Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes

Didn't personally experience the WW1 as he was born after it. Felt the effects through his father, and was inspired by Owen's poetry.

"Suddenly he awoke"

Poem starts in media res - in the middle of the action. This instantly introduces the chaos of war.

"Running - raw/in raw-seamed hot khaki"

Repetition of "raw" reflects the narrator's shock and the clumsy chaos of the battle. Repetition suggests the narrator is struggling to describe the situation. Caesura juxtaposes fast start, adding to the chaotic effect.

"Bullets smacking the belly out of the air"

Personification and onomatopoeia used in conjunction to immerse the reader to help them empathise with the narrator.

"The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye/sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest"

Use of past tense "had" suggests loss of patriotism. Molten iron reflects the painful realisation that he had lost his patriotism and was wrong about the honourability of war. Heavy molten iron; realisation drags him down as he is less motivated by patriotism, and rather motivated by survival.

"In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations was he the hand pointing that second?"

Caesura forces the reader to stop and ask themselves the question, just as the soldier stops. He questions why he is there, reflecting his questioning of his patriotism. Alliteration of "c" is harsh sounding, reflecting how he is not cared about; he is just another soldier.

"Yellow hare that rolled like a flame"

Shows the damning affect of war on all things, including nature (Hughes was interested in nature and wrote many poems about it). Could be the soldier hallucinating, reflecting chaos in war.

"King, honour, human dignity, etcetera/dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm"

Use of asyndetic listing ended by "etcetera" trivialises the aforementioned items, showing how these patriotic motivations of war are forgotten in the chaos. Simile, comparing these motivations to luxuries, further adds to their lack of importance - survival becomes the only thing that matters.

Repeated use of similes

Conveys the indescribable horror of war; all aspects of war must be compared to other things because adjectives alone cannot describe the horrific and chaotic nature of war.

Lack of rhyme, enjambment, long and irregular sentence length, caesura

All of these structural techniques create a discordant poem, reflecting the clumsy, disorganised chaos of war. Enjambment adds a sense of urgency, reflecting the soldier's urgency in trying to survive.