Half a League, half a league
Half a league onward
All in the Valley of Death
Road the six hundred.
At some point in middle school, I had to memorize Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.” Although I’ve lost the ability to recite it word-for-word, lines sometimes come back to me, frequently scattered and always out of context.
I was unaware of the context; without it, the poem had an almost mythical quality. It confused me, but I was fascinated by the rhythm and flow of the words.
It may have felt mythical, but Tennyson’s lines are based on an event that took place on what is one of the most fought-over pieces of European land.
