Page:Tennysoniana (1879).djvu/125

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PATRIOTIC POEMS.
115

"The Charge of the Light Brigade." Of this poem there are three distinct versions.

It first appeared in the "Examiner" of Saturday, December 9, 1854.[1]

It was next printed, with considerable alterations, in the "Maud" volume, in the summer of 1855.

A month or two later the third and final version[2] appeared on a quarto sheet of four pages, with the following note at the bottom:—

"Having heard that the brave soldiers before Sebastopol, whom I am proud to call my countrymen, have a liking for my Ballad on the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, I have ordered a thousand copies of it to be printed for them. No writing of mine can add to the glory they have acquired in the Crimea; but if what I have heard be true, they will not be displeased to receive these copies of the Ballad

  1. With the following note:
    "Written after reading the first report of the 'Times' correspondent, where only 607 sabres are mentioned as having taken part in the charge."
  2. This is the version which appears at the end of the second edition of the "Maud" volume (1856); and in all subsequent editions.