The Charge of The Light Brigade

For IL ( I understand that for almost all posts I start with For English... For ICT... For Drama... and what not) but please bare with me for one last time. Anyways, For IL we were to recite 2 pieces of 2 minute texts. One prose, and one poem.

I chose the poem The Charge of The Light Brigade (not that I knew it or had recited it already.) But because I remembered from the movie 'The Blind Side' Sean Tuohy supposedly Michael Oher's biological father read out the first 30 seconds of this poem. And when I watched the movie it really was a moving and  a little emotional story for me. And I remembered the poem name and it was interesting how he read the poem out aloud and explained it to Michael and applied it to a American football context.

The poem is written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, and it is in a way dedicated to the men who fought in The Battle of Balaclava on October 25th 1854 in the Crimean War.

The poem goes like this:

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!" he said:

Into the valley of Death 

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward the Light Brigade!"

Was there a man dismay'd?

Not tho' the soldier knew

Someone had blunder'd:

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to the right of them,

Cannon to the left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the Jaws of Death,

Into the Mouth of Hell

Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,

Flash'd as they turned in air,

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while 

All the world wonder'd:

Plunged into the battery-smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian 

Reel'd from the Sabre stroke

Shatter'd and sunder'd.

Then they rode back, but not

Not the six hundred

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volley'd and thunder'd

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell,

They that had fought so well

Came thro' the Jaws of Death

Back from the Mouth of Hell,

All that was left of them,

Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?

O' the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honor the charge they made,

Honor the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred.

Hope you enjoyed the poem. I will also post the other piece of prose that I had to memorize around tomorrow.