bayonet charge

• "stumbling across a field of clods"

  • "stumbling" thrown into battle disorientated, confused, unprepared
  • "field of clods" hope and nature around him is a symbol of beauty among devastation

  "that dazzled with rifle fire"

  • "dazzled" beautifies it
• "bullets smacking the belly out of the air"

  • enemy isn't defined, only their weapon, mysterious
  • even the air isn't safe from attacks
  • colloquial language
• "the patriotic tear that brimmed his eye, sweating like molten iron from his chest"

  • soldier unable to see the truth blinded by patriotism
  • physical pain / emotional pain
  • past tense shows that he realised it was all propaganda
  • simile-becoming dehumanised
  • centre of chest-heart-lost his love
• "in what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations"

  • harsh alliteration of 'c'
  • they are objectified machinery/disposable, war is repetitive and cold
• "threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame"

  • devastating impact war has on the natural world
  • "yellow" happiess and positive but immediate contrast as it looks like its on fire
• no rhyme scheme / stanza lenth imitates the chaos of war

  context-

  ted hughes famous war poet but wasnt alive in ww1/ww2 saw its influence in his home, wrote poems about animals