5. Explain "stole with soft step." 6. What characteristic of the nautilus is most emphasized in stanza three? 7. Why does the poet break into a song of thanksgiving before giving the "heavenly message"? 8. Explain how a clear note could be born from dead lips. 9. In a word, what is the message of the sea-shell? 10. Explain "more stately mansions" and "low-vaulted past" as used here. 11. What does "each new temple" symbolize? 12. What is the meaning of "shut thee from heaven"? 13. Explain "till thou at length art free." 14. Memorize the last stanza. 15. What then is the universal note sounded to the world through the poet's soul? REFERENCES FIELD: The Wanderer. TENNYSON: The Shell. LONGFELLOW: Excelsior. Ladder of St. Augustine. ARNOLD: Self-Dependence. HARTLEY COLERIDGE: To the Nautilus. LOWELL: The Finding of the Lyre. C. H. WEBB: With a Nantucket Shell. EUGENE LEE HAMILTON: Sea-Shell Murmurs. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE ALFRED TENNYSON HIS poem celebrates a famous charge at Balaklava TH in the Crimean War, October 25, 1854. The Russian army had advanced to threaten Balaklava, the base of supplies of the allied French, English, and Turkish forces. The first attack of Russian cavalry was repelled, and at about eleven o'clock, the Light Brigade, consisting of 673 men, was ordered to charge a Russian battery a mile and a half away. The order was evidently an error, but it was obeyed with splendid gallantry and matchless bravery on the part of the British soldiers, only 195 surviving the merciless storm of shot and shell. Tennyson got the suggestion for this poem in the report of the War Correspondent of the London Times, printed November 14, 1854, and in the editorial published the day before. The editorial is in part as follows: "The whole brigade advanced at a trot for more than a mile, down a valley, with a murderous flank fire of Minie muskets and shells from the hills on both sides. It charged batteries, took guns, sabered the gunners, and charged the Russian cavalry beyond; but, being attacked by cavalry in front and rear, it had to cut its way through them, and return through the same cavalry and the same fire. The British soldier will do his duty, even to certain death, and is not paralyzed by feeling that he is the victim of some hideous blunder. Splendid as the event was on the Alma (brilliant Russian defeat in the same campaign in September) yet that rugged ascent was scarcely so glorious as the progress of the cavalry through and through that valley of death, with a murderous fire, not only in front, but on both sides, above, and even in the rear." Tennyson wrote this poem in a few minutes on December 2, 1854. In August of the following year, hearing that the soldiers before Sebastopol were enthusiastic over his war poem, he had a thousand copies printed on separate quarto sheets, and sent them out to the soldiers of the Crimea with his compliments, for he wanted them, as he said in a note printed with the poem, "to know that those who sit at home love and honor them." THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. "Forward the Light Brigade!" Some one had blunder'd; Rode the six hundred. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Rode the six hundred. Flash'd all their sabres bare, All the world wonder'd; Reel'd from the sabre-stroke Then they rode back,- but not Cannon to right of them, Cannon behind them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Came thro' the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, Left of six hundred. When can their glory fade? 57 SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES NOTE: Look up carefully in some English or General History or Encyclopaedia the siege of Sebastopol and the attendant movements during the Crimean War. 1. What movement is imitated in the first two lines? 2. What situation is hinted at in the next two lines? 3. Who says the words following? 4. How does the meaning of the last two lines differ from that of lines three and four? 5. Why repeat the command at the opening of the second stanza? 6. What is the purpose of the question in the second line? 7. What tells the character of these soldiers? 8. Why use "cannon" three times in stanza three? 9. Explain "jaws of Death," "mouth of Hell." 10. How does the ending of this stanza differ from that of the first two stanzas? 11. What does "charging an army" show? 12. Explain plunged, broke, reeled, shattered. 13. Why are the dashes used in next to the last line? 14. How does the situation at the opening of stanza five compare with that in stanza three? 15. What tells of the mercilessness of the enemy's fire? Contrast the situation here with that in stanza three. 16. Why are the dashes used here? 17. What answer to the question in the first line of the last stanza? 18. For what should this Light Brigade be honored? 19. In what did their nobility consist? 20. Why should this poem become such a favorite among the common people as well as among the British soldiers? REFERENCES NEWBOLT: Gillespie. EDWIN ARNOLD: Armageddon. MACAULAY: Horatius at the Bridge. HEMANS: Casabianca. TENNYSON: Charge of the Heavy Brigade. BURNS: Bannockburn. RILEY: The Silent Victors. A. B. MEEK: Balaklava. |