How Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Powerful Poem Went Viral 169 Years Ago
12/8/23 – – On December 9, 1854, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” first appeared in the London Examiner. Why is this work by a 19th century British poet relevant to my blog, current events and 21st century crisis communication?
First, some quick family history: I am proud to be a descendent of Lord Tennyson. And while I would never claim to have inherited his gift for verse, I’d like to think that some of his crisis communication skills — on display in “The Charge of the Light Brigade” — found their way into my DNA.
Tennyson served as the Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland under Queen Victoria from 1850 to his death in 1892. The Poet Laureate’s role was to write stirring stuff about important events of the day — the death of a public figure, historic anniversaries and great military victories.
With no radio, TV or internet, the Poet Laureate functioned much like the communications director for the Crown. Poetry, a popular newspaper feature in 18th century England, was more than entertaining literature. It was a powerful form of mass communication and, at times, crisis response.
On October 25, 1854, hundreds of British light cavalrymen fighting in the Crimean War lost their lives or were wounded in a disastrous encounter with Russian troops in the Battle of Balaclava. A tragic breakdown in leadership and communication led to the suicidal charge of the venerated Light Brigade into a valley protected by Russian artillery batteries on three sides. News of the demoralizing defeat rocked the nation when three weeks after the event (no instant online updates in those days) The Times in London published the first eyewitness account of the battle.
Like today’s media, British newspapers rushed to assess blame, asking: Which incompetent military officers were responsible for this embarrassing debacle? Why was Britain even interested in far-off Balaclava? Was this costly foreign adventure worth the loss of precious young British lives?
(Interestingly, Russia 169 years later is again fighting for control of Balaclava and the warm-water port of Sevastopol on the Black Sea. This time, the Russians are squaring off against Ukraine, which is trying to reclaim the Crimean Peninsula.)
Queen Victoria had to do something to maintain the public’s and Parliament’s support for the war effort. The Times article had characterized the battle as, “a hideous blunder.” To rekindle the pride and morale of the British people, she turned to her Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson.
According to the biography of Tennyson written by his grandson Charles, the poet went to work within minutes of reading the newspaper report. And on December 9, his stirring account of the battle was published in the London Examiner:
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Without the benefit of audio or video, Tennyson used cadence and figurative language to make clear to readers the ferocity of the Russian bombardment and the odds against the Light Brigade:
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.
If you read “The Charge of the Light Brigade” in high school, your English teacher probably did not present the poem as an example of outstanding crisis response. But that was Tennyson’s intent when he wrote it. He and his boss (the Queen) were responding to a national crisis of confidence. They wanted to shift the focus away from the finger pointing and onto the heroism of the soldiers who unflinchingly followed orders and rode to their death:
“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.
Following timeless crisis-response best practices, Tennyson did not sugarcoat the outcome, making it clear that the soldiers paid a heavy price for their discipline and valor:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they road back, but not
Not the six hundred.
To the naysayers who were using the defeat to question the nation’s course and sacrifice, Tennyson, on behalf of the Crown, lobbed his most forceful verbal volley in the poem’s sixth and final stanza:
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
Although the poem did not keep the government in power from toppling, it was a big hit, achieving the 19th century equivalent of “going viral.” According to Alison Chapman, English professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, it was especially popular with the military:
“An army chaplain in 1855 requested prints of the poem to distribute amongst the troops in Crimea. ‘It is the greatest favorite of the soldiers, half are singing it and all want to have it in black and white,’ he wrote in a letter to Tennyson. Tennyson had 2,000 quarto pamphlets of his poem printed to distribute to soldiers.”
Ultimately, the disastrous outcome of the Battle of Balaclava did not weaken British resolve. With the help of allied French, Ottoman and Sardinian forces, Britain won the Crimean War and with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1856 ended the Russian navy’s presence in the Black Sea.
The tactics of “changing the narrative” and “framing” an issue in response to crises are popular with today’s crisis communicators. Some call this “spin.” And like Tennyson and Queen Victoria, crisis counselors recognize the “agenda-setting power” of mass media. Front-page placement of “The Charge of the Light Brigade” in the Examiner, a favorite source of news and entertainment for Great Britain’s emerging middle class, turned Londoners’ conversations from shame and doubt into pride and resolve.
As we head into the holiday season, our conversations are dominated by competing interpretations of military conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. We’re bombarded with conflicting government and media voices challenging U.S. involvement and tugging at our emotions. There are powerful new tools in 2023, including the internet, video and artificial intelligence. But for those in the midst of crisis, the fundamental task Tennyson faced remains the same: Shape the dialogue to your advantage through persuasive communication.
The next time you’re observing an embattled company, individual or nation attempting to change the narrative, weigh their success against “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” I think you’ll agree that for a guy without an X, Facebook or Instagram account, Alfred Lord Tennyson did pretty well.
Crisis Quotient Blog 