Bayonet charge

• Soldier described as
torn between man and nature
• "hot" "heavy" "his"

  The repeated 'h' sound imitates the soldiers heavy breathing as he runs
• "bullets smacking the belly out of the air - he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm"

  simile suggests his rifle is useless and foreshadows the injuries he's likely to get
• "Patriotic tear"

  His patriotism has turned to fear and pain - his heroic ideas have been replaced by painful reality
• "cold clockwork" - metaphor

  Actions as more like a clockwork machine than human, trivialises war to a game of toy clockwork soldiers between nations
• "threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame" - metaphor/simile

  • Yellow hare symbolizing fear and prey, juxtaposed with soldier's machine-like nature
  • Simile emphasizes the hare's frantic movement and hints at the danger the soldier is in
• "plunges"

  Diving in too deep or cannot return, decision made to carry on with no turning back
• The poem explores a soldier's charge through a mix of physical and emotional exploration
• Themes


  Set around conflict, transformation, humanity, and nature
• The language of the poem juxtaposes natural animal images and human machine, showing conflict
• The mix of caesura and enjambment adds a chaotic tone to show the confusion of war and the inner turmoil of the soldier
• The poem is about a soldier going over the trenches to attack
• The structure of the poem is a mix of fast and slow to show the confusion of fighting
• The poem is by Ted Hughes, a former RAF serviceman, who includes natural and historical ideas in his poems
• The poem challenges patriotism and shows how desperate terror becomes the overriding emotion in battle. The soldier is driven forward by fear rather than any more noble motive
• The soldier is physically disorientated by the gunfire, but he's also questioning what he's doing there at all