While I was a school boy, I idolized charge of the light brigade. I was a new student at a military school, life was tough, and I remembered this poem when ever I felt I couldn't take it any more. Especially the stanzas Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred. were my favorites. In my twenties, I read about the original charge that motivated the poem, and the stupidity of that assault, and I could no longer identify with the poem any more. Now, though, I see that the stupidity of the officers and the pointlessness of the assault in no way detracts from the courage and bravery of the soldiers, for war itself is stupid in most senses.