Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes

Question 1

Themes in Bayonet Charge

Question 2

Form and Structure in Bayonet Charge:

Answer 2

• The poem begins in “media-res”
• Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes is written in the 3rd person
• Lines are uneven and sporadic, using enjambement and caesura
• The poem has an irregular rhythm, reflecting panic or struggle
• Initial feelings of pride at the start of the poem soon to turn to fear
• The second stanza details confusion
• The final stanza explores a lack of focus

Question 3

Context in Bayonet Charge:

Answer 3

• Ted Hughes’ Bayonet Charge was written and published in 1957
• The poem focuses on WWI
• Ted Hughes was born in 1930 and died in 1998
• He was Poet Laureate in 1984
• Hughes’ father had served in WWI
• Hughes wanted to highlight the brutality of trench warfare as a tribute to his father’s suffering as well as a way to memorialize war as a warning for future generations

Question 4

“Suddenly he awoke”

Answer 4

• Fast paced start - as if he is in a confused or vulnerable state.
• Event seems like a nightmare but this confirms it is real.
  *

Question 5

“In raw-seamed hot khaki, his sweat heavy”

Answer 5

• Alliteration of R and H sounds gives sense of hard work heavy breathing.

Question 6

“Bullets smacking the belly out of the air”

Answer 6

• Personified bullets and semantic body parts with ‘belly’ and ‘smashed arm’ blurs the line between weapon and man by dehumanising the soldier and personifying the weapons.
• Violent imagery and onomatopoeia.
• Describes the sound and impact of the shots.

Question 7

“A rifle as numb as a smashed arm”

Answer 7

• Simile
• Suggests his weapon is useless and fore-shadows the injuries he is likely to get.

Question 8

“In what cold clockwork of the stars and nations”

Answer 8

• Clockwork - A metaphor for his actions as being more
  like a clockwork machine than human.
• Trivialises war to a game of toy clockwork soldiers between nations.
• Soldiers insignificance and lack of control.
• “cold’ implies people in charge of the war don’t care about individual soldiers.
• Alliteration of “c” emphasises the brutal impact on the soldiers caused by the institutions.

Question 9

“His terror’s touchy dynamite.”

Answer 9

• The use of dental alliteration shows the authority of the institutions which contrasts to the vulnerablility of the soldiers.
• Soldiers seem to have become a weapon rather than a human being.
• Purely driven by his terror.
• Metaphor emphasises adrenaline rush and almost animal like reactions