Tennyson sent 2000 copies of the poem to the soldiers in pamphlet form. He prepared this final version of the poem at the request of a chaplain from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, who mentioned to an acquaintance of a friend of Tennyson’s that the poem was “the greatest favourite of the soldiers-half are singing it & all want to have on black & white-so as to read-what has so taken them” (qtd in Shannon 7–8). He changed the ending back to the original one published in The Examiner and restored the line “someone had blundered” (Houston 357). Tennyson reconsidered the changes made to the poem for the Maud volume and revised it once again in August 1855. Sales slowed in early 1856, however, and a second edition was not released until later that year (Shannon 10–11). Of the first edition’s run of 10 000 copies, about 8500 were sold by late November 1855. The first edition of Maud appeared on July 28, 1855, priced at 5 shillings (“A List of Books” 6). Tennyson changed the end of the poem and edited out the phrase “someone had blundered” and the name of one of the officers (Captain Nolan), which had appeared in the version in The Examiner (Houston 357). The poem was revised and published in the volume Maud: And Other Poems in 1855. Circulation figures for that particular issue are not available, but in 1855 The Examiner cost 6d and had a weekly circulation of about 4900 (North). “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was first published on Decemin The Examiner, a weekly newspaper published in London (Houston 356). When he wrote this poem, Tennyson was already a hugely successful poet, having held the post of Poet Laureate since 1850, the same year that In Memoriam was published (Ricks 219). The Brigade of about 700 troops was under heavy fire into the valley and out of it, and most of soldiers were killed (Houston 355–356). During this battle, the British Light Cavalry Brigade was mistakenly ordered to charge a valley held by heavily armed Russian troops in order to recover some guns the Russians had captured. It was written in the fall of 1854, during the Crimean War, in response to an account of the battle of Balaclava in The Times. The scan was made available online by the University of Virginia.“The Charge of the Light Brigade” is one of Tennyson’s best-known poems (Shannon 2). Note: This poem, including punctuation, is reproduced from a scan of the poem written out by Tennyson in his own hand later, in 1864. Memorializing Events in the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854 The War was also noteworthy as an early example of the work of modern war correspondents. Many in the west best know of this war today because of Florence Nightingale, who trained and led nurses aiding the wounded during the war in a manner innovative for those times. Russian control of the Dardanelles threatened British sea routes. This poem was written to memorialize a suicidal charge by light cavalry over open terrain by British forces in the Battle of Balaclava (Ukraine) in the Crimean War (1854-56). 247 men of the 637 in the charge were killed or wounded. Britain entered the war, which was fought by Russia against Turkey, Britain and France, because Russia sought to control the Dardanelles.
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