June 20, 2008: Balaclava

[regular.joe]

Wow, what a coincidence. I had in my hand not three hours ago the movie "Airplane". The don't call me Shirley edition.

Are you a witch?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, she is.

[Cloud]

(cackles wildly)

[tombstone]

Sspeaking of Tennyson's "The Brook", did you know you can sing it to the tune of "Yankee Doodle"? Seriously, I am delighted to see Kipling's response to that idiot charge, 40 years after the fact. My father introduced me to Tennyson's poem some 50 or more years ago, remarking how incredibly stupid that charge was. I am trying to find out if any of the original 600 survived.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Wiki says, "The British suffered a total of 360 casualties".

[Imigo Jones]

Wiki says, "The British suffered a total of 360 casualties".

tombstone and Bruce, if it's any consolation, the 360 figure represents British casualties in the entire Battle of Balaclava. The British seem to have been involved in three major actions during this inconclusive battle. The Charge of the Light Brigade was certainly the most costly of these actions, with 245 casualties to an advancing force of about 670. This represents 68% of the day's total British casualties.



"Officers and men of the 13th Light Dragoons, survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade, a few months after the battle."

Lieutenant General the Earl of Lucan "instructed Cardigan to lead 673 (some sources state 661) cavalry men straight into the valley between the Fedyukhin Heights and the Causeway Heights, famously dubbed the 'Valley of Death' by the poet Tennyson. The opposing Russian forces were commanded by Pavel Liprandi and included approximately 20 battalions of infantry supported by over 50 artillery pieces. These forces were deployed on both sides and at the opposite end of the valley. . . .

"The brigade was not completely destroyed, but did suffer terribly, with 118 men killed, 127 wounded. After regrouping, only 195 men were still with horses." From our friends at Wikipedia.

Going with the upper figure of 673 charging,
the death rate was 17.5%.
Wounded 19.0%.
Total casualties 245 = 36.5%.
With this map it is easy to see how:



"Charge timeline"

[Imigo Jones]

tombstone, I have looked up "The Brook" and sung it to "Yankee Doodle"! It does work, especially if you don't try to jam a verse of the poem to the song's chorus. I mean you have to cram syllables together. The syllables all fit almost perfectly to the melody and rhythm of the song's basic verse, not so perfectly to the chorus--although it's doable.

In terms of the poem's overall structure, there are 13 verses, and every 3rd or 4th verse, there is that repeated theme:
[Something something la la la]
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

So, you could consider this the chorus of "The Brook," but you aren't singing it every other verse. With the chorus of "Yankee Doodle," you are ("A" = verse, "B" = chorus with different melody):
AB AB AB AB . . .

Here's the overall structure of "The Brook," where
"A" represents a 4-line verse with new imagery, and
"B" is a 4-line verse that always has that same theme on lines 2-4
(and again, "B" really has the same "melody" as "A"):
AAB AAB AAB AAAB