Bayonet Charge

"Bayonet Charge" was written by British poet Ted Hughes and published in Hughes's first collection, The Hawk in the Rain (1957). Set in the heat of battle, the poem focuses on the thoughts and behavior of a soldier in World War I. This soldier is depicted mid-charge, his bayonet (that is, the blade attached to this end of his gun) primed to attack the enemy. However, he has an epiphany during his charge and suddenly questions why he's there in the first place. Old notions like patriotism and honor seem to fade away as the soldier confronts the absurd reality of war—and of the likelihood of his own death. 

Bayonet Charge

Suddenly he awoke and was running – raw

In raw-seamed hot khaki, his sweat 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 – 5

He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm;

The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye

Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest, –

In bewilderment then he almost stopped –

In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations 10

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 in mid-stride. Then the shot-slashed furrows 15

Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame

And crawled in a threshing circle, its mouth wide

Open silent, its eyes standing out.

He plunged past with his bayonet toward the green hedge,

King, honour, human dignity, etcetera 20

Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm

To get out of that blue crackling air

His terror’s touchy dynamite.

TED HUGHES