THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

ALF

I.

H 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.

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew

Some one 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.

3.

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,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

208 CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

4.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while

All the world wonder'd :
Plunged in the battery-smoke,
Right thro' 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.

5.

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.

6.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.

Honor the charge they made!

Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred !

IDYLLS OF THE KING.

'Flos Regum Arthurus.'

JOSEPH OF EXETER.

VOL. II.

N

ood

DEDICATION.

THESE to His Memory - since he held them dear,

Perchance as finding there unconsciously

Some image of himself - I dedicate,
I dedicate, I consecrate with tears
These Idylls.

And indeed He seems to me

Scarce other than my own ideal knight,
'Who reverenced his conscience as his king;
Whose glory was, redressing human wrong;
Who spake no slander, no, nor listen'd to it;
Who loved one only and who clave to her -'
Her - over all whose realms to their last isle,
Commingled with the gloom of imminent war,
The shadow of His loss moved like eclipse,
Darkening the world. We have lost him: he is gone :
We know him now: all narrow jealousies
Are silent; and we see him as he moved,
How modest, kindly, all-accomplish'd, wise,
With what sublime repression of himself,
And in what limits, and how tenderly;
Not swaying to this faction or to that;
Not making his high place the lawless perch
Of wing'd ambitions, nor a vantage-ground