Bayonet Charge

• Key Message:

  Aims to highlight the reality/effects of the war. Also, hints at the dangers of blind patriotism
• Context:

  The poem was set during WWI and describes the moment a soldier goes over the top and is crossing No-man’s land. Although Ted Hughes was writing decades later, his father and uncle both fought in WWI
• "Suddenly he awoke and was running- raw in raw-seamed hot khaki"
• "His foot hung like statuary in mid-stride"
• "He plunged with his bayonet towards a green hedge"