Bayonet Charge

• structure

  third person, free verse
• in medias res

  • ”suddenly he awoke”
  • confusion and panic
• “raw” repetition

  • Reminiscent of stuttering due to anxiety
• “in what cold clockworks of the stars and nations”

  • alliteration, harsh consonance
  • futility of war
  • soliders are pawns
• first stanza contrasting with next

  • poem pausing, time has stopped or solider is overwhelmed
• “yellow hare”

  • ”hare” violence of war projected on an innocent creature
  • zoomorphism - likening soldiers to hares
  • ”yellow” - colour connotation
  • yellow traditionally represents cowardice
  • survivors guilt
• caesura

  heartbeat
• enjambment

  • quickens pace
  • first Stanza is a single sentence
  • panic and fear
  • enjambment ends on rhetorical question - “was he the hand pointing that second?”
  • reader is forced to question if soldier is at war for his own choice
• enjambment and caesura

  • disjointed and confusing
  • narrative hid under a plethora of literary techniques
• metaphor

  • “awoken” - figuratively, gaining awareness about reality of war
  • ”patriotic tear” - propaganda hides reality
• lexis

  • semantic field of body parts “foot” “mouth” “eyes“
• “a rifle as numb as a smashed arm”

  • simile
  • likening his rifle to a smashed arm
• written in post-war era

  • hughes saw impacts
• Hughes father

  • fought in WWI
  • only 17 to survive the Gallipoli leaving him emotionally traumatised
  • memorialise war for future generations
• The poem is heavily influenced by the fact that Hughes' father was a veteran of the First World War

  Having survived his regiment's massacre at Gallipoli
• The poem is about a soldier's experiences of battle
• The soldier is never named, which may be a reference to the 'unknown soldier'
• It is never clearly stated whether the soldier is running towards or away from the enemy
• The frenetic pace suddenly slows in the second stanza when the soldier observes a dead "yellow hare"