Bayonet Charge Flashcards
What is the rhyme scheme in Bayonet Charge?
None
What effect does the rhyme scheme have on the reader?
The chaotic structure mirrors the chaos and panic of war.
What is the perspective of Bayonet Charge?
Third-person singular
What effect does the perspective have?
Third person singular gives a limited narrative perspective on war. Focussing on the individual impact of war.
Emphasises the isolation soldiers feel. The protagonist is the only human in the poem, it further isolates him from any source of help and comfort.
Focused on one soldier’s emotions, ironic, considering soldiers were expected to show no emotion.
What is the structure of Bayonet Charge?
Chaotic
What effect does the structure have on the reader?
Enjambment - Quickens the pace of the poem, the whole of the first stanza is one sentence which matches the tense action of the poem.
Caesura - The fast pace in the first stanza starkly contrasts with the comparatively slow pace in the second stanza as a result of the caesura used as the soldier starts to question the reason and philosophical meaning of the conflict. Also causes the reader to think about the meaning of war as well.
In media res - Gives the reader no time to ease into the poem, mirroring the shock the soldiers felt in the war.
Frequeunt use of enjambment and caesura makes the poem feel disjointed and confusing, consistent with the message that war cannot be fully understood.
Good quotes
“Suddenly he awoke”
“Cold clockwork”
“The patriotic tear … sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest” vs “King, Honour, Human Dignity, etcetera / Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm”
“Threw up a yellow hare”
Analysis of “Suddenly he awoke”
Metaphor - The soldier may have literally awoken to a threat, but the figurative side of him waking up to the reality of war as he finally begins to think about why it is he is there.
Analysis of “Cold clockwork”
Consonance - Reinforces the cold and calculated mechanical nature of war - cogs in a clock that all work together to click. The “clockwork” conjures a sense that the soldiers are being used as physical tools rather than the sentient beings they are. The soldiers are merely a statistic to those in charge, and the clockwork proves it. He is a small cog in the greater wheel of war.
Analysis of “the patriotic tear … sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest”
He came to war out of a sense of duty for his country, however, as the soldier’s eyes are opened to the realities of war, that same tear “sweat[ed] like molten iron from the centre of his chest”. The simile used denotes how the patriotism he previously held so dear at the “centre of his chest”, begins to leave him. The imagery of “molten iron” has painful connotations as the soldier is physically pained by the realisation of his ideals being disproven.
Analysis of “King, honour, human dignity, etcetera”
The asyndetic list when describing values of “king, honour, human dignity” shows how the soldier gains strength from fighting, but when faced with death and warfare, those same values are “dropped like human luxuries” and are abandoned very quickly. “etcetera” has a sense of mocking towards his prior views, as if they are so outdated now, they are not even worth mentioning.
Analysis of “threw up a yellow hare”
Hughes studied mythology and many of his poems contained natural imagery, this poem is no exception. The yellow hare is often used in literature in association with death and destruction. The usage of the past tense verb “threw up” contrasts with the innocence connotated by a hare.
Comparisons
Bayonet Charge / Remains
Comparisons between BC / Remains?
Both present the psychological impact of war on a soldier.
Both poems present the soldiers as afraid, criticising war and the killing it inflicts.
They are both written by poets with no first hand combat experience.
Remains shows the psychological affect when the soldier returns from war, BC shows it while the soldier is still in the field.
