Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BALACLAVA, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BALACLAVA, by                    
First Line: Six hundred stalwart warriors of england's pride the best
Last Line: To the england they had fought for on that wild october day
Subject(s): England;soldiers; English


Six hundred stalwart warriors of England's pride the best,
Did grasp the lance and sabre on Balaclava's crest,
And with their trusty leader, Earl Cardigan the brave,
Dashed through the Russian Valley to glory or a grave.
Their foemen stood in thousands, a dark and awful mass,
Beneath their famous strongholds resolved to guard the pass,
Their guns with fierce defiance belched thunders up the vale,
Where sat our English horsemen firm beneath their iron gale.

Chorus

Oh! 'tis a famous story, proclaim it far and wide,
And let your children's children re-echo it with pride,
How Cardigan the fearless his name immortal made
When he crossed that Russian Valley with his famous Light Brigade.

* * *

And they were but six hundred, 'gainst two score thousand foes,
Hemmed in with furious cannon, and crushed with savage blows,
Yet fought they there like heroes, for our noble England's fame,
Oh, glorious charge! heroic deed! what glory crowns thy name.
Four hundred of those soldiers fell, fighting where they stood,
And thus that fatal death vale they enriched with English blood,
Four hundred of those soldiers bequeathed their lives away,
To the England they had fought for on that wild October day.





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