Bayonet Charge

Question 1

What is the poets name?

Answer 1

Ted Hughes

Question 2

What happened to sylvia platt?

Answer 2

She commited suicide

His wife/girlfriend

Question 3

Describe the poet?

Answer 3

20th Centery poet who”s farther served in WW1

he didn’t fight but served a couple years as a mechanic in the RAF

Question 4

When was the poem published?

Answer 4

1957

Not too far away from ww2. There would still be memories spread as storys

Question 5

Showing the sounds of the shots?

Answer 5

“Bullets smaking the belly out of the air-“

Onamatapic metaphor

Question 6

Showing the realism of war or how his weapon has no use

Answer 6

“He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm”

Question 7

Showing how he is proud to fight for his country

Answer 7

“Patriotic tear”

Question 8

Showing how war is ugly

Explain

Answer 8

“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

Question 9

Showing how he doesn’t think highly of reasons to go to war

Answer 9

“king, honour, human dignity, etcetera”

Question 10

Form and Strucuture

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Feelings and attitudes

Answer 11

Sence of terror and confusion

Questioning patrioism

Question 12

Poems to compare

Answer 12

Relaities of war - charge of the light brigade, exposure, remains

Fear, Prelude

Question 13

Start of the poem in media res

Answer 13

“Suddenly he awoke and he was running”

Question 14

Reflecting his breathing

Answer 14

“Hot khaki, his sweat heavy”

Question 15

What does the first 4 lines show?

Answer 15

Overwhelming description

Could be as the soldier knows he is likley to die and is taking everything in

Question 16

What does start of the second stanza show? With quote

Answer 16

“In bewilderment then he almost stopped”

Second stanza pauses the action and changes focus to the soldier

Question 17

Showing the soldiers insignificance

Explain

Answer 17

“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

Question 18

Structure showing the end of the stanza kind of?

Explain?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Hinting at fear and hiwnthe soilder feels powerless

Answer 19

“it’s mouth wide
Open silent”

Reffering to a rabbit

Question 20

Description of the enemy

Explain

Answer 20

“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

Question 21

Showing how his fear has turned the soldier into a weapon

Answer 21

“His touch terror’s dynamite”