Bayonet Charge

• Who was the poet that wrote bayonet charge?

  Ted hudges
• If ted hudges wasn't alive during World War One, why did he write the poem based on it?

  This is because his father fought during World War One and this could have contributed or influenced his feelings about it.
• Where did Ted Hudges grow up and how did this influence his experience on war?

  Ted judges grew up in Yorkshire in a post war society and he experience the effects that it had on his rural home.
• What collection of books was Bayonet charge involved in?

  The hawks in the rain
• What is the collection of books the hawks in the rain about and how did it influence Ted?

  Nature and animals. This foreshadows the way the soldiers were treated like animals and how patriotism dehumanised the soldiers.
• "king, honour , human dignity"
• What literature technique is the phrase "king, honour and human dignity"?

  Asyndetic listing to mock patriotism
• What does the asyndetic listing of "king, honour and human dignity" further show?

  "human dignity" is weak in the face of the barbarity of war (they can no longer show or hold pride that the higher powers fed them that compelled them to go to war)
• "cold clockwork"
• What technique is the phrase "cold clockwork"?

  Harsh alliteration of consonants , that re emphasise the mechanical and emotionless of war.

  The adjective "cold" emphasises the heartless mindset of Patriarch dehumanising the soldiers to tools of the war
• What technique is the phrase "shot slash furrows"

  The alliteration emphasis the repetition of the damage to nature and the unnatural way nature became extinct from the war. Further showing the futility of the war.
• "sweating like molten iron"
• "shot slashed furrows"
• What technique is the phrase "sweating like molten iron"?

  Simile showing that the soldiers are no longer human that they have been transformed into a weapon for the war.
• "suddenly he woke and was running"
• What technique is "suddenly he awoke and started running"?

  Media res
• What poems can you compare bayonet charge to?

  • Exposure
  • remains
  • The charge of the light brigade
• What structure is used throughout the poem?

  Enjambment, show the fast going pace of the bayonet charge with the reader feeling similarly panicked