"Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die"
E169713
"Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" is a famous line from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade," encapsulating the unquestioning duty and sacrifice of soldiers in battle.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1485435 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" Context triple: [Charge of the Light Brigade, hasPoeticMotto, "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die"]
-
A.
"All for one and one for all"
"All for one and one for all" is a famous motto expressing unity and mutual loyalty, widely associated with Alexandre Dumas’ novel *The Three Musketeers*.
-
B.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" is an inspirational motto emphasizing perseverance, continuous pursuit of knowledge, and unwavering determination.
-
C.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
"Anthem for Doomed Youth" is a powerful World War I poem by Wilfred Owen that mourns the senseless slaughter of young soldiers and criticizes the romanticization of war.
-
D.
I died for Beauty—but was scarce
"I died for Beauty—but was scarce" is a short, enigmatic lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that explores the kinship between beauty and truth through a posthumous dialogue between two dead speakers.
-
E.
Because I could not stop for Death
"Because I could not stop for Death" is a renowned lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that personifies Death as a courteous suitor escorting the speaker on a reflective journey toward eternity.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" Target entity description: "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" is a famous line from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade," encapsulating the unquestioning duty and sacrifice of soldiers in battle.
-
A.
"All for one and one for all"
"All for one and one for all" is a famous motto expressing unity and mutual loyalty, widely associated with Alexandre Dumas’ novel *The Three Musketeers*.
-
B.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" is an inspirational motto emphasizing perseverance, continuous pursuit of knowledge, and unwavering determination.
-
C.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
"Anthem for Doomed Youth" is a powerful World War I poem by Wilfred Owen that mourns the senseless slaughter of young soldiers and criticizes the romanticization of war.
-
D.
I died for Beauty—but was scarce
"I died for Beauty—but was scarce" is a short, enigmatic lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that explores the kinship between beauty and truth through a posthumous dialogue between two dead speakers.
-
E.
Because I could not stop for Death
"Because I could not stop for Death" is a renowned lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that personifies Death as a courteous suitor escorting the speaker on a reflective journey toward eternity.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
poetic line
ⓘ
quotation ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Military history of the United Kingdom
ⓘ
surface form:
British military history
Victorian literature ⓘ |
| author | Alfred, Lord Tennyson ⓘ |
| containsWord |
Theirs
ⓘ
die ⓘ do ⓘ reason ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| culturalSignificance |
frequently cited in discussions of military ethics
ⓘ
proverbial expression of blind obedience ⓘ |
| describes |
fatalism in war
ⓘ
military obedience ⓘ soldiers' sacrifice ⓘ unquestioning duty ⓘ |
| expresses |
acceptance of inevitable death
ⓘ
subordination of individual judgment to command ⓘ |
| firstPublicationWork | The Examiner ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1854 ⓘ |
| fromLineNumberApproximate | 14 ⓘ |
| fromStanzaNumber | 2 ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
cavalry soldiers
ⓘ
military orders ⓘ |
| historicalContext | Crimean War ⓘ |
| historicalEventReferenced | Charge of the Light Brigade ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| meter | dactylic meter ⓘ |
| mood | somber ⓘ |
| oftenMisquotedAs | "Ours not to reason why, ours but to do or die" ⓘ |
| partOfWork |
Charge of the Light Brigade
ⓘ
surface form:
"The Charge of the Light Brigade"
|
| period | Victorian era ⓘ |
| quotedIn |
literary criticism
ⓘ
military speeches ⓘ political commentary ⓘ |
| register | elevated ⓘ |
| rhetoricalDevice |
antithesis
ⓘ
ellipsis ⓘ parallelism ⓘ |
| rhymeScheme | internal rhyme ⓘ |
| theme |
duty
ⓘ
heroism ⓘ loyalty ⓘ obedience to orders ⓘ tragedy of war ⓘ |
| workGenre | poetry ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" Description of subject: "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" is a famous line from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade," encapsulating the unquestioning duty and sacrifice of soldiers in battle.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Charge of the Light Brigade
→
hasPoeticMotto
→
"Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die"
ⓘ