Light Brigade's Sacrifice

Our 7th grade english teacher assigned each student a poem to research and create some inspired derived art. My assignment was Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," a poem about British light cavalry charging into Russian artillery during a battle in the Crimean War. All the British died. Tennyson wrote a heroic poem about their sacrifice and the galloping meter is meant to sound like charging horses...or firing guns (depending upon your perspective).

My derived art was a t-shirt with the poem's opening lines stenciled in black alongside abstract images of horses running into plumes of smoke, and a red trail of blood. I also remember that the cavalry charge was due to the British military command's miscommunication. They sent the wrong cavalry to the wrong position. It was a tragic and stupid accident that killed hundreds in a few minutes. The French press called it madness. The Russian soldiers thought the British cavalry were drunk b/c the charge was so stupid. But after Tennyson's romantic poem... everyone fell in love with the idea of the light brigade as a symbol of Christian martyrdom mixed with nationalism toward the British Empire. The media forgot about the gross incompetence of the stupid old leaders. It's easier to focus on the young, beautiful corpses. The British population felt that these young men sacrificed themselves for their freedom and backed the government even more. Nevermind that the Crimean War had nothing to do with citizen's freedom and had everything to do with real estate and capital.

It was the first time I realized that many of the everyday heroes promoted by the media were victims created by incompetence, greed, stupidity, and sloth of the higher-ups. There are so many preventable tragedies where the working class are sacrificed and cheered on from the sidelines by the media and elites. "Go boy go!' I think about that misguided hero worships a lot. As half of the states re-open their economies tomorrow, I wonder how many more of us will join the ranks of the light brigade. How many Americans will be sent to their deaths while being cheered on by the wealthy. Maybe someone will write a poem about our economic heroes at the Tyson Meatpacking Plants or the MTA workers. Their preventable deaths will make many people into tragic heroes.

II
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
   Someone had blundered.
   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.

III
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
   Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
   Rode the six hundred.