Bayonet Charge

• 'Suddenly he awoke and was running'.

  • Dramatic beginning/ In Media Res; Reflects the unpredictability and unexpectedness that war brings; you can be attacked at any time and need to be quick on your feet with your reactions.
  • This mimics the futility of war, where you are doing things without knowing why and/or without knowing a reason for it.
• 'In raw-seamed hot khaki, his sweat heavy'

  The repeated ‘h’ sound imitates the soldier's heavy breathing as he runs. He is uncomfortable and under pressure.
• 'Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge'

  Verb: The character was unprepared to flee and therefore his body language is clumsy and uncoordinated; he is vulnerable.
• 'That dazzled with rifle fire, hearing'

  Adjective: imagery of the hedge being shot at so much that its bright lights temporarily blind the soldier; vulnerability.
• 'Bullets smacking the belly out of the air –'

  Personification: The air is portrayed as victim who has been winded due to blows to the stomach. This heightens the notion that several bullets are flying through the air in an attack. Plosive Sounds: mimic the round of bullets being fired
• 'He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm;

  Simile & Irony: suggests the speaker’s rifle is useless and foreshadows the injuries he is likely to encounter. Verb: The weapon is a burden to him; vulneravulnerability
• 'The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest, –'

  Metaphor and Simile: The water from the tears that were once patriotic has been replaced with sweat; portraying that in the midst of battle, running for your life takes precedence over your patriotism.
• 'In bewilderment then he almost stopped –'

  Paradoxical continuation and deviation from the first line of the first stanza; the soldier is still confused and disorientated, but instead of running he now halts.
• In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations Was he the hand pointing that second?


  • Rhetorical Question: In his moment of clarity, he realises that he is simply a cog that keeps the war machine ticking over; his life is insignificant and he is used simply as a tool. He pictures himself as the hand on a clock, subject to the inevitable force of time that cannot be slowed or quickened.
  • Adjective: War is void of emotion and is mechanical; the life of an individual is not taken into consideration.  
• 'He was running Like a man who has jumped up in the dark and runs Listening between his footfalls for the reason Of his still running,'

  Simile: He is running like someone with an irrational fear/paranoia, with the terror heightened by his blindness.

  The speaker is hinting at the futility of war.
• 'and his foot hung like Statuary in mid-stride.'

  Simile: he becomes like a statue made of stone.
• 'Then the shot-slashed furrows'

  Sibilance: We are thrust back into the action; The ‘s’ sounds serve as a reminder that during this thinking time, shots are still being fired. (Wars rage on no matter what).
• The caesura ends the speaker’s internal thoughts and forces him to return to his deadly reality.
• Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame And crawled in a threshing circle,


  • Enjambment: The broken line and continuation of it in a new stanza signifies the brief period of time a soldier has to reflect on his reason for fighting before being called back into action; after the pause, the war rages on. It is incessant and relentless.
  • Simile & Verb: emphasises the frantic movements; the verb suggests that, like the soldier, the hare’s vulnerability has slurred its movements and in its agony is desperately trying to crawl to safety.
• 'its mouth wide Open silent, its eyes standing out'

  Mimics the soldier’s previous statuesque position; it too is bewildered by what has happened. War effects animals and soldiers alike; no one is exempt.
• 'He plunged past with his bayonet toward the green hedge,'

  Verb: he thrusts himself towards the enemy. He has become a killing machine.
• 'King, honour, human dignity, etcetera Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm'

  • Simile: the soldier has realised that all the factors that persuaded him to go into war become infinitely insignificant in battle.
  • Ecetera: Conveys a blasé attitude; they are not even worth mentioning.
• 'To get out of that blue crackling air His terror’s touchy dynamite.'

  • Onomatopoeia: Description of the ongoing gunfire around him.
  • He wants only to escape. The soldier, the killing machine, the patriotic citizen, the thinking being who sees himself as representative of ‘stars and nations’ — all these are subsumed in the experience of his terror.
  • In turn, the “terror” is so extreme that it has driven him to the edge of sanity and he might implode.