Bayonet Charge Flashcards
vunrability and confusion
“suddenly he awoke”- as if he is in a vunrable state
“raw”- suggests discomfort or inexperience
“sweating like molten iron” - his patriotism has turned to fear and pain and his heroic ideas have been replaced with a painful reality
“bewilderment”
“rolled like a flame”- simile emphasises the hares frantic movement and the danger the soldier is in
“statuary” - as if the soldier has turned to stone from his bewilderment
“he almost stopped-“ - this stanza pauses the action and focuses on the soldier questioning hispurpose
form
“hot khaki, his sweat heavy”-repeated h sound imitates the heavy breathing as he runs
“in mid stride.” the caesura ends his period of thought and forces him to return to reality
the poem uses enjambent, caesura and uses lines with uneven length to create an irregular rhythm which mirrors the soldiers struggles. the narrator uses the pronoun ‘he’ rather than naming the soldier to suggest he is a universal figure who could represent any soldier
natural imagery
“threshing circle”- agricultural term used to suggest nature is affected by war
“green hedge” - natural image contrasts with the violence of war
context
the poem is set during ww1 despite being written years later and describes a soldier going ‘over the top’ which usually resulted in heavy casualties
structure
poem starts in the middle of the action and covers the soldiers movements and thoughts over a short space of time.
- the first stanza sees the soldier acting on instincts
- in second stanza time seems to stand still
- final stanza the soldier thinks about his situation and begins to lose his humanity
