I have been trying to put my thoughts together about this song on this webpage, after a friend played Pete Rowan's excellent version. there are a few typos as it was done today, and I have tried to put together a version that makes sense for me.

I know it will be radically different to some ears and the worse for that, but hopefully some of you will get my drift.

http://bigalwhittle.co.uk/id29.html

I hope to add more explanation at some point. There seems to me to be a sort of Empsonian ambiguity in the choice of Raglan.   Raglan was of course, one of the toffs at the Charge of the Light Brigade. And there is perhaps a hint of flawed heroic enterprise, or maybe a confession of inward corruption in his empire of poetry - providing the backdrop.

best wishes

big Al Whittle