and our own wars. And in that way, Tennyson has succeeded, both through his poem, and his later recording, in immortalizing the sacrifices of those British men forever.

Immortalizing War in Tennyson's "The Charge of The Light Brigade"

Matthew and Todd

Endnotes

1 Tennyson, Alfred. "The Charge of the Light Brigade." The Examiner 9 Dec. 1854: 780. 780. C19: The 19th Century Index. Web. 2 Feb. 2011. <http://c19index.chadwyck.com>.

2 Beck, Hamilton. "The Crimean War."The Victorian Web. 16 Aug. 2005. Web. 2 Feb. 2011. <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/tennybio.html>.

3 Reed, John R. "The Victorians and war." The Cambridge Companion to War Writing. Ed. Joseph Bristow. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press.

4 Everett, Glenn. "Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Brief Biography." The Victorian Web. 30 Nov. 2004. Web. 2 Feb. 2011. <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/tennybio.html>.

5 Tennyson, Alfred. "The Charge of the Light Brigade." The Examiner 9 Dec. 1854: 780. 780. C19: The 19th Century Index. Web. 2 Feb. 2011. <http://c19index.chadwyck.com>.

6 MARKOVITS, STEFANIE. "Giving Voice to the Crimean War: Tennyson's "Charge" and Maud's Battle-song." Victorian Poetry 47.3 (2009): 481-504. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.

7 Tennyson, Alfred. "The Charge of the Light Brigade." 1890. Wax cylinder. <http://soundcloud.com/thisisparker/alfred-lord-tennyson-reading-his-onward-the-light-brigade-on-wax-cylinder>.

8  Forbes, Archibald. The Battle of Balaclava. Rep. Contemporary Review, 1891. C19: The 19th Century Index. Web. 2 Feb. 2011. <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88 -2004&res_dat=xri:c19index-us&rft_dat=xri:c19index:PCI:0274-1891-059-00-000032>.

9 Beck, Hamilton. "The Crimean War." The Victorian Web: An Overview. 16 Aug. 2005. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/beck/2.html#alt>.

10 Beck, Hamilton. "The Crimean War." The Victorian Web: An Overview. 16 Aug. 2005. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/beck/2.html#alt>.

11 Tennyson, Alfred. "The Charge of the Light Brigade." 1890. Wax cylinder. <http://soundcloud.com/thisisparker/alfred-lord-tennyson-reading-his-onward-the-light-brigade-on-wax-cylinder>.

12 Daly, Nicholas. "Technology." The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Culture. Ed. Francis O'Gorman. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press.

13 Edison, Thomas A. “The Phonograph and Its Future.” The North American Review Vol. 126, No. 262 (May - Jun., 1878): 527-536. University of Northern Iowa. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25110210>.

14 Edison, Thomas A. “The Phonograph and Its Future.” The North American Review Vol. 126, No. 262 (May - Jun., 1878): 527-536. University of Northern Iowa. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25110210>.

15 Edison, Thomas A. “The Phonograph and Its Future.” The North American Review Vol. 126, No. 262 (May - Jun., 1878): 527-536. University of Northern Iowa. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25110210>.

16 Prins, Yopie. "Voice Inverse." Victorian Poetry 42.1 (2004): 43-59. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

17 Prins, Yopie. "Voice Inverse." Victorian Poetry 42.1 (2004): 43-59. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

18 Picker, John M., 1970-. "The Victorian Aura of the Recorded Voice."New Literary History 32.3 (2001): 769-786.Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

19 Picker, John M., 1970-. "The Victorian Aura of the Recorded Voice."New Literary History 32.3 (2001): 769-786.Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

20 Edison, Thomas A. “The Phonograph and Its Future.” The North American Review Vol. 126, No. 262 (May - Jun., 1878): 527-536. University of Northern Iowa. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25110210>.

21 Edison, Thomas A. “The Phonograph and Its Future.” The North American Review Vol. 126, No. 262 (May - Jun., 1878): 527-536. University of Northern Iowa. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25110210>.

22 Picker, John M., 1970-. "The Victorian Aura of the Recorded Voice." New Literary History 32.3 (2001): 769-786. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

23 Prins, Yopie. "Voice Inverse. "Victorian Poetry 42.1 (2004): 43-59. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

24 Picker, John M., 1970-. "The Victorian Aura of the Recorded Voice."New Literary History 32.3 (2001): 769-786.Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

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