Bayonet Charge Flashcards
What is the poets name?
Ted Hughes
What happened to sylvia platt?
She commited suicide
His wife/girlfriend
Describe the poet?
20th Centery poet who”s farther served in WW1
he didn’t fight but served a couple years as a mechanic in the RAF
When was the poem published?
1957
Not too far away from ww2. There would still be memories spread as storys
Showing the sounds of the shots?
“Bullets smaking the belly out of the air-“
Onamatapic metaphor
Showing the realism of war or how his weapon has no use
“He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm”
Showing how he is proud to fight for his country
“Patriotic tear”
Showing how war is ugly
Explain
“a yellow hare that rolled like a flame/ And crawled in a threshing circle”
It shows the relism of war “threshing
Yellow - coller of cowardice
The simile could link to the danger he is in
Showing how he doesn’t think highly of reasons to go to war
“king, honour, human dignity, etcetera”
Form and Strucuture
Use of enjarbment, Caesuras, uneven line length and an irregular rhythm mirrors the soilders struggle through the mud
The narrator uses the pronoun “he” to make the soilder universal (apply to everyone)
It starts in media res
This poem happens in a matter of seconds, the poem has very few end stops
Feelings and attitudes
Sence of terror and confusion
Questioning patrioism
Poems to compare
Relaities of war - charge of the light brigade, exposure, remains
Fear, Prelude
Start of the poem in media res
“Suddenly he awoke and he was running”
Reflecting his breathing
“Hot khaki, his sweat heavy”
What does the first 4 lines show?
Overwhelming description
Could be as the soldier knows he is likley to die and is taking everything in
What does start of the second stanza show? With quote
“In bewilderment then he almost stopped”
Second stanza pauses the action and changes focus to the soldier
Showing the soldiers insignificance
Explain
“cold clockwork of the stars and the nations
Was he the hand pointing at the second? He was running”
It shows how he is insignificant since the metaphor shows he thinks he is a clock who the clockmaster can control.
Second shows that he could be dead. A second only lasts 10miliseconds
Caesura emohasises hos rhetorical question
The simple verb running makes his mission seem unimportant
Structure showing the end of the stanza kind of?
Explain?
There is an end stop in the last line of stanza 2 which signals the end of the oaragraph about the soldiers thoughts. However the stanza continues but back into the battle
Ceasira ends the battle and brings him back to reality
This shows that war is messy
Hinting at fear and hiwnthe soilder feels powerless
“it’s mouth wide
Open silent”
Reffering to a rabbit
Description of the enemy
Explain
“Green hedge”
We never see the enemy showing how the attack is futile
It shows the mystery of the enemy
The natual imagry contrasts with the horrors of war
It shiws a cyclical structure which reminds the reader that he is still on the charge
Showing how his fear has turned the soldier into a weapon
“His touch terror’s dynamite”
