2.4.8 Bayonet Charge

Question 1

Poet

Answer 1

Ted Hughes

Question 2

Theme Code

Answer 2

CLIP-QNDV

Question 3

Themes

Answer 3

Effects of Conflict, Individual Experience, Negative Emotion of Fear, Patriotism, Bravery, Futility of War, Reality of Conflict, Vulnerability

Question 4

Quotes

Answer 4

• ‘Suddenly he awoke’
• ‘He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm’
• ‘Cold clockwork’
• ‘Listening between his footfalls for the reason’
• ‘Shot-slashed furrows’
• ‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera;

Question 5

Main Structural Points

Answer 5

• Enjambment
• Repetition
• Caesura
• Inspiration from ‘Spring Offensive’
• No poetic metre

Question 6

Explain the quote ‘He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm’

Answer 6

Metaphor
This image shows how the rifle has become almost like an extra limb – albeit a useless one. It’s dead weight. It’s also a very violent image – a ‘smashed’ arm – not just broken, but ‘smashed’. It couldn’t be much more brutal. It reminds us that the machinery and weaponry of war are senseless, literally, unfeeling. It’s a part of him, like an arm, but also it’s not a part of him – it’s useless a hindrance.

Question 7

Explain the quote

Answer 7

Cacophony
It creates a harsh sound to reflect the harsh situation the soldiers are in, this alliteration suggests the soldiers have been dehumanised. The soldiers are like cogs for a machine, they are carrying out the war and sacrifice themselves.

Question 8

Quotes for the Main Structural Point

Answer 8

• ‘Raw’
• ‘Lying easy, were at ease’
• ‘Sun’, ‘hot’, ‘warm’, ‘flame’
• ‘Molten’, ‘cold’, ‘flame’
• ‘And crawling’ and ‘ plunged and fell past’
• ‘And crawl’ and ‘plunged past’

Question 9

Simplified Main Structural Point

Answer 9

Enjambment and no poetic metre are used to show a lack of control. Caesura used in stanza 2 when he questions himself, makes the reader also stop and think. ‘Raw’ is repeated to show he has difficulty in expressing feelings and similar to ‘spring offensive’ are many similarities between ‘Spring offensive’ and ‘Bayonet Charge’. Suggests conflict is so horrific, that a person who has not experienced cannot truly express the horrors and needs to revert to others’ work t express it.

Question 10

Main Structural Point

Answer 10

Hughes decided to write ‘Bayonet Charge’ with no rhyme scheme or in any particular poetic metre, creating an irregular rhythm reflecting the soldier’s struggle and panic. This struggle and panic are further highlighted with Hughes’ use of enjambment and caesura within the poem. The enjambment is not just within each verse, lines flow over from stanza to the next, further emphasising the soldier’s sheer panic and lack of control. There are two accounts of caesura used and they are both within Stanza 2, in this stanza, it is all about the soldier stopping and considering what he is doing and why. The caesura forces the reader like the soldier to stop in verse 2 and think. The caesura combines with the enjambment to create a combined effect of chaotic and hard-to-flow structure.
Conflict is further presented with the word choices of Hughes. In the first two lines of the poem, Hughes deliberately used repetition of the word ‘raw’ which creates a sense of desperation and difficulty in expressing the moment. But similarly in a poem entitled ‘Spring Offensive’ the poem’s first two lines has the repetition of two similar words ‘lying easy, were at ease.’ This poem too was about a bayonet charge, and it was written by Wilfred Owen (whom Hughes was a massive fan of). Owen’s poem describes the bayonet charge with words associated with temperature like ‘warm’, ‘sun’, ‘hot’ and ‘flame’ similarly Hughes’ poem contains words like ‘ molten’, ‘cold’ and ‘flame’. In ‘Spring Offensive’ it has the lines of ‘and crawling’ and ‘plunged and fell past away’ near enough identically in ‘Bayonet Charge’ it contains the lines of ‘and crawled’ and ‘plunged past’. Hughes has to sound like Owen because everything he knows about bayonet charges comes from Owen and his poem ‘Spring Offensive’, which is a second-hand poem about a second-hand experience. Hughes deliberately chose to use words similar to the ones of ‘Spring Offensive’ to highlight that he could not express the true horrors of conflict and he is forced to take from someone who was there. War is so inexplicably horrific, that not even the very talented Ted Hughes could describe it and had to refer and revert to the works of others to express it.