Bayonet charge Revision Sheet
Perspective
- The poem is written in the third person singular → gives a limited narrative perspective
→ Allows the reader to focus on the individual impact of war by showing the way war
impacts a single individual.
- Written from a soldier’s perspective, the reality of the war is so horrific to the reader who
finds it impossible to view war favourably.
- Even though the war may be beneficial nationally, and serving in a war is seen as
honourable, the poem shows that this does not excuse the suffering it inflicts on individual
soldiers.
→ The third person singular perspective → emphasises the isolation felt by soldiers in war. -
- As the protagonist is the only human in the poem, he is isolated from any source of help or
comfort.
→ The isolation helps to intensify the suffering of the speaker and focuses the audience on
the impact that war has on them.
→ This shows that despite fighting in an army a battle is about self-preservation and that
they are ultimately on their own.
- Soldiers are still neglected by the nation they fought for and are left to go back to society.
- Poem is highly focused on one soldier’s emotions which is ironic as soldiers were expected
to show no emotion → shows how the soldier referenced cannot share his feelings with his
peers.
- Hughes depicts a soldier desensitised to the harshness of war, he appears immune to the
death of other soldiers and it takes the suffering of nature to break his “bewilderment”.
Structure
- Hughes employs a chaotic structure in his poem to portray the chaos and panic of war.
- Hughes’ frequent use of enjambment and caesura makes the poem feel disjointed and
confusing → structure is consistent with his message that war cannot be understood fully.
- The narrative is hidden under an excess amount of literary techniques and structural
devices that fragment the poem and confuse the listener.
→ The listener's struggle to understand mirrors the struggle experienced by the soldier.
1) Enjambment
Stops the reader from taking a break or pause → quickens the pace of the poem.
- The whole of the first stanza is a single sentence → matches the tense action of the poem
and maintains the momentum of a bayonet charge → helps the readers to empathise with
the panic and fear felt by the soldier.
- Enjambment helps to emphasise the importance of the rhetorical question it ends on –
“was he the hand pointing that second?” . → the reader is forced to question whether the
soldier is at war by his own choice or is a cog in an incessant ticking clock.
2) Caesura
- The fast pace created by the enjambment in the first stanza distinctly contrasts with the
second stanza.
Perspective
- The poem is written in the third person singular → gives a limited narrative perspective
→ Allows the reader to focus on the individual impact of war by showing the way war
impacts a single individual.
- Written from a soldier’s perspective, the reality of the war is so horrific to the reader who
finds it impossible to view war favourably.
- Even though the war may be beneficial nationally, and serving in a war is seen as
honourable, the poem shows that this does not excuse the suffering it inflicts on individual
soldiers.
→ The third person singular perspective → emphasises the isolation felt by soldiers in war. -
- As the protagonist is the only human in the poem, he is isolated from any source of help or
comfort.
→ The isolation helps to intensify the suffering of the speaker and focuses the audience on
the impact that war has on them.
→ This shows that despite fighting in an army a battle is about self-preservation and that
they are ultimately on their own.
- Soldiers are still neglected by the nation they fought for and are left to go back to society.
- Poem is highly focused on one soldier’s emotions which is ironic as soldiers were expected
to show no emotion → shows how the soldier referenced cannot share his feelings with his
peers.
- Hughes depicts a soldier desensitised to the harshness of war, he appears immune to the
death of other soldiers and it takes the suffering of nature to break his “bewilderment”.
Structure
- Hughes employs a chaotic structure in his poem to portray the chaos and panic of war.
- Hughes’ frequent use of enjambment and caesura makes the poem feel disjointed and
confusing → structure is consistent with his message that war cannot be understood fully.
- The narrative is hidden under an excess amount of literary techniques and structural
devices that fragment the poem and confuse the listener.
→ The listener's struggle to understand mirrors the struggle experienced by the soldier.
1) Enjambment
Stops the reader from taking a break or pause → quickens the pace of the poem.
- The whole of the first stanza is a single sentence → matches the tense action of the poem
and maintains the momentum of a bayonet charge → helps the readers to empathise with
the panic and fear felt by the soldier.
- Enjambment helps to emphasise the importance of the rhetorical question it ends on –
“was he the hand pointing that second?” . → the reader is forced to question whether the
soldier is at war by his own choice or is a cog in an incessant ticking clock.
2) Caesura
- The fast pace created by the enjambment in the first stanza distinctly contrasts with the
second stanza.
