Bayonet Charge

• 'dazzled with rifle fire'


  The verb 'dazzled' has positive connotations

  Juxtaposed with the 'rifle fire' being inherently bad
• 'Then the shot-slashed furrows threw up a yellow hare'


  Enjambment shows the soldiers panic and how they are overwhelmed

  The innocent hare is used as a symbol of death and parallels the life of the soldier

  Soldiers were innocent before the war started and now they are forced to murder
• 'mouth wide open silent'


  Quote shows the fear the soldiers have

  Typically an open mouth would make noise but the fact it is silent says more than it ever could
• 'raw in raw-seamed hot khaki'


  Repetition of 'raw' could imply that the whole situation is 'raw'

  Raw emotions, experiences and trench conditions

  Links in to trench conditions due to them being wet and then chaffing makes your skin 'raw'
• 'patriotic tear'


  Soldiers wanted to fight for their country as they wanted to help

  Confidence then turns to sadness
• 'Listening between his footfalls for the reason'


  He is searching for a reason..

  To be alive

  To fight in the war as there appears to be no rational reason for him to
• 'cold clockwork of the stars and nations'


  'Stars' links in to the idea of fate

  'Nations' links into the corruption of the government
• 'honour, human dignity etcetera'

  'dropped like luxuries'


  Quotes go together as they are close in the poem

  'Honour, human dignity' were once valuable but not anymore, average person takes these 'luxuries' for granted

  'Etcetera' shows how little the soldiers care because of the colloquialism behind it as well as the fact that they were misled by propaganda
• 'crawled in a threshing circle'


  'Threshing' is a homophone with flesh, could be symbolic of the injuries sustained during war?

  Panic

  Could show the violence due to the similarities with the word Thrash