Monday, February 18, 2013

"Charge of the Light Brigade"

I am currently reading Anna Karenina.  I've been reading it for a very LONG time, but lately I have received the motivation and determination needed to start making some much better progress.  I am about half way through now.

As I was reading I decided to put into practice some idealized ideas I've had about education and studying and such.  I looked into learning a little bit about Tolstoy and discovered that he fought in the Crimean War.  I learned a little bit about the war, such as that it was the same war in which Florence Nightengale began making her notable advancements in the field of nursing.  It was also considered to be the first "modern" war in that modern technology was used, such as the telegraph and trains.  It was the first war that was widely publicized to areas far from the action.

The most interesting thing to me was stumbling accross the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Charge of the Light Brigade" which was apparently written about a fatal charge made during one of the battles of the Crimean war.  You might be familiar with the first verse because it is quoted in "The Blind Side."  I find the words vivid and moving.  Enjoy.


File:Panorama dentro.JPGHalf a league, half a league,
  Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death,
  Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.

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