Bayonet Charge

Question 1

‘Cold clockwork of the stars and the nations.’

Answer 1

-Alliterative consonants reinforce the idea that war has a cold, mechanical, calculated nature.
-Further implies the soldiers are treated like they are in a game rather than individual lives fighting in war - physical tools.
-The ‘stars’ and ‘nations’ are watching over the soldiers like they are the hands of a clock.
-The stars being aligned correlates to why he is in war in the first place - fate or destiny.

Question 2

‘Shot-slashed furrows.’

Answer 2

-Rural imagery (Ted Hughes was raised within rural areas) - creates juxtaposition between nourishing nature of agriculture and the reality of war.
-Represents innocence which is ironic in relation to the poem.

Question 3

Form of Bayonet Charge

Answer 3

-Written in free verse to depict the unpredictability and chaotic nature of war.
-Narrator is desensitised - dehumanising effect of conflict.

Question 4

Context of Bayonet Charge

Answer 4

-Hughes never fought in a war directly, but his father did, leaving him emotionally traumatised.
-No setting in the poem is provided which makes it collective, universal and applicable to all warfare.