These notes on Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes is perfect for your AQA English literature revision. It contains everything from context, to quotes, to ideas. It is a condensed document of everything you need to know to get a grade 9 in your exam!
CONTEXT
• Bayonet charge was written and published in 1957
• The poem focuses on WW!
• Ted Hughes lived between 1930 – 1998
• Hughes spent time in military as a mechanic and served in the RAF
• Hughes’ father served in WW1
• ‘Bayonet Charge’ is when soldiers ran over the top of the trenches with their bayonets, which
resulted in a lot of casualties
STRUCTURE
• Enjambment and Caesura create an irregular rhythm which reflects the soldier’s panic
• The poem begins in medias res (middle of action) – gripping
• Stanzas reflect the protagonist’s emotions – In the first he is awake and running, in the second he
is in ‘Bewilderment’ and in the third he has lost focus and is confused.
QUOTES
“Green Hedge – He is running away from war to a new start. Green symbolizes nature and life,
reinforcing how he wants to get away from this hellish nightmare.
“Bullets smacking the belly out of the air” – Plosive → mimics the sound of and impact of the bullet shots
- Personification → Nature is also being harmed by war, and so man is destroying nature
“The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye” – His feelings have changed. He no longer weeps for
the love of his country.
- Metaphor/ Symbolism → When you cry it is difficult to see, such as how his patriotism made it
hard for him to see the truth of going to war. He feels he has been let down and lied to. His
patriotism is leaving him like the tear leaving his eye.
“Sweating like molten iron” – Dehumanises the soldier → It compares him to a machine
- “molten iron” is malleable – it can be shaped and changed – mimicking how the soldier’s view
on war changes throughout the poem
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