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Bayonet Charge (Language (Quotes ("In what cold clockwork of the…

- - - - The "yellow hare" is a picture of innocence among the horrors of war. It is as if it is being rejected from the "shot-slashed furrows" due to its purity - a contrast to the suffering around it. It serves as a reminder that the war zone used to be a part of nature but has been taken over by human greed and suffering
  - - - Best depicted by the final line - "His terror's touchy dynamite". He has been weaponised, his patriotism turned into his sole motivation - but also foreshadows his death, as would constantly weigh over the soldiers ready to go 'over the top' #
        
        alliterative "t" represents the soldier's nervousness and being on edge, but is also suggestive of a ticking time bomb, leading the soldier's inevitable death #
  - - - Assonance, and the lack of punctuation suggests a machine-like, robotic control - and one which he is not in control of
      - Emphesises his individual insignificance - the use of 'cold' implying that those in charge are uncaring, and don't care about the individual human cost
      - Rhetorical question - implies that it is obviously those in command controlling the soldier
      - Harsh "c" sound emphasises the brutality of war and the lack of care taken by those in charge
    - - Illustrates the reasons usually used to persuade young men to join the war (propaganda), and the use of 'etcetera' suggests they are irrelevant when it comes to the actual action - conflict is dehumanising
      - Sarcasm, and cluster of three emphesise their lack of importance and relevancy when it actually comes to war - it comes down to individual terror, desperation, not as a concious decision due to beliefs/moral principals
    - - His patriotic ideals/fantisies have been replaced by harsh, painful realities
      - Also portrays a sense that his patriocism has been weaponised by those in charge - turning him into a mindless machine
      - This could be a reference to the soldier getting shot
        
        This would in turn change the whole meaning of the poem
        
        This would mean that the soldier may be going delusional from the pain. In that case, everything he says is discounted and as a result, Hughes is just making fun of the soldier for being weak. This conforms to society's view of soldiers/men in WW1 - that they had to be strong and ready to defend their country at any cost, even their own lives
        
        You could also argue that the meaning of the poem stays the same (mocking power for forcing millions of men to die in the war), but it takes a bullet to the chest and the pain that this causes the soldier to realise this fact (an epiphony) - that those in power were wrong and he is simply being used as a tool
    - - Simile creates an image of someone blind(ed) and irrational- suggests there's no rational reason for war
      - Also gives the reader a sense of slowing down (when actually processing it)
    - - Conveys the soldier's confusion and vulnerability - as if he has just been sleeping, but has awoken to yet another nightmare due to the suffering and death around him - there's so much of it that it is surreal to him
    - - The soldier cannot articulate the horrors of war, so is stumbling on his words, repeating them. It also adds to the effect of the disorientated soldier just waking up as he is repeating words #
      - Could be an allusion to WIlfred Owen's "Spring Offensive" where he repeats "easy" and "ease" to the same effect as "raw" in "Bayonet Charge". Again, this suggests that the horrors of war are indescribable due to Hughes needing to get techniques from other poets (who actually participated in the war as Wilfred Own did) to describe the true horrors of war
        
        6 similes are used throughout the poem, yet again reinforcing the idea that Hughes is incapable of describing the horrors of war, as he must resort to comparing things that he wants to describe to other things in order to properly describe them