Death. Tennyson shows death as heroic. By looking at the title, it gives the tone of the whole poem. The title Charge of the light brigade' suggests action, movement and pace. It is positive and it almost feels like some is urging forward and it is full of energy. In the first line, there is already a repetition Half a league' and this brings rhythm. .
All in the valley of Death' there is capital letters and it stands out. It is ominous, significant and tells us the outcome of the poem. The first stanza builds up the feeling, sets a tempo of the poem and it gives a fast rhythm. There are indents in the first stanza and they are significant because they state the actions. In the second stanza, the tone is a bit different from the first. The first was more of a marching rhythm, almost like a drone but the second stanza, someone asks a question and there is a flinger of doubt. Then it states that there was not any question by the troop. This shows that they were heroic, sacrifice and patriotic. The soldiers were confident with their orders and had no doubts according to Tennyson. The third stanza is very different. Now the soldiers are in the battlefield. They are surrounded with cannons, it shows how futile the position was, and how hopeless it was for them to co me out alive. It repeats Cannon' quite a lot and that shows that they were doomed. In addition, there are alliterations such as shot' and shell'. They show how energetic it was and how hectic it was. Boldly they road' this shows that the soldiers still carried on, in spite of the disadvantage and that shows British pride at the time. There are personifications such as jaws of death' and mouth of hell'. These are effective because it shows how doomed they were and it uses religious terms such as hell. As we go to the fourth stanza, the tempo and rhythm is still similar and it shows how lost they were.
Their sabres bare' this shows that they were defenceless and their weapons were no match for the opposition's cannons.