Repetition, chaos

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & 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 & 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 & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & 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 & 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 wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

There are different ways to use repetition as a poetic tool. The repetition in "The Charge of the Light Brigade" doesn't fit any structure I recognize. I mean it doesn't follow, for instance, the verse-chorus form of Western music. I think that the poet might have wanted to capture a feeling of war. War, from the perspective of a soldier, is probably repetitive but unpredictable. A soldier, having no agency of his own, is at the mercy of circumstance, that is, cannon fire, the orders of officers, etc. These things are an expected part of war. You can anticipate that they will occur (and occur again), but you can't anticipate when they will occur. Thus the placement of repeating lines throughout the poem likewise appears haphazard and random. 

Every line starts with a capital letter, which indicates to me the force with which these words would be spoken. The speaker seems to be some abstracted war proponent, singing the virtues of soldiers who died in battle. Of course, there seems to be some intent of irony behind this poem. Despite the speaker's passionate rhetoric, the main impression the reader gets is of absurdity, as in this passage:  "'Forward, the Light Brigade!' / Was there a man dismay'd ? / Not tho' the soldier knew / Some one had blunder'd: / Theirs not to make reply, / Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do & die,". 

In any case, the irony is fitting with the form. The poem first appears as straight-forward in content (let's celebrate the war effort!) and in form (a simple war song), but it turns out to be skewed and unpredictable.