Bayonet Charge Flashcards
Who is the poet that wrote bayonet charge ? What are some important contextual pieces of info about them
Ted Hughes
- father served in WW1
- grew up in Yorkshire
- passionate about animals
What is the context of the poem ?
WW1
- Yorkshire was still stunned by the staggering loss of life the region suffered
- Highes’ father was emotionally traumatized by the events
- Hughes father fought at gollipili
How does the poet start the poem? What and why ?
In medias rais
- Hughes wants us as the reader to feel this sense of confusion that the soldier feels
- we as the reader are therefore left confused and confronted with an ongoing story yet we are left berwhildered with the lack of any previous information
- directly mirrors the soldiers feelings as we are forced to sympathize with him
What are the other two structural techniques the poet uses ?
Enjambment and caesura
Why does Hughes use enjambment ?
Creates a disjoined and unordered affect on the reader mimicking the chaos of battle
Why does Hughes use caesura ? Remember the qoute
‘Second? He’
Forces the reader like the soldier to stop and think
What is the major theme in bayonet charge ?
The indescribable horrors of war
What are the 6 quotes you should know ?
‘Running raw in raw seamed hot khaki’
‘ like a flame’+’ numb as a mashed arm’
‘Bullets smacking the belly out of the air’
‘ yellow hare’
‘King, honor, human dignity ecetera’
What is a good qoute showing the soldiers struggle to articulate the moment ?
‘Running raw in raw hot seamed khaki ‘
- repetition of raw but also an allusion to Wilfred Owens spring offensive
- the poet has difficulty in describing and expressing what he is experiencing
- the soldier struggles to convey the horror
- we are therefore forced to sympathize with him
What are the two good quotes showing his inability to communicate what he is seeing? What, why and affect
‘Like a flame’ ‘numb as a mashed arm’
- repetition of similes creates an overwhelming amount of language devices which mimics the overwhelming and intense realties of warfare
- 6 similes used overall as the soldier cannot process and describe what he is experiencing so he has to like it to something else
- this use of ambiguous language makes war understandable however by doing this the poet conveys that war itself is indescribable
- we sympathize with the soldier as we too realize the harsh realities of war and the indescribable horrors of modern combat
What is a good qoute showing nature personified ?
‘Bullets smacking the belly out of the air’
- nature itself has become a victim of this war
- the visceral imagery when personifying nature to be a combatant makes us sympathize with the nature during the destruction of the natural world in combat
What is a decent back up qoute showing an animal ? What and why
‘Yellow hare’
- pastoral imagery amidst the harsh war fighting
- natures in once is conveyed once again and we as the reader are left with the overwhelming impression of natures suffering during war
What is a good qoute showing the lack of previous things in war? What and why
‘King, honor, human dignity ecetera’
- here Hughes mocks the patriotic values of early 20th century Britain
- Hughes points out how little they mean in the what of battle which creates a bleak image in the readers mind of the realties of war through the use of colloquial language
