Bayonet charge

• “Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle”

  • The ferocious connotations of ”threw up” contrasts with the innocence of the hare.
  • -war is so potent that it has detrimental effects on the formidable force of nature
  • warning by hughes that if we don’t stop war it will consume everything
• “Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest”

  • Hughes criticises the way soldiers were torn down by military leaders and then moldes back up like robots to make them remorseless
  • -the government had no regard for the soldier’s wellbeing or how this would affect them mentally
  • Link to ptsd
  • One day this hare metallic core will disintegrate “sweating” and will leave the soldier defend less against ptsd.
• “Cold clockwork”

  • mechanical imagery emphasised by the harsh alliteration implies the soldiers are question fate
  • “Stars and nations” - questioning their faith in God and the government - they feel abandoned by everyone
  • the consonance of c portrays the soldier’s anger towards how the world operates
  • suggests the soldiers are being controlled like puppets by higher powers, they have personal opinions and can only follow orders “molten iron”