Bayonet Charge Flashcards
Brief plot summary
The soldier awakens mid-action, stumbling forward under gunfire. His body reacts instinctively but his mind lags, overwhelmed by fear. Time seems to slow as he questions his purpose. Patriotic ideals collapse under the immediacy of survival. He becomes dehumanized—a “machine” of war—lunging toward a hedge glittering with rifle fire. The poem ends abruptly, leaving his fate unknown but emphasizing war’s brutality.
Context
Hughes’ father, a WWI veteran, survived the Gallipoli campaign—a traumatic battle that left deep psychological scars. This familial link influenced Hughes’ bleak portrayal of war.
Hughes himself served as a mechanic in the RAF (1950s), though not in combat, exposing him to military culture and machinery, which may explain the poem’s mechanized imagery.
Written after WWII and during the Cold War, the poem challenges patriotic propaganda that glorified sacrifice. Hughes instead exposes war’s dehumanizing chaos.
Reflects modernist disillusionment, akin to Wilfred Owen’s WWI poetry (“Dulce et Decorum Est”).
Structure and Form
Free Verse & Irregular Rhythm
No set rhyme or meter → mimics the unpredictability of war.
Lines vary in length (e.g., short, abrupt lines vs. longer, flowing ones) → reflects the soldier’s erratic thoughts or the soldier struggling through the mud
Enjambment (sentences spill over lines):
→ Creates a breathless, uncontrolled pace, like the soldier’s desperate charge.
Caesura (mid-line pauses):
→ Forces the reader to pause, emphasizing the soldier’s mental breakdown.
The poem begins in medias res (“Suddenly he awoke and was running”) → thrusts the reader into the chaos, denying context or preparation, just like the soldier.
Stanza 1: Sudden action – the soldier is thrust into battle The pace is frantic, reflecting panic.
Stanza 2: Time slows – the soldier questions his purpose. The pause contrasts with the first stanza’s urgency.
Stanza 3: Machine-like movement – the soldier loses humanity, reduced to a weapon
Language
Violent Imagery
Hughes depicts war as chaotic and physically destructive:
“Bullets smacking the belly out of the air”
→ Onomatopoeic “smacking” makes gunfire visceral; “belly out of the air” suggests the sky itself is wounded.
“Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame”
→ The hare, a natural symbol of innocence, is mutilated by war, “rolled like a flame” evoking napalm-like horror.
Effect: War corrupts nature and flesh alike.
- Mechanistic & Dehumanizing Language
The soldier becomes less human, more machine:
“Sweating like molten iron”
→ Simile compares his tears to hot metal, reducing him to industrial material.
“Cold clockwork of the stars”
→ Alliteration (“cold clockwork”) + celestial imagery = fate controls him like a machine.
“He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm”
→ The rifle is useless, like a broken limb—war renders both man and weapon powerless.
Effect: Soldiers are cogs in war’s indifferent machinery.
- Sensory Overload
Hughes bombards the reader with disjointed sensations:
Touch: “raw-seamed hot khaki” (uniform chafes, amplifying discomfort).
Sound: “yelling alarm” (panic is auditory, not just visual).
Sight/Sound Contrast: “green hedge / that dazzled with rifle fire”
→ Nature (“green hedge”) clashes with war (“rifle fire”), overwhelming the senses.
Effect: The reader experiences the soldier’s disorientation.
- Dismissive Language for Patriotism
Hughes undermines war’s traditional ideals:
“King, honour, human dignity, etcetera”
→ Listing reduces grand concepts to a casual “etcetera”, mocking their irrelevance in battle.
“The patriotic tear… Sweating like molten iron”
→ Contrast between “brimmed” (pride) and “sweating” (fear) shows patriotism melting under terror.
“Bullets smacking the belly out of the air”
Onomatopoeia (“smacking”) + violent imagery. Bullets tear through the sky itself, emphasizing war’s all-consuming destruction.
Violent imagery describes the sound and impact of the shots.
“Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest”
Simile compares sweat (human) to molten metal (industrial), reducing the soldier to a machine. “Centre of his chest” hints at his heart hardening.
“In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations/ Was he the hand pointing that second?”
Alliteration (“cold clockwork”) + celestial imagery. The soldier is powerless, controlled by fate’s unfeeling mechanics.
“King, honour, human dignity, etcetera / Dropped like luxuries”
Listing mocks grand ideals; “etcetera” dismisses them as irrelevant. Simile (“like luxuries”) suggests they’re frivolous in battle.
“The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye”
“Brimmed” implies pride, but later “sweating like molten iron” shows it curdling into fear.
“Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame”
The hare (symbol of innocence) is mutilated. Simile (“like a flame”) links it to artillery fire or napalm, showing war’s reach into nature. Hints the soldiers’ danger.
“His terror’s touchy dynamite”
The soldier seems to have become a metaphor for a weapon rather than a human being. He’s being driven purely by his terror.
Comparisons
Comparison Poem: Exposure (Wilfred Owen)
Similarities:
Both depict war as physically and mentally destructive.
Nature is hostile: In Exposure, “merciless iced winds” kill soldiers; in Bayonet Charge, the “yellow hare” is mutilated by gunfire.
Sensory language: Owen’s “sudden successive flights of bullets” mirrors Hughes’ “bullets smacking the belly out of the air.”
Differences:
Exposure focuses on slow suffering (cold, waiting), while Bayonet Charge is frantic and chaotic (mid-charge).
Owen uses regular stanzas to reflect monotony; Hughes uses irregular structure for chaos.
Comparison Poem: Remains (Simon Armitage)
Similarities:
Both show soldiers losing humanity:
Bayonet Charge: “sweating like molten iron” (machine-like).
Remains: “his bloody life in my bloody hands” (guilt dehumanizes).
Graphic imagery:
Hughes’ “yellow hare” vs. Armitage’s “sort of inside-out” corpse.
Differences:
Remains explores PTSD and guilt after war; Bayonet Charge focuses on the moment of combat.
Armitage uses colloquial language (“probably armed, possibly not”); Hughes uses metallic, industrial metaphors.
Comparison Poem: The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson)
Similarities:
Both depict cavalry charges (Light Brigade = Crimean War; Bayonet Charge = WWI).
Soldiers follow orders blindly.
Differences:
Tone:
Tennyson glorifies sacrifice (“Honour the charge they made!”).
Hughes undermines patriotism (“King, honour… etcetera / Dropped like luxuries”).
Agency:
Light Brigade are heroic (“theirs not to reason why”).
Hughes’ soldier questions (“In what cold clockwork of the stars?”).
