bayonet charge

• “Suddenly he awoke”

  Creates an instantaneous fast pace to the poem indicating the fast pace of the heart of the soldiers as they approach no man's land. May feel like a nightmare
• “Raw”

  Has connotations of discomfort but also inexperience

  The emotions the soldier himself has
• “' in raw seamed hot khaki his sweat heavy'

  Alliteration of the R and H sounds gives a sense of hard work and heavy breathing.

  Mayu convey his fear at war as he charges no man's land.
• “Bullets smacking the belly out of the air”

  The violent imagery of the simile and onomatopoeia emphasises the impact of the of the guns and artillery used at war and its violence.
• “He almost stopped-”

  This stanza pauses the actions so that the readers can focus on the soldier wondering why he is here
• “He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm”

  Simile suggests that even though he can protect himself with a gun at war it is still useless compared to all the other artillery available and it is so weak that it is compared to a smashed arm.could suggest that there is foreshadowing for the injuries developed in war.
• “The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest,-” 

  • His emotions of patriotism have turned to that of fear and pain as he comes to terms with the harsh realities dealt by those at war as the readers realise that the soldiers who fight are not there for fun but because they have to whether it is because they are forced or they want to protect their country. Even soldiers have emotions
  • His sense of duty has now turned into hot sweat of fear and pain
• “In what cold clockwork of the stars and nations”

  The soldiers are a part of a cold and uncaring machine of war as the nations are uncaring for their deaths and sacrifices as the world wars were number games for the nations in charge

  Fate? 
• “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 creates an image of someone who is blind or irrational implying that there is no rational reason for war
  • “Jumped up in the dark and runs” may suggest that the soldier doesn't understand war and questions it as he doesn't believe there is a reason for running to the battlefield
  • “He was running” also returns some pace to the poem
• “'His foot hung like statuary in mid-stride. Then the shot-slashed furrows'”

  • He is frozen with fear/ bewilderment, the full stop jolts him back to reality.
  • The caesura of the Full stop may be symbolic of gun shots which jolt him back
• “A yellow hare that rolled like a flame and crawled into a threshing circle'

  • The simile emphasises the hare’s frantic movements therefore emphasising the soldiers danger as animals have a higher perception for danger.The impact of war on nature. The hare is distressed just like the soldiers.
  • Flame highlight the tools used in war such as bombs
  • A distressing imager of out of control movement “threshing circle” is an agricultural term used to suggest nature is affected by war but he is also desperate for survival
• “Mouth wide open silent”

  • Disparities of war as he is speechless and can not come to terms with the violence he is perceiving.
  • Could highlight the widespread influence of propaganda and how the the nations and people in charge do not listen to their pleas to stop the war.
• “Green hedge”

  Natural image contrasts the violence and terror of war. Confirms natures involvement in war
• “'King, honour, human dignity, etcetera'”

  • “Etcetera” emphasises that war is all for nothing at the end as human lives are much more than anything listed before it. Furthermore they are the reasons used in propaganda to influence people to go to war but “Etcetera” implies they are all lies and are not even worth listening to.
  • draws the contrast between the idealism of patriotism and the reality of fighting and killing
• “Dropped like luxuries”

  • All those ideas and messages proposed by the propaganda all dropped away once the realities of the true nature of war set in. idealism vs reality. 
  • However may suggest that the propaganda use made the soldiers feel like luxuries yet they all fell due to the disparities of war.
• “His terror’s touchy dynamite”

  • Soldiers seem to have become a weapon rather than a human being.
  • Purely driven by his terror.
• enjambments and caesuras make lines uneven depicting the confusing nature and irreguklarity of war
• 1957 made