Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes: what it is about, its context, and how Hughes uses language, form and structure.
Key quotations and how to analyse them, and the poems in the cluster it compares well with, with similarities and differences.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'Suddenly he awoke and was running', 'Bullets smacking the belly out of the air', 'a rifle numb as a smashed arm', 'The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye / Sweating like molten iron', 'In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations', 'a yellow hare that rolled like a flame', 'King, honour, human dignity, etcetera', 'Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm'.
Form: starting in the middle of the action, enjambment and caesura, and the frozen moment in the middle stanza.
Context: Ted Hughes and his father's service in the First World War.
Comparisons with The Charge of the Light Brigade, Exposure and Remains.
