Bayonet Charge

• Who wrote Bayonet Charge?

  Ted Hughes
• Ted Hughes was born in 1930 and died in 1998
• Ted Hughes grew up in the country side of Yorkshire , was passionate about animals and nature , and was devoted to poetry from a young age, despite a lack of income (He was also obsessed with astrology)
• Ted Hughes's father served in WW1
• Ted Hughes writes about a war he did not personally experience in 'Bayonet Charge'
• Ted Hughes's father was one of his motivations for writing Bayonet Charge - although he didn't personally experience WW1 first-hand, it could be said that he felt the effects of it through his relationship with his father
• Hughes's grew up in West Yorkshire , and he said the region was still stunned by the WW1 - this may have been one of his motivations for writing Bayonet Charge
• Ted Hughes was inspired by the poetry of Wilfred Owen - Hughes thought that his poetry was contemporary , and greatly influenced Hughes's own existence - Hughes stated that his poetry represented his father's experience
• Bayonet Charge focuses on the indescribable horror of war - our ideas about what war is like is nothing like reality , and that war is so terrible that you cannot adequately describe it
• The poem begins in the middle of the action with the word ' Suddenly ' - We as the reader are confused , much like the soldier (who suddenly wakes up and is charging forward with his bayonet) , as we are unsure about the event that his come before this - This is an example of Ted Hughes using structure to make us feel like the soldier
• Why doe Ted Hughes use enjambment between lines and even verses?

  Enjambment creates a disjointed and unordered effect on the reader - the reader struggles to make sense of the chaos of the poem in the same way that the soldier struggles to make sense of the situation that he finds himself in , waking into a battle charge

  
• Why does Ted Hughes use caesura (Where lines end in the middle of sentences)?

  The caesura forces the reader , like the soldier , to stop and think - The caesura creates a chaotic and hard to follow structure , that mirrors the situation the soldier finds himself in -This allows the reader to emphasise with him

  
• Why does Ted Hughes use the repetition of raw?

  Repetition can used to show a poet's difficulty in expressing a moment at a time of great stress , and resembles stuttering - this mirrors the soldiers difficulty to articulate the moment of madness that he finds himself in , and emphasises that war is so horrific, that you cannot express yourself

  
• Why does Ted Hughes use many similes in Bayonet Charge?

  A simile is used to make something understandable - this suggests that the thing Hughes is describing, in this case war , is indescribable - the use of similes is purposefully overwhelming to express the sheer horror of war - War is so terrible , that Hughes cannot describe it , he has to liken it to something

  
• The quote "Bullets smacking the belly out of the air" - The fact that the soldier is the only person mentioned in the poem could suggest that this is all a dream, but could also be used to help us focus on nature - Hughes was fascinated by this from a young age

  
• The quote "a yellow hare" may insinuate that the soldier is dreaming , but could also be metaphorical - Some people think that the adjective yellow is a link to cowardice , but there is no clear answer - What is clear is the fact that the hare is a reference to nature - the hare is a victim of this moment of war (Hughes wrote many poems about animals) - The hare reminds the reader the impact that war has on nature

  
• The quote "In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations" may be used to suggest that while nature is impacted by war , it has no interest in war itself (Hughes had a passion for astrology) - "The stars and the nations" suggest that this moment of war was destined , and "cold clockwork" suggests that the soldier is a cog in a machine , and nobody cares about what happens to him