Bayonet Charge Analysis

• Bayonet Charge


  A poem by Ted Hughes depicting a soldier charging into battle
• Bayonet Charge thrusts the listener into the action and relates to the idea of waking up
• The soldier's fear


  Has a physical impact, described as "raw" and "sweat heavy"
• The patriotic tear in the soldier's eye is sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest
• The soldier pauses on the battlefield


  To consider his role in war
• A hare is thrown in front of the soldier from the fighting, which jolts him back to consciousness
• The soldier plunges past the hare


  With his bayonet towards the green hedge, abandoning his previously upheld values and motivation to fight
• Perspective


  • - Written in third person singular, giving a limited narrative perspective
  • Focuses on the individual impact of war, showing the suffering it inflicts on soldiers
  • Emphasises the isolation felt by soldiers in war
• Structure


  • - Chaotic structure to mirror the chaos and panic of war
  • Enjambment quickens the pace and maintains momentum
  • Caesura slows the pace, causing the reader to pause and consider the reality of war
  • Repetition of "raw" conveys the soldier's intense suffering
• The combined effect of the poem's structure and language makes it difficult to read, mirroring the struggle experienced by the soldier
• The poem opens in medias res, instantly lunging the reader into the action without warning, mirroring the shock soldiers would have felt going into battle
• Metaphors


  • Waking up represents the soldier gaining awareness of the reality of war
  • "Patriotic tear" suggests soldiers are under an illusion of honour and pride in fighting
• Empathy


  Essential for Hughes to portray the reality of war, as only someone who has experienced it can possibly understand it
• Metaphors


  Hughes infuses the physical actions of the soldier with metaphorical meaning
• Sleep


  A time of safety and protection for the soldier, waking up involves waking up to danger and realising one's own mortality
• Soldier waking up


  Gains awareness of the reality of war
• Patriotic tears


  Place soldiers under an illusion of the honour and pride in fighting, it is only when they arrive on the frontline that the effects of propaganda wear off and the true horror of war is realised
• Lexis


  • Hughes combines lexis from the semantic field of body parts and violence with metaphors which dehumanise the soldier to blur the lines between what is human and what is weapon
• Lexis


  • lugged
  • Smacking
  • Statuary
  • blending of body and weapon
• Soldier's rifle


  Numb as a smashed arm, referencing the horror of war and how soldiers can become desensitised
• Air


  Has a "belly", personifying it to suggest the confusion of the situation of war
• Soldier


  A second hand in the "cold clockwork of the stars and the nations", suggesting the war turns individuals into tools to be used
• Mixing of roles


  Demonstrates the meaningless waste of human life
• Similes


  Hughes uses them to portray the soldier as unprepared for war and unsuitable for his role
• Similes


  • His rifle is "numb as a smashed arm"
  • He is "sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest"
• There are six similes used in the poem, implying that there is no way for Hughes to accurately describe what war is like
• Patriotic tear


  Shows the soldier came to war out of a sense of duty to protect his country, but this patriotism is leaving him as he sees what war is really like
• Values of "king, honour, human dignity"


  Are "dropped like human luxuries" when faced with the reality of war
• "Etcetera"


  Creates a sense of being sick of it and mocking his past views
• "Cold clockwork"


  Reinforces the cold, calculated mechanical nature of war, implying the soldiers are treated as pawns in a game rather than individual lives
• Hare


  Used as a symbol of the soldiers' collective suffering, Hughes projects the violence of war onto an innocent creature
• Hare


  • "threshing circle"
  • "mouth wide, open silent"
• Personification of the hare

  Helps the reader to associate the hare's suffering with that of the human soldiers
• Soldier


  Reverts to primitive, animalistic instincts, showing that within war all human values are dropped
• "Yellow hare"


  Made a victim, with its "mouth wide open silent" like a human scream, highlighting the injustice of war
• Personification of nature


  Hughes poses the argument that nature is a victim of war, through descriptions like "bullets smacking the belly out of the air"
• Nature imagery


  • "green hedge"
  • "field of clods"
• Peaceful images


  Juxtaposed with the violence of fighting, showing the contrast between life and death
• Hughes was inspired by Owen's poetry, and many parallels can be drawn between Bayonet Charge and Owen's 'Spring Offensive'
• Parallels with Owen's poem

  • Where Owens used "crawling", Hughes uses "crawled"; where Owens wrote "plunged and fell away", Hughes writes "he plunged past"