"Ours is not to reason why" Carson cites in the final episode of Season Two of
Downton Abbey. The loyal butler is referencing Lord Alfred Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade". Written in 1854, the poem describes the bravery of the Brigade during the Crimson War. It is rumored that Tennyson wrote the entire poem in only a few minutes after reading an account of the battle. Although poetry has been anything but a forte of mine, these lines resonate in my mind:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
What a powerful statement of the understanding of rank and place in life. The devotion these gentlemen showed is truly inspiring in an incomprehensible way.
