hi guys okay so last one for today we're looking at bayonet charge by Ted Hughes now we need to know a little bit about the context in order to understand this so first of all bayonet charge literally means it's a group of soldiers in World War one going over the top a bayonet a bayonet is a large knife that you're attached to a rifle basically and basically what you'd do if you were going over the top is that you would raise your raise bayonets and you charge straight across can't actually see me physically doing this with your sharp pointy bit on the end of your gun because during World War one guards weren't particularly reliable no matter what people might think and there was a chance that you might stab the enemy before they shot you if you had a chance now unlike exposure which was written by Wilfred Owen as an a man a young man as a soldier Ted Hughes was not involved in World War one this poem was written significantly after World War one and it was written based upon his father's memories so his father served during World War one Ted Hughes is a post-war poets so he's based on imagined experience and it is very firmly aunty war so as I look at the structure so we look at it again we can't see much poem but we can see is it's got a very regular structure we have three stanzas they're all regular don't really have a regular rhyme structure and it starts in what's called in media res which means in the middle of the action so that's something to take into consideration so in media res in the middle so I'm going over the top very very well-known on both sides as pretty much a massive waste of life but basically what you do is you climb up out of your trench over a ladder top of the trench carrying your weapon so if you can imagine that you can't really do much with it because you're trying to use both hands to climb up out the minute your head comes over the top you are likely to get shot from that point onward until you get up out of the trench your chances of surviving are basically to do with which wave you go over with because the top wave you're very unlikely second or third the enemy might be reloading their guns by that point at which point you may have a chance of surviving and it was absolutely terrifying and thousands of young men lost their lives in this using this strategy because it was to be quite frank a pointless waste of life as a strategy the amount of men that died unnecessarily simply because this was the way they thought they could do it sorry I know I shouldn't be being as negative of that but I'm sorry I've been to the battlefield to me I've seen the graves of 14-year olds it was ridiculous the waste of life full stop so back to the poem we start with suddenly he awoke and was running so yeah we get this idea we're in media res it's happening as we're there and it genuinely sounds like he's in the middle of a nightmare you know suddenly you're woken was running but oh my god oh so it sounds nightmarish raw in raw seemed hot cocky his head is swept heavy stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge that dazzled with rifle fire hearing bullets smacking the belly out of the air he lugged a rifle numbers are smashed armed the patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye sweating like molten iron from the center of his chest so we get the repetition of the word war here and there are two ways to look at the word raw the first as in raw meat as in you know pain because you know it's not if it if you have a raw injury it's painful it's like you know bloody but also raw means inexperienced so this could be similar to remains actually that whole idea that he is doesn't know what he's doing he's just desperate and then we've got these hot cocky sweat heavy his sweat heavy got this fantastic alliteration here that sounds almost like he is heavy breathing okay it's the sound of his bro heavy breathing as he runs because he's panicked you can say alliteration okay see the best stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge now interesting clogs has two meanings the first is clods of Earth okay it literally mud and if you've ever looked at your World War 1 history you'll know that the churning up of the earth is what eventually there's a poppies growing which is why they fit the poem in the Flanders Fields the poppies great but the second thing is a clot is a colloquialism meaning a stupid person so I've never let me get away with calling you a clod so it means a stupid person and there are two ways to look at this we could be talking about the similarly inexperienced soldiers in his platoon but we could also be talking about it's because you talk about stupefied people people who are effectively dead you know they can't help him they can't do anything to support him because they are effectively a clod they are unable to support him and then we have green hedge okay this idea that he's recharging towards a natural image and there's a lot of nature in this poem that dazzled with rifle fire hearing bullets smacking the belly out of the air lovely personification there [Applause] it's quite violent as well and we've got this onomatopoeia here so we've got personification and onomatopoeia it's a really violent image ya can almost imagine a bullet you know it sort of running up to the air and slapping it around the face because that's what we think of when we think of the words smack he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm that's quite interesting as well yeah he's carrying a rifle but it's useless it's like a smashed arm and remember what I was saying about the idea that you can't actually fire your gun until you're very very close because you know they weren't particularly good guns and on top of that it's really really heavy so that means that he's not running at full speed he's being hampered by it the patriotic tear that has brimmed his in his eye sweating like molten iron from the center of his chest lovely simile there again patriotic tear that has brimmed in his eye so he's joined the army because he wants to serve his country he's being patriotic and the sweating like molten iron it's turning from patriotism to pain it's that idea of reality kicking in in bewilderment then he almost stopped in what cold clockwork that the stars and Nations was he the hand pointing that second he was running like a man who has jumped up in the dark and runs listening between his footfalls for the reason of his still running and his foot hung like statuary amidst rind then the shot slashed furrows threw up a yellow hair that rolled like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle its mouth wide open silent its eyes standing out Emily stop there purely because this is all one piece so first of all the web development in case you're wondering the world map means confusion so he's gone from being scared to being confused and it's this whole idea the fact that he's just there's so much going on it doesn't know what's going on and then who most stopped and this is where we get our slow motion similar to remains he's in this heat at the moment and everything slows down into crystal clarity and we've got a caesura here as well okay pause is the action you can almost imagine this in bullet time in like you know films like The Matrix that whole idea the fact that he can see it's three bullet you can see everything moving in slow motion in what cold clockwork of the stars and Nations it's beautiful metaphor here cold clockwork of the stars and nations so he's cold implies uncaring unfeeling uncaring unfeeling governments the Stars and Nations he's saying in a how is it that this man this this insignificant man when we consider him in comparison to stars and people and you know countries how unimportant is he but somehow he is the center of our attention was he the hand pointing that second so it's the irony at the fact that someone so unimportant it's still important enough to be carrying a gun that could kill someone he was running like a man who had jumped up in the dark and runs Listening between his footfalls for the reason of his still running so all of this bit here and this really long simile it shows how irrational in the skirt is it's also got that rhythm he was running like a man who has jumped up in the dark and runs listening between his footfalls for the reason he was still running it almost sounds like he's running the rhythm is there and his foot hum like Statuary in mid-stride so remember he's almost stopped doesn't he like a statue his confusion has stopped him then the shot slash furrows threw up a yellow hair that rolled like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle its mouth wide open silent its eyes standing out and then the action speeds back up again for those of you who don't know a yellow hair a hair is a rabbit similar to rub it but rabbit let's not rub it that bounces about it's a rabbit runs okay but rolled like a like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle it is panicking it is terrified just like him its mouth wide open silent its eyes standing out this one the best way to describe this if you've ever seen the film watership down it's a horrific ly miserable cartoon but there are scenes of it where the rabbits in the Warren are running and screaming because it's on fire and the pictures in that die that's what comes to mind with this I will show you them when I see you guys next but you really should look it up it's so scared it's silent it's absolutely terrified out of its mind and it's almost like the embodiment of his terror it's so scared it's silent remember he's so scared he can't move this rabbit so this hair is so scared it's silent an interesting it's a yellow hair yellow suggesting cowardly scared because of course if he doesn't continue running if we know our First World War history if he tries to run away if he tries to run back what will happen is that he will be shot by his own people for being a coward so he has no choice here he may be feeling this terror this cowardice but he cannot move and I hate the word cowardice but that's how he sees it that's why the yellow hair he can't stop he plunged past so I'm just gonna whack in here that there furrows threw up is the on shaman that means that the slow-motion is over I think I mentioned it but I'm not sure I wrote it down yeah so the slow motion is finished we cut this hello yellow hair it's running around a threshing circle - threshing right it's all over the place its mouth wide open its eyes standing out so terrified and then he plunged past with his bayonet towards the green hedge king honor human dignity etc dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm to get out of that blue crackling air is Terra's touchy dynamite so we've got the repetition of the Green hedge here again this idea that he's running towards nature contrasting with war and then we have King honour human dignity etc all of these reasons that people normally go to war yes I'm fighting for king and country you know truth justice and the American Way and all of that dropped like luxuries he no longer has the luxury of being able say yes this is why I'm joining the army this is why I'm carrying this ridiculous gun no he is just terrified everything that makes him a human being everything that makes him a good soldier is now completely unnecessary everything that makes him a civilized man is forgotten he's attacking because he's terrified I'm running out there he's attacking cause he's scared in a yelling alarm to get out of that blue crackling air his terrors touching dynamite and we've got that lovely alliteration and metaphor there he's no longer a person he's a weapon now he's dynamite he's become a weapon he's going to shoot anything because he's so scared could shoot an enemy he could shoot a friend he could shoot the hair we don't know but he's going to shoot anything that comes near him because he has been turned into a weapon because he has lost everything that makes him a human being he's been dehumanized so the obvious poem to compare this one to the obvious poem to compare this to is the real world war one poem for one of a better way to describe it exposure but you could also do a lot of comparison with this with camicazi that idea of being thrown into a situation when you're terrified you actually want to turn around you can't camicazi he does turn around you could compare this quite nicely weird remains because of that whole idea of the slow motion in the middle of it'd be fantastic to do a comparison with remains you could look at this in comparison to something like storm on the island with the use of the natural imagery loads basically and this goes with so many any of the war poems it works fantastically with the one that's obvious to pair it with is exposure but as I said it goes with pretty much anything and it's it's quite an uncomfortable poem to read from a potable perspective we know that what Hughes is writing about here is really it's horrific what was done to these poor young men in World War one that were basically sent out as cannon fodder and the guys in charge were like yeah we know the cannon fodder doesn't matter their cannon fodder they don't matter and the loss of life was just horrific and that's I think what he is talking about here he's talking about the fact that at the end of day you know even if this bloke does come back alive he's been turned into a weapon he's not a person anymore but yeah as far as the exam is concerned comparing it with any of the war poems it works very well and I think it works particularly well with exposure remains kamakazi