Gone are the days when every properly educated
British schoolboy could recite this by heart. Why is (arguably) one of the most famous poems in British
literature about the most disastrous military defeat in British history? Because the Light Brigade was told to charge a position, and followed orders despite the obvious outcome.
Tennyson portrays this as the ultimate sacrifice of life for the greater
glory of the
empire. Compare how
Saddam Hussein still paints his defeat in the
Gulf War as noble resistance to the American oppressor. Historically, this says volumes about societal beliefs of
England at the time.
It should be noted that the British had all but won the battle of Balaclava; the guns to be taken were a retreating Russian division of cannon whose lines had been decimated by the heavy cavalry, rather than the well-entrenched positions flanking the valley.