Bayonet Charge

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

Enjambement and caesura - uneven lengths of lines
- creates an irregular rhythm which mirrors the soldiers struggling through the mud

8,7,8
-the middle stanza is shorter and shows the man stopping running and reflecting of why he’s done it
“In bewilderment the he almost stopped”
-reflects how soldiers act more than they think

Universal figure of “he”
Could be any soldier
- detached feeling

A sense of rhyme shows absence of control and order

Question 2

Nature

Answer 2

Shows the power of nature

“Green hedge” is supposed to be shelter but instead is “dazzled with riffle fire.

“Bullets smacking the belly out of the air”
Personifies the air

Question 3

Figurative language

Answer 3

“Like a man who has jumped up in the dark and runs”

• simile symbolised so,some blind and irrational
• no rational reason for war

“Was he the hand pointing that second?”

• why is he chosen to fight
• questions war

Question 4

Terror

Answer 4

Hughes challenges patriotism and shows how fear drives the soldiers

“King, honour, human dignity etcetera”
Takes motivation out of it

“The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye”

Question 5

Confusion

Answer 5

The soldier is physically disorientated

Questions war

Question 6

Context

Answer 6

Ted Hughes didn’t write from experience but mostly wrote about nature and his anti war attitude. Questioned warfare.