Cannon or Jokers to the Right ?

In a recent programme TV chef Rick Stein, while indulging in exotic menus, made a point that the 1972 song written by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan “Stuck In The Middle With You” used the line ‘Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right’ may in fact have been a distortion of the line ‘Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them’ from “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson 1854.

A narrative poem  about the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Lord Tennyson was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom at the time of the writing of the poem.

The Charge of the Light Brigade
1
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.

2
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

3
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.

4
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.

5
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.

6
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made,
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

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