Bayonet Charge and Exposure Flashcards
Comparison 1
Both poems expose the reality and horror of conflict. In both poems, the soldiers are unprepared for the violent and horrific nature of warfare and the impact that this can have.
Comparison 2
Both poems criticise the futility of war and dispensability of the soldiers at the hands of governments who use their soldiers as tools of destruction.
Comparison 3
Both poems explore nature in conflict in order to expose the reality of war.
Exposure 1
In Exposure, this is evident through Owen’s description of war as monotonous.
Exposure 1 - Quotes
“but nothing happens”
“dawn massing in the east, her melancholy army”
Bayonet Charge 1
In Contrast, in Bayonet Charge, Hughes describes the reality of war as chaotic.
Bayonet Charge 1 - Quotes
“suddenly”
“raw in raw seamed hot khaki”
Exposure 2
In Exposure, Owen uses personal pronouns to explore this idea and to highlight the collective experience of war.
Exposure 2 - Quotes
“our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
Present tense
Bayonet Charge 2
Similarly, in Bayonet Charge, Hughes also uses pronouns to explore this idea and to describe the collective experience. However, rather than personal pronouns, Hughes uses the pronoun “he” which leaves who the poem is about ambiguous, thus demonstrating how the poem could describe the experiences of any soldier.
Bayonet Charge 2 - Quotes
“In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations was he the hand pointing that second?”
Exposure 3
However, in Exposure, nature is aligned with the enemy and attacks the men. Owen also uses the weather as an extended metaphor to expose the government and the propaganda used to entice men into enlisting.
Exposure 3 - Quotes
“ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
“all their eyes are ice”
Bayonet Charge 3
In contrast, in Bayonet Charge, nature is a victim of warfare, just like the soldiers in battle.
Bayonet Charge 3 - Quotes
“yellow hare that rolled like a flame”
“crawled” “threshing circle”
“his terror’s touchy dynamite”
“suddenly”
- in Media res
- immediate sets tone of confusion
- may mirror how soldiers may have felt
- imply soldiers just as unprepared as reader - seemingly dropped into mid of war
“raw in raw seamed hot khaki”
“raw”- rep adj
- cn vulnerability/discomfort - implies soldiers vulnerable as young and inxp
- alt. cn animalistic - highlights how poet felt war animalistic due to extreme amnt violence
- highlights physicality of war, soldiers xposed to extreme conditions and violence
- rep also literary allusion Owen’s “spring offensive”
- could show Hughes unable to articulate inexplicable horrors of war
- instead forced to refer to work of other’s
“but nothing happens”
- refrain
- war monotonous and dull
- soldiers waiting for something to happen yet never does
- xposed to more than just conflict
- highlights needless suffering as soldiers just waiting to die
“dawn massing in the east, her melancholy army”
“dawn” - cn new beginnings
- jxt smf of misery
- emphasise everyday filled with same misery+despair of the last
- illustrates hopelessness of war
- circularity - highlights endless monotony of soldier’s day to day life in war.
“our brains ache”
“our”/”us”- collective pronouns
-highlights universal nature of xps of war
- present tense
- never ending cycle of pain+misery in war
“ache”- cn of ongoing pain
-mirrors xp of soldiers, as faced with constant emotional+physical pain, despite dullness of war
“merciless iced east winds that knive us”
- sibilance
-may mirror harshness of wind, shows terrible conditions forced to fight in
-alt. cn cold/emotionless - deceit, govt detached from suffering
-may give impression govt is deceiving soldiers in sense that are sent out to war, innocent of knowledge of reality
“knife” close contact weapon, easily concealed- highlights how poet feels govt personally/openly deceived them, as they knew many of men wont make out alive
“In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations was he the hand pointing that second?”
“he” - ambiguous, could be anyone
“clockwork” - merely cog in machine
-reinforces minute part men play in bigger pic of war
“second hand” - emph disposable nature of soldiers, easily replaced
-similar to E, both poems seemingly take advantage of young naive soldiers, indoctrinate to fight, know most likely to die
“clockwork” - time construct made by humans, just as conflict made by govt
-fully emp lack of care of govt
-+perhaps nature, as time no emotion or morality – can’t be stopped no matter what
-war pointless
“ranks on shivering ranks of grey”
“grey” -cn of lifelessness - emphatic of dullness of war
- war ultimately pointless, all life will be destroyed
- could refer to DE uniforms (also grey)
- immediateley aligns nature w/ enemy
- nature common enemy between all soldiers, no matter which side they fight on
- nature transcends all man made concepts, including war
“all their eyes are ice”
“all” - collective xp, lost identity
- metaphor - refers to eyes of men who are dead but also men who are living
- nature transcends mortality, living + dead both entirely consumed by nature, no separation between the two
- nature no boundaries
- cold to violence, death + loss that they experienced during war
- highlights horror of war-can no longer feel emotion, desensitised to horrific events they’ve witnessed and instead have become resigned to their situation.
“yellow hare that rolled like a flame”
-traditional colour of cowardice
-could rep fear of soldiers
-nature fearful of destructiveness of humans
“hare” - wild animal, innocent animals affected by war-shows war consumes everything
“yellow hare” - does not exist
-natural world can’t compete against harsh reality of war
-when forced to interact can have devastating effects
“flame” - fire engulf, war engulf
“crawled”/”threshing circle”
-conveys agony and inability to move
-weakened and injured
“circle” - can only complete circle, getting nowhere
-could be reflection of hopelessness of men
-pointless conflict, achieves nothing, never ending cycle
“his terror’s touchy dynamite”
-soldiers = weapons themselves, rather than humans with purpose
-driven purely by terror – kill or be killed mentality – weaponizes the men they recruit.
“dynamite” – violent, brutal, destructive.
-poem ends on a tone of destruction – war destroys everything
-questions purpose of war, yet must continue to be almost machine like and kill enemy for fear of being killed himself
