Bayonet Charge Flashcards
1
Q
Context
A
- written in 1957
- about Word War one
- focus on the feelings of the soldiers
2
Q
‘Suddenly he awoke and was running-raw, in raw-seamed hot Khaki his sweat heavy’
A
- dramatic opening - war is unnatural
- repetition and enjablement of raw to raw shows war is painful
- homophone of raw reflects how it is mentally and physically challenging
- verb ‘running’ contrasts with long sentence which mimics how they are breathless and trying to escape war
- uniform is weighing them down as ‘hot’ and ‘raw-seamed’ suggests running is going on forever and mimics there fear
3
Q
Bullets smacking the belly out of the air/ he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm
A
- alliteration of belly and bullets is comical
- personification of the air protecting itself, he finds it funny as bullets are not hitting him, ironically if they do they would kill him
- he is numb and suppresses his fear so rather finds it funny and laughs about it in a way to cope from this misery of war
- assonate of ‘u’ makes it slowdown conveying urgency in his mind but his body is slowing down
- athymic and troiach rhyme show he is running but cannot escape
4
Q
In what cold clockwork of these stars and the nations was he the hand pointing that second? He was running
A
- metaphor
- represents fate but cold suggests God doesn’t care about their suffering as well as the nations
- the nations use this as propaganda but actually lied leading them to there death, their death is meaningless
