the charge of the light brigade

noun

1. a poem (1854) by Tennyson, celebrating the British cavalry attack on the Russian position at Balaklava during the Crimean War.

(1854) A poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson that celebrates the heroism of a British cavalry brigade in its doomed assault on much larger forces. The poem contains the well-known lines “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die.”