I always felt that Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" was an anti-war poem.

A friend argues the opposite, stating that the poem reflected the jingoistic nature and sentimentality of Victorian England.

What do you think?

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

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.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

Part of a BBC Online article that Mary Ann from poets.org found says:

Thanks in no small part to the lines of Tennyson's poem - "Into the Valley of Death/Rode the six hundred... Cannon to the right of them/ Cannon to the left of them" - the Charge of the Light Brigade has long held its place in the public imagination. It is a symbol of heroic failure, a high-Victorian icon of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty. This week [October, 2004] the National Army Museum is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the charge, as part of a wider exhibition about the Crimean War.

"The British have always loved their defeats as much as their victories," says the exhibition's curator Alastair Massie. And the ill-fated cavalry charge appeals to our appetite for "glorious failure". 

It was also an event that caught a world about to change - showing that chivalric cavalry charge and officers in full-dress uniforms were no match for modern fire-power.

"It was the most lethal costume party in history," he says.

G. Wilken's maintains that  "They did not have the concept of anti-war back then. That this is jingoistic seems obvious." and asks "What do you think is anti-war about it?"
 
I know it's weird, but given the social climate of Victorian Britain, the criticism of the generals in the second verse ("Not tho' the soldier knew, Someone had blunder'd") was a pretty acerbic indictment for a poet laureate (he was laureate at the time wasn't he?). Anyway I felt the poem made a distinction between the stupidity of the commanders and the bravery of the cavalry riding into certain death (a theme often alluded to in anti-war literature, movies -- think "Full metal jacket" and the notion of Viet Nam's "Hamburger Hill".)

Maybe I'm projecting a more modern sentiment on a victorian poem?
 
However, a little more research showed that anti-war literature and peace movements existed among the Romantics, et al. According to Wikipedia, Amelia Opie, a romantic, was publishing poetry in the early 19th century and was an active anti-war campaigner. She wrote poetry with some pretty hardcore antiwar rhetoric: 

Ah then in her danger, her pale look of death,
He forgot all the laurels he'd won.
O father accurst!" she exclaimed, "in that youth
You slaughtered your Alfred....your son!"

Some things that lead me to believe that Tennusyon's poem has at its heart anti-war sentiments are for example, the way in the poem the enlisted men of the light brigade were told to march into certain death, and they did.

Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs but to do and die, 

The lines above are often misquoted and glorified “Ours but to do or die.” Ask someone to try and recite it to you. Bet they mess it up. In fact this poems has made phrases like "to do or die" commonplace in the English speaking world. There's no glory and patriotism in the lines "Theirs but to do and die", however. Just senselessness. In part I feel that this begins to reveala a subtle encoding by the poet of a multi-level criticism of war. As said earlier, given the social climate of Victorian Britain, the criticism of the generals in the second verse ("Not tho' the soldier knew, Someone had blunder'd") was a pretty acerbic indictment for a poet laureate (he was at the time, I checked).

This poems popularity at the time does not necessarily imply that it was jingoistic. Why do we look at pictures from war journalists of the suffering or dying? It allows us to participate in a moment that is common to all of us, but is as yet denied us. The horror of the poem increased its popularity, rather than mitigated it.

Despite those who feel that this poem is ennobling of the men who died during this charge, I still feel there may be a little subversion rolling around underneath it all.

What do you think? I've got threads on this all over the place: at the foetry message board, the academy of american poets, and on my own blogger blog.

Now that I have internet access set up at my apartment in Seoul -- all these place will be hearing lots from me.