"but I need to know / if the world says it's time to go / tell me will you break out"

So it turns out that Tennyson wrote another poem about the Battle of Balaclava other than "The Charge of the Light Brigade" -- namely, "The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava." It starts:

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.

Not a high-water mark for poetry as journalism. The Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that "Tennyson’s “Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava,” never popular, is unknown except to literary scholars" -- and I submit, with good reason.

---L.

Subject quote from "Dance Apocalyptic," Janelle Monae.