The Charge of the Heavy Brigade

Prologue to General Hamley

Our birches yellowing and from each

The light leaf falling fast,

While squirrels from our fiery beech

Were bearing off the mast,

You came, and look’d and loved the view

Long-known and loved by me,

Green Sussex fading into blue

With one gray glimpse of sea;

And, gazing from this height alone,

We spoke of what had been

Most marvellous in the wars your own

Crimean eyes had seen;

And now–like old-world inns that take

Some warrior for a sign

That therewithin a guest may make

True cheer with honest wine–

Because you heard the lines I read

Nor utter’d word of blame,

I dare without your leave to head

These rhymings with your name,

Who know you but as one of those

I fain would meet again,

Yet know you, as your England knows

That you and all your men

Were soldiers to her heart’s desire,

When, in the vanish’d year,

You saw the league-long rampart-fire

Flare from Tel-el-Kebir

Thro’ darkness, and the foe was driven,

And Wolseley overthrew

Arâbi, and the stars in heaven

Paled, and the glory grew.

The Charge Of The Heavy Brigade At Balaclava

October 25, 1854

I.

The charge of the gallant three hundred, the Heavy Brigade!

Down the hill, down the hill, thousands of Russians,

Thousands of horsemen, drew to the valley–and stay’d;

For Scarlett and Scarlett’s three hundred were riding by

When the points of the Russian lances arose in the sky;

And he call’d, ‘Left wheel into line!’ and they wheel’d and obey’d.

Then he look’d at the host that had halted he knew not why,

And he turn’d half round, and he bade his trumpeter sound

To the charge, and he rode on ahead, as he waved his blade

To the gallant three hundred whose glory will never die–

‘Follow,’ and up the hill, up the hill, up the hill,

Follow’d the Heavy Brigade.

II.

The trumpet, the gallop, the charge, and the might of the fight!

Thousands of horsemen had gather’d there on the height,

With a wing push’d out to the left and a wing to the right,

And who shall escape if they close? but he dash’d up alone

Thro’ the great gray slope of men,

Sway’d his sabre, and held his own

Like an Englishman there and then.

All in a moment follow’d with force

Three that were next in their fiery course,

Wedged themselves in between horse and horse,

Fought for their lives in the narrow gap they had made–

Four amid thousands! and up the hill, up the hill,

Gallopt the gallant three hundred, the Heavy Brigade.

III.

Fell like a cannon-shot,

Burst like a thunderbolt,

Crash’d like a hurricane,

Broke thro’ the mass from below,

Drove thro’ the midst of the foe,

Plunged up and down, to and fro,

Rode flashing blow upon blow,

Brave Inniskillens and Greys

Whirling their sabres in circles of light!

And some of us, all in amaze,

Who were held for a while from the fight,

And were only standing at gaze,

When the dark-muffled Russian crowd

Folded its wings from the left and the right,

And roll’d them around like a cloud,–

O, mad for the charge and the battle were we,

When our own good redcoats sank from sight,

Like drops of blood in a dark-gray sea,

And we turn’d to each other, whispering, all dismay’d,

‘Lost are the gallant three hundred of Scarlett’s Brigade!’

IV.

‘Lost one and all’ were the words

Mutter’d in our dismay;

But they rode like victors and lords

Thro’ the forest of lances and swords

In the heart of the Russian hordes,

They rode, or they stood at bay–

Struck with the sword-hand and slew,

Down with the bridle-hand drew

The foe from the saddle and threw

Underfoot there in the fray–

Ranged like a storm or stood like a rock

In the wave of a stormy day;

Till suddenly shock upon shock

Stagger’d the mass from without,

Drove it in wild disarray,

For our men gallopt up with a cheer and a shout,

And the foeman surged, and waver’d, and reel’d

Up the hill, up the hill, up the hill, out of the field,

And over the brow and away.

V.

Glory to each and to all, and the charge that they made!

Glory to all the three hundred, and all the Brigade!

Note.–The ‘three hundred’ of the ‘Heavy Brigade’ who made

this famous charge were the Scots Greys and the 2d squadron

of Inniskillens; the remainder of the ‘Heavy Brigade’ subsequently

dashing up to their support.

The ‘three’ were Scarlett’s aide-de-camp, Elliot, and the trumpeter,

and Shegog the orderly, who had been close behind him.

Epilogue.

Irene.

Not this way will you set your name

A star among the stars.

Poet.

What way?

Irene.

You praise when you should blame

The barbarism of wars.

A juster epoch has begun.

Poet.

Yet tho’ this cheek be gray,

And that bright hair the modern sun,

Those eyes the blue to-day,

You wrong me, passionate little friend.

I would that wars should cease,

I would the globe from end to end

Might sow and reap in peace,

And some new Spirit o’erbear the old,

Or Trade re-frain the Powers

From war with kindly links of gold,

Or Love with wreaths of flowers.

Slav, Teuton, Kelt, I count them all

My friends and brother souls,

With all the peoples, great and small,

That wheel between the poles.

But since our mortal shadow, Ill,

To waste this earth began–

Perchance from some abuse of Will

In worlds before the man

Involving ours–he needs must fight

To make true peace his own,

He needs must combat might with might,

Or Might would rule alone;

And who loves war for war’s own sake

Is fool, or crazed, or worse;

But let the patriot-soldier take

His meed of fame in verse;

Nay–tho’ that realm were in the wrong

For which her warriors bleed,

It still were right to crown with song

The warrior’s noble deed–

A crown the Singer hopes may last,

For so the deed endures;

But Song will vanish in the Vast;

And that large phrase of yours

‘A star among the stars,’ my dear,

Is girlish talk at best;

For dare we dally with the sphere

As he did half in jest,

Old Horace? ‘I will strike,’ said he,

‘The stars with head sublime,’

But scarce could see, as now we see,

The man in space and time,

So drew perchance a happier lot

Than ours, who rhyme to-day.

The fires that arch this dusky dot–

Yon myriad-worlded way–

The vast sun-clusters’ gather’d blaze,

World-isles in lonely skies,

Whole heavens within themselves, amaze

Our brief humanities.

And so does Earth; for Homer’s fame,

Tho’ carved in harder stone–

The falling drop will make his name

As mortal as my own.

Irene.

No!

Poet.

Let it live then–ay, till when?

Earth passes, all is lost

In what they prophesy, our wise men,

Sun-flame or sunless frost,

And deed and song alike are swept

Away, and all in vain

As far as man can see, except

The man himself remain;

And tho’, in this lean age forlorn,

Too many a voice may cry

That man can have no after-morn,

Not yet of those am I.

The man remains, and whatsoe’er

He wrought of good or brave

Will mould him thro’ the cycle-year

That dawns behind the grave.

And here the Singer for his art

Not all in vain may plead

‘The song that nerves a nation’s heart

Is in itself a deed.’