'Bayonet charge' by Hughes
- Created by: sp.15
- Created on: 13-12-19 20:22
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- 'Bayonet charge' by Hughes
- Ideas about power and conflict
- A single soldier charges towards the enemy in a conflict situation.
- The soldier acts out of fear, not patriotism (love of your country), in the conflict.
- The poem challenges patriotism: fear leads to confusion and questioning war.
- Context
- A bayonet is a blade attached to the end of a rifle - for use in close combat.
- The war is likely to be WW1 - but it could be any 20th century war.
- Many soldiers joined the army as a result of propaganda posters that mentioned "king, honour, human dignity etcetera" - Hughes shows these are forgotten in war.
- Language
- Violent imagery (metaphor and similes): "bullets smacking the belly out of the air"
- Language associated with nature shows how the natural world is affected by human warfare: "field of clods", "green hedge", "shot-slashed furrows", "hare..."
- Sarcasm in "etcetera" - patriotism is forgotten when your life is in danger.
- Form
- Third person, focuses on an unnamed, single soldier - could apply to many soldiers.
- Stanza 2 has only 7 lines (stanzas 1 and 3 have 8): the soldiers stop suddenly.
- Structure
- Starts "in media res' - in the middle of action: the soldier is shocked into charging.
- Time seems to stand still in the second stanza: the soldier is very aware of danger.
- End - stopped line at the end of the second stanza emphasises time standing still.
- Caesura in last line of stanza 2 creates pause before action re-starts with "then..."
- In the third stanza the soldier acts on instinct, not because of patriotic feeling.
- Repetition of "green hedge" (stanzas 1 and 3): reminds reader of natural world.
- Quotations to learn
- "suddenly he awoke and was running"
- "patriotic fear"
- "a yellow hare"
- "king, honour, human dignity, etcetera"
- Ideas about power and conflict
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