455 50 55 60 65 70 75 "O my Kyrat, O my steed, Carry me this peril through! "Soft thy skin as silken skein, Tender are thine eyes and true; Kyrat, then, the strong and fleet, Paused a moment on the verge, Leaped as leaps the ocean surge. As the ocean surge o'er sand Kyrat safe his rider bore; Rolled like pebbles on a shore. Roushan's tasselled cap of red Flash of harness in the air, Of a sword drawn from its sheath; The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava "Forward, the Light Brigade!" Some one had blunder'd: Cannon to right of them, Volley'd and thunder'd; Rode the six hundred. Reel'd from the sabre-stroke Shatter'd and sunder'd. Then they rode back, but not, Cannon to right of them, Volley'd and thunder'd; Stormed at with shot and shell, 23 Biographical and Historical: Alfred Tennyson was born in that memorable birth year, 1809, which brought into the world a company of the greatest men of the century, including Darwin, Gladstone, Lincoln, Poe, Chopin, and Mendelssohn. He was one of twelve children who lived together a healthful life of study and sport. Gathering the other children about him he held them captive with his stories of knightly deeds-tales drawn partly from his reading and partly from his fertile fancy. They lived again the thrilling life of joust and tournament. Past the house in the village of Somersby, in Lincolnshire, where his father was rector, flowed a brook, in all probability the brook that came "from haunts of coot and hern to bicker down a valley.' He was a student at Cambridge, where he met and became deeply attached to Arthur Henry Hallam, whose death not long afterward inspired the poem "In Memoriam.”’ In 1850, upon Wordsworth's death, Tennyson was made poet laureate and the poem commemorating the heroic charge at Balaklava in 1854, "The Charge of the Light Brigade,'' shows how he adorned this office. In 1884 the queen raised him to the peerage, and from that time he was known as Lord Tennyson. He lived as much in retirement as was possible, part of the time making his home in the Isle of Wight. He died in 1892 and was buried in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The event which this poem describes occurred at Balaklava in the Crimea, October 25th, 1854. Of six hundred seven men only about one hundred fifty survived. The order to charge, bearing the signature of Lord Lucan, was delivered by Captain Nolan to the Earl of Cardigan, who was in command of the "Light Brigade." Nolan was killed in the charge while Cardigan survived. The death of Nolan made it impossible to determine whether the signature to the order was genuine or forged. It was in this war that Florence Nightingale rendered such noble service as hospital nurse. She arrived at Balaklava ten days after this charge. Words and Phrases for Discussion. "Valley of Death" "half a league' "the jaws of Death" "'dismay'd'' "the mouth of Hell' "volley'd and thunder'd'' 5 10 THE DIVERTING HISTORY OF JOHN GILPIN WILLIAM COWPER John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown, A trainband captain eke was he John Gilpin's spouse said to her dear, "Tomorrow is our wedding day, |