7️⃣ Bayonet Charge Flashcards
Who wrote it?
Ted Hughes
Did Hughes experience war himself?
No
What does he like writing about?
Nature
What is the irony in this poem?
Soldiers were expected to show no emotion whereas this poem is highly focussed on it
What is the perspective and what does it show?
3rd person soldier
Universal representation of soldiers (can happen to anyone)
3rd person singular gives a limited narrative point of view focussing on the individual impact of war
What is the verse and structure like?
Free verse and enjambment which imitates pace and running/maintaining the momentum of the charge
How terrors touchy dynamite
Last line
Fearful- metaphor for his his fear
Plosive
Everything could explode in his fear
Unpredictability of war
Suddenly he awoke and was running- raw
In raw seamed hot khaki, his sweat heavy
In medias res —> epiphanic
Confusion, metaphor for realisation that this is happening, shock at going into battle, establishes a tense atmosphere
Syntax with frequent caesura imitates running and panic, the disrupted rhythm giving a sense that he is fevered along with the semantic field of heat and sweat
reminiscent of stuttering and a breakdown in rationality
First stanza
Repetition of raw and sweat creates a semantic field of heat and sweat emphasising his fear and physical discomfort indicative of his psychological trauma, reminiscent of stuttering and a breakdown in rationality
Sweating like a molten iron from the centre of his chest
Simile, heat semantic field, discomfort
Chest
Arm
Belly
Footfalls
Mouth
Eyes
Semantic field of body parts and violence dehumanises the soldier and suggest that soldiers are weapons of war as the simile he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm blurs the distinction between weapon and soldier
Caesura eg. That dazzled with rifle fire, hearing
Overwhelmed psychological effects
The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye
Visual imagery slows pace and is cinematic
Past tense
Hints at transitions
Like a man who has jumped up in the dark and runs
Listening between his footfalls for the reason
Of his still running
Realises he has no idea what he doing there
Risking his life when he will make no change in any outcome
Volta and epiphanic
Threw up a yellow hate that rolled like a flame
And crawled in a threshing circle, it’s mouth wide
Open silent, it’s eyes standing out.
Senseless idea of death
1. Emphasising damage to nature and innocent beings
2. Metaphor for injured soldier- everything is too much to process
Green hedge
Refrain
Determined to find a place of sanctuary as poem is about a soldier running from one trench to a hedge
King, honour, human dignity, etcetera
Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm
List
Ideas about patriotism are forgotten
Creates a sense of bathos (anticlimax, triviality after serious tone)
Encourages questioning of war
Ideas are juxtaposed
