Bayonet Charge

• Hughes never actually fought in the war but grew up in the post-war era and saw its influence in his home in Yorkshire. This rural upbringing is evident in his poems which usually focused on animals.
• Hughes's father fought in Gallopi which may have influenced his poetry.
• Hughes studied mythology which is shown in the image of the yellow hares. He also studied anthropology which is shown through the poem's fixation on instinctual behaviour.
• The poem is from the collection "The Hawk in the Rain" which was dedicated to his wife, Sylvia Plath.
• The poems in the "Hawk and the Rain" were focused on the real and symbolic lives of animals.
• Hughes' father fought in WW1 and was one of only 17 Lancaster Fusiliers to survive the Gallipoli campaign, leaving him emotionally traumatised for life. It is thought that in Bayonet Charge Hughes wanted to highlight the brutality of trench warfare as a tribute to his father's suffering and as a warning for future generations.
• The poem was greatly inspired by Wilfred Owen who similarly tries to depict the reality of war in his poetry.
• Suddenly he awoke and was running

  • thrusts the reader into the situtation
  • relates to the idea of waking up
• raw in raw-seamed hot khaki

  • repetiton
  • creates a sense of desperation, the connotations of "raw" are animalistic which denotes a lack of humanity in the situation
• his sweat heavy

  • metaphor
  • shows the physical impact of his fear
• dazzled with rifle fire
• bullets smacking the belly out of the air
• The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye

  • personification
  • fear appears to have taken over the soldier's patriotism
  • as if the last of his patriosm has left in this tear, swept away by the utter terror he feels
• King, honour, human dignity, etcetera Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm

  • The soldier appears to completely abandoned his values and motivation to fight
  • Nihilism
  • Only fighting to survive
  • Listing then etcetera shows how irrelevant these once traditional soldier's values are to him now
• His terror's touchy dynamite

  • shows the soldier is so terrified he could explode at any moment
  • refernces the PTSD of soldiers, one touch and they are brought back to the horrors of war
• Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like flame

  • Metaphor
  • "Yellow Hare" could reference mustard gas
  • The violent connotations of threw up contrast the innocence connotated by a hare
• Perspective

  • Written in the third person singular
  • Allows the reader to focus on the individual impact of war
  • Shows the poem does not excuse the suffering war inflicts on individual soldiers
  • Emphasises isolation faced by soldiers, the protagonist is the only voice, he has no source of comfort
  • Poem is highly focused on emotions, ironic as soldiers were not meant to share feelings
• Structure

  • Chaotic to mirror panic of war
  • Enjambment stops the reader taking a break or pause, quickens the pace to match tension, panic and fear felt by the soldier
  • The pace of stanza 2 is much slower and broken up with a lot of caesuras. The soldier is considering the philosophical meaning of war. This makes the reader pause to consider the reality of war.
• Was he the hand pointing that second?

  • Rhetorical question
  • Was this fate? Did the soldier choose his own destiny? Was he simply a cog in the works of the universe?