bayonet charge Flashcards
context
hughes wasn’t alive during world war 1, father fought, may influence thoughts and feelings of war, ger up in post war society, saw effects of war, heavily influenced by wlfred owen
“suddenly he awoke”
poem begins in media res, elaboration if dehumanisation, panic, terror, thrusted into heat of battle, life threatening
“patriotic tear”
patriotism leaves soldiers as they witness visceral beauty of it, patriotism compelled soldiers, will kill them
“cold clockwork”
harsh alliterative consonants, emphasises mechanical and emotionless nature to war, war continues, blind to suffering of those who fight
“slot slashed furrows”
repeated alliteration in same stanza, natures damage, mimics bullets, makes suffering of nature more salient
“rolled like a flame”
uses the hare as symbolic to all soldiers of suffering, ruthlessness of war affects all indiscriminately, no winners in war, desensitised,
“threshing circle”
agricultural imagery, soldiers being harvested, cut down & killed, unable to speak out
form
third person singular, abject terror is rubbed off on reader, isolation of soldiers
lack of regular rhyme, lack of regularity or order in war, discomforting atmosphere, never settle to rhythm, something new every line
structure
enjambment: whole first stanza, breathlessness and chaos, empathise with soldier, terrifying moments of war blend into one another
caesura: slows poem down, soldier deliberating war, use of enj& caesura cause confusion
comparison: exposure
dehumanisation of soldiers, soldiers question why they’re there, irregular rhyme, anticlimax, reality of war, WW1
comparison: remains
soldiers risk death without thought, both begin in media res, enjambment to panic & disjointed, BC more focused on charge, BC longer line length, different perspectives
