Have a helping hand with AQA English Literature Paper 2 exam prep using Beyond’s “revise” blogs, which tackle each poem on the AQA Power and Conflict module. This blog explores Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes, exploring:
- Bayonet Charge context
- The significance of the poem’s title
- The poem’s structure
- Ted Hughes Bayonet Charge analysis
If you need even more assistance with Hughes’ poem, our Power and Conflict is perfect for you:
Bayonet Charge Context
Bayonet Charge was written and published in 1957 but concentrates on the battles of First World War. Ted Hughes (1930 – 1998) is known as one of the most important English poets of the 20th century. He became Poet Laureate in 1984. Hughes had spent time in the military as a mechanic before going to university but his father had served in and survived the First World War.
Context summary:
- 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
Bayonet Charge: The Title
The poem is called Bayonet Charge and centres on the feelings of one soldier as he goes ‘over the top’ to charge towards the enemy trenches. His initial feelings of patriotism are replaced, as he charges, with an overriding sense of fear. The bayonet of the title is the knife commonly fixed to the front of a soldier’s rifle as they charged the enemy. The bayonet charges, when soldiers went over the top of their trenches and tried to gain land on the other side, were notorious for the casualties suffered during them.
Being born in 1930, the experiences of the First World War were not first-hand for Ted Hughes. He was fascinated by his father’s stories of fighting during the First World War however and so invented this impression of the thoughts and feelings of a regular foot soldier during the conflict. The feelings of patriotism and then fear are not personal but more universal.
Title summary:
- A bayonet is a knife fixed to the front of a rifle
- A “bayonet charge” is an act in which soldiers ran over the top of their trenches with their rifles drawn
The Structure of Ted Hughes’ Bayonet Charge
The text is in third person giving a remoteness and reportage quality to the poem. Lines are uneven and there is much use of enjambment and caesura to create an irregular rhythm to reflect the soldier’s panic and possibly his struggle through the deep mud of the field.
The poem begins in media res (in the middle of things/action) and so is immediately gripping. It shows us the soldier’s thoughts, feelings and actions over a very short period of time. The soldier begins with feelings of pride and patriotism but these are quickly replaced with fear. The first stanza deals with him coming to his senses in the middle of the battle scene; he is ‘suddenly’ awake and running. The second stanza notes his confusion and pause in ‘bewilderment’. Time seems to stop momentarily. In the third and final stanza, he is compared to a startled hare and seems to have lost focus on all the reasons he fought in the first place. The soldier is ‘he’; he could be anyone on this, or any other, battlefield.
Structure summary:
- 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
Ted Hughes Bayonet Charge analysis
Hughes attempts to show the juxtaposition between the events and the surroundings as he mentions the pastoral ‘green hedge’ and the ‘yellow hare’. The pain of the soldier and his youth and inexperience are indicated by words like ‘raw’ and ‘bewilderment’.
The soldier is shown as a frightened and helpless creature in this battle. His lack of control is highlighted straight away with the phrase ‘Suddenly he awoke’. It seems as if he only comes to understand where he is and what is happening around him as the poem begins. Phrases reflecting the sounds and sights around him are used to make the scene real to use: his uniform is ‘raw-seamed’, the fields are ‘dazzled with rifle fire’ and the bullets are ‘smacking the belly out of the air’. Words like ‘bewilderment’ are used to describe his attitude.
The control of others over his actions is evidenced in his comparison to the second hand on a much bigger ‘cold clockwork’. He is at the mercy of the commands of others. When he runs, the soldier is described as ‘a man who has jumped up in the dark’, like a man just awakened and stunned with sleep.
The final stanza really highlights his terror. All the reasons for the battle: ‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera’ are ‘dropped like luxuries’ as his body fights to get him out of the ‘blue crackling air’. The soldier has been dehumanised by his own terror at the end and is more like a weapon: ‘his terror’s touchy dynamite’.
Analysis summary:
- Pastoral imagery is used, implied in the phrases pastoral ‘green hedge’ and ‘yellow hare’
- A lack of control is immediately introduced to readers in the phrase ‘Suddenly he awoke’
- Evocative language is used throughout, such as ‘raw-seamed’, the fields are ‘dazzled with rifle fire’ and the bullets are ‘smacking the belly out of the air’
- ‘Cold clockwork’ explores the idea that the soldiers are at the mercy of a feelingless regime
- The soldiers’ terror his described as “King, honour, human dignity, etcetera’ are ‘dropped like luxuries’
Power and Conflict Revision from Beyond
Further blogs featuring poems on the Power and Conflict module can be explored in ‘Checking Out Me History’, ‘The Emigrée or ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. The theme of memory can also be explored in ‘Poppies’ and the theme of the power of nature can be found in ‘Ozymandias’ and ‘Storm on the Island’.
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