bayonet charge - ted hughs

• context

  • was not alive in ww1 but father fought in gallipoli in 1915
  • grew up in post war yorkshire and saw first hand effects of war in rural land
  • his poetry often focuses on the vulnerability of animals - shown through the hare in bayonet charge
  • from collection “the hawk in the rain” dedicated to his with sylvia plath
  • anthology focuses and animals instinctual behavior
  • heavily influenced by wilfred owen - similar to “spring offensive“
• reality of war topic sentence

  hughes exposes how the patriotism that often compels people to go to war leaves them once they witness the visceral brutality
• reality of war - “patriotic tear“


  • paradoxical connotations show patriotism compelled him to fight
  • it has vanished immediately when thrown into a fight or flight situation
• reality of war - “king honour human dignity etcetera”


  • asyndetic listing
  • exhaustive list of reasons glorifying war and civic pride
  • irony as “dignity” is abolished in the dehumanising, exposing conditions of trench warfare
  • uses “etcetera“ to ridicule the sickening glorification of war
  • he is so disturbed by immorality that he doesn’t dare to mention it any more
• reality of war- “dropped like human luxuries“


  • contrasts “king, honour, human dignity“
  • patriotism is pale in comparison to the barbaric nature of war
  • the lexis “human” shows it is a human instinct to convince an organism to sacrifice its life for a cause with minimal effect
  • when the pain of war hits, protection is an instinct with “human luxuries“ being superstitious and mundane
• reality of war- “cold clockwork”


  • harsh alliterative consonants
  • re-emphasise mechanical and emotionless nature of war
  • “clockwork” metaphorically emphasises war will continue regardless of the human torment and is blind to the suffering of humans
• dehumanisation - “lugging a rifle, as nimble as a smashed arm”

  • similar
  • soldiers are a dehumanised, utilised weapon of war
  • likening the rifle to a smashed arm, hughes is telling the reader the speakers views the rifle as an extension of himself - emphasising he is merely a weapon of war
  • “smashed” highlights he feels useless and too mentally scarred to continue fighting
• dehumanisation - “sweating like molten iron”


  • similie
  • compared soldier to metal - a key mechanical component in war
  • a small part in the machine of war
• dehumanisation- “suddenly he awoke and was running“


  • in media res
  • panic and terror as he is thrust into the heat of battle
  • suddenness reflects how the soldier feels thrust into a life on looming threat
  • soldier is shoes as a machine rusted by fear and pain