ABSTRACT
TENNYSON’S POEMS ON CONTEMPORARY CONFLICTS SPANAN EXTENSIVE chronological range, beginning with the “Exhortationto the Greeks,” published in 1827. Composed during the same period but not published until 1893 was “Written during the Convulsions in Spain.” In 1852 Tennyson turned to exhorting his own people and elicited critical convulsions in England with his controversial incendiary pieces. His two martial poems as laureate, the “Wellington Ode” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” appeared in 1852 and 1854 respectively, “The Defence of Lucknow,” with its “Dedicatory Poem to the Princess Alice,” in 1879, and “The Charge of the Heavy Brigade,” with its prologue and epilogue, in 1885. In this chapter the two “Charge” poems, because they both celebrate the Battle of Balaclava, are discussed consecutively.
