What effect does the meter (rhythm) in "The Charge of the Light Brigade" have on the reader?

It gives it a light-hearted effect

It gives it a funeral effect

It gives it a moving forward marching effect

It gives it an upbeat effect.

The correct answer is letter C. It gives it a moving forward marching effect.

Explanation:

Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" honors the bravery and obedience of the 600 soldiers who marched toward death during the Crimean War. To give the poem a marching effect, the author used dactylic dimeter - a two-time pattern of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones. Now and again, the author uses trochaic meter - a stressed syllable followed by and unstressed one - which causes an effect of abruptness. It makes the lines sound as the drums that dictate the march of soldiers, as if we could hear the soldiers' falling feet hit the ground again and again as they move forward. Study the following lines (the stressed syllables are in bold):

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.