Bayonet Charge Flashcards
Suddenly he awoke and was running- raw in raw-seamed hot khaki, his sweat heavy
Poem begins in media res. Hughes believes that war is like an unnatural awakening. Our normal lives are dreamlike and the soldier has been awakened.
“Raw” shows how emotionally and physically painful war is.
The extended sentence gives the poem a sense of breathlessness which mimicks the soldier’s own breathlessness in the battle.
Bullets smacking the belly out of the air - he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm
The air is personified “the belly”. Conveys the soldier’s sense of relief and amusement as the bullets are not hitting him.
“numb” shows that he cannot experience his own feelings.
The assonance of u in “lugged a rifle numb” conveys time slowing down which contrasts the soldier’s mental sense of urgency.
In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations was he the hand pointing that second? He was running
This question comes at a moment of stillness in his mind. “Cold clockwork of the stars” implies this is fate yet “cold” suggests that the great power is unfeeling.
“The nations” shows that the politicians and governments are also contributing to the suffering of the soldiers.
The metaphor of clockwork suggests that as time keeps ticking, more soldiers are dying needlessly. It also says that death is inevitable against the marching of time.
Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle, its mouth wide
The soldier now notices his surroundings.
The hare is a symbol for the soldier, it too is exposing itself to danger.
“Circle” questions whether war is a never ending cycle - Hughes wrote this poem after WW2 yet it is describing WW1 - we have not learned to stop. Perhaps he is anticipating a WW3.
His terror’s touchy dynamite
Suggests that the soldier’s own terror is going to kill him - he will explode into a risky action that will result in his death.
“Touchy” is associated with feelings - Hughes may be using this poem as a recreation of an experience of his father’s. Suggests that Hughes’ father is still scared of the terror of the war after it.
