Lord Tennyson uses a number of techniques to show his views on war. One of the techniques he uses is rhythm. At the beginning of the poem (stanza one and two) .
there is a regular rhythm pattern which is three beats per line, for example "forward the light brigade" has two beats and "was there a man dismayed?". two beats in that line too. In these lines he uses stressed and unstressed rhythm which helps you imagine the horses galloping into battle. But in stanza four the rhythm is jumbled up. For example "plunged in the battery smoke", three beats in that line .
and "cossack and russian", two beats in that line and he also adds another line. He made the rhythm of that stanza jumbled up because when the men were in battle they were all jumbled up in the .
middle of the war, which makes you imagine and feel you are right there in the middle of the battle where all the guns are shooting, all the cannons firing and all the horses running around in different directions, getting tangled up with each other.
In stanza five and six the rhythm is the same as in one to show that they are retreating and galloping back to safety .
Throughout the poem Tennyson uses rhyme to make the poem sound exciting for example "Theirs not to make reply,theirs not to reason why,theirs but to do and die". All these lines rhyme and makes you bounce along with it. I also think that the rhyme is a tribute to them, like an anthem. It shows that Tennyson has taken extreme care and consideration, to show respect to the men who fought in the war. .
Also throughout the poem Tennyson uses poetic overstatement and metaphors, For example "jaws of death" and "mouth of hell". He uses this to make the poem more dramatic and over the top, he makes it sound more scary, but they were not literally in the "jaws of death" or in the "mouth of hell". He puts this in to make the poem sound more interesting.
Tennyson uses repetition throughout the poem like " six hundred".
