Bayonet charge Flashcards
poet
Ted Hughes
“Suddenly he awoke and was running - raw
in medias res, fast pace
. The immediacy of the first adverb “Suddenly” combines with the compound sentence to making waking up and “running” simultaneous. That final adjetive repeted “raw” creates a sense of both the painful shock of the attack and the soldier’s inexperience. or awaking mataphor for relaising reslity of war and the difference from propaganda
“heavy”“clods”“strumblin” “lugged” “numb” “ molten iron”
semantic field of heavy and weaknesses and vulnerability,
paradox to describe a soldier like this
The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye
patriotic is his motivation, proud to defend country, however it becomes fear “had) past tense. contrast between positve emotion of patriotism and the past tense suggesting it has turned into fear and panic
”-“
“cold clockwork”
dash used evoke hesitation, create pause
harsh c sounds suggest ticking of time that contrasts the hesitation
soldiers are treated as pawns in a game rather than individual lives, reinforcing the idea that wart is mechanical and cold through alliterations
perspective
third person singular which gives a limited narrative perspective.
This allows the reader to focus on the individual impact of war by showing the way war impacts a single individual.
from a soldier’s perspective, the reality of the war experience is
horrific to the reader who finds it impossible to view war favourably.
This third person singular perspective also emphasises the isolation felt by soldiers in war. The isolation of soldier helps to intensify the suffering of the speaker and focuses the audience
on the impact that war has on them. This shows that despite fighting in an army a battle is about
self-preservation and that they are ultimately on their own. Moreover, soldiers are still neglected by
the nation they fought for and are left to go back to society.
The poem is highly focused on one soldier’s emotions which is ironic as soldiers were expected to
show no emotion
King, honour, human dignity, etcetera
Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm
The soldier appears to have completely abandoned his previously upheld values and motivation to fight- fatalisticn no longer cares about anything
asyndetic listing
“open silent” “rolled like a flame” “crawled in a threshing circle” “standing out”
symbol of fear of soldiers, panic, central now
hughes is using nature to explore humanity
like statuary in mid-stride
simile suggests a statue, frozen in fear, confronting the reality of war, in between stage
all similes used
no way for Hughes to accurately describe what war is like. As Hughes has no first hand experience of war
he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm
unprepared for war and unsuitable for his role, simile
r seems disconnected from his weapon and uncomfortable holding it, showing his physical unsuitability for his role. The rifle is presented to be numb and cold showing how unnatural the soldier deems committing acts of violence
how is the hare used
symbol of soldiers’ collective suffering. Hughes projects the violence of war onto an innocent creature
accidentally caught up in the war.
“threshing circle” and its “mouth wide, open silent”
soldier is so immune to the death of humans, that it takes a new kind of
suffering – that of an innocent animal – for him to be shocked out
The explicit violence and graphic descriptions of war trough hare
highlights the injustice of war as innocents die
bullets smacking the belly out of the air”
nature is a victim of war through his use of personification
the active verb demonstrates the violence inflicted on the air. This is emphasised through the use of harsh plosive sounds in “bullets” and “belly”. The personification of the air as having a belly” allows the reader to have sympathy for the effect of war on nature.
“green hedge”
Peaceful images are juxtaposed with the violence of fighting showing the contrast between life and death. peaceful, innocent symbol
of (plant) life contrasts death
