Meanwhile, in March 1854, Britain and France declared war and immediately bombarded the then-Russian city of Odessa. But although Nicholas referred to the declining Ottoman Empire as the “sick man of Europe,” his land forces made little progress in their push south, underscored by the failed siege of a fortress in present-day Bulgaria. Unnerved by this expansionism, Britain and France sent their own warships to the area and vowed to defend Ottoman sovereignty.įighting officially broke out in October 1853, and the following month the Russians decimated the Ottoman fleet in a surprise attack. The czar also purportedly had his eyes on Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, which if taken would give his navy unfettered access to the Mediterranean Sea. Upon being rejected, he then sent his army, the largest in the world, to occupy two Ottoman principalities in present-day Romania. Following one such violent squabble in 1852, Czar Nicholas I of Russia, a self-proclaimed defender of Orthodox Christianity, demanded the right to exercise protection over the Ottoman Empire’s millions of Christian subjects. It got its start in and around Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, where Orthodox Christian and Catholic monks had been engaging in fierce, sometimes deadly brawls for years over who would control various holy sites. Tennyson pays Nolan and soldiers like him a nameless, deathless tribute with his monumental poem.A major conflict of the 19th century, the Crimean War claimed at least 500,000 lives and had a profound impact on such renowned personalities as British nurse Florence Nightingale and Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Newsman William Russell, Nolan's good friend, honored the brigade's bravery in the "London Times," a tribute that inspired Tennyson. Tennyson also indirectly honors the one soldier who could be called Balaclava's hero, Captain Nolan, who brought Lord Raglan's charging orders to Lord Lucan. The line, "Theirs not to reason why," includes the poem's readers. The meaning of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" is to honor the cavalrymen who fell, rather than explore the reasons for the event. Back from the mouth of hell." Tennyson ends with a command to the reader to feel triumphant pride: "Honour the charge they made! / Honour the Light Brigade, / Noble six hundred!" His tone is exultant there is no hint of irony. Charging an army, while / all the world wonder'd." Tennyson rewrites history as "Cossack and Russian reel'd from the sabre-stroke" and the Light Brigade seems to return victorious: "They that had fought so well. Tennyson immediately shifts from blaming the commanders to commending the fixed and unalterable obedience of the brigade: "Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die." This commendation sets the tone of the entire work.įrom the second stanza on, the poem is an exaltation of bravery, depicting the men with "sabres bare. Tennyson, writing six weeks after the fact, names no names to blame in his paean to bravery, saying only "Someone had blunder'd." He disregards the negligence of such commanding figures as Lord Raglan and Lord Lucan, who mutually confirmed the order to attack without knowledge of the extent of the Russian forces. into the mouth of hell." William Russell of the "London Times" caught Tennyson's fervor, speaking of the spectacle's "pride and splendor." No Blame Game Tennyson confirms this with the line "boldly they rode as well. They are thus aligned with King David, going into spiritual darkness by faith. Certainly Tennyson is unsparing in his praise: the Light Brigade rides into the "Valley of Death," an allusion to the biblical "valley of the Shadow" in Psalm 23. Tennyson's work baffles historian Corelli Barnett, who wonders why he sentimentalizes such a monumental military blunder.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |