Charge of the Light Brigade & Exposure

This lesson pairs two of the anthology's most important war poems. Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade glorifies the heroism of soldiers obeying a disastrous order, while Owen's Exposure strips away all glory to reveal the slow, freezing death of men in the trenches. Together, they represent two radically different attitudes to war — separated by sixty years and one of the most devastating conflicts in human history.

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The Charge of the Light Brigade — Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1854)

Context

Fact	Detail
Poet	Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)
Role	Poet Laureate (official national poet)
Event	The Battle of Balaclava, 25 October 1854, during the Crimean War
What happened	A miscommunicated order sent 600 cavalry soldiers charging into a valley defended by Russian cannons on three sides
Casualties	Approximately 110 killed, 160 wounded, 375 horses lost
Written	Within weeks of reading a newspaper report of the charge