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Year 10
AQA

Understanding the Poem 'Bayonet Charge'

I can explain how Hughes presents the enduring impact of war.

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New
New
Year 10
AQA

Understanding the Poem 'Bayonet Charge'

I can explain how Hughes presents the enduring impact of war.

Download all resources
Share activities with pupils

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. ‘Bayonet Charge’ depicts a soldier in the midst of a harrowing battle.
  2. ‘Bayonet Charge’ exposes how war damages people, innocence and the natural world.
  3. Hughes’ intention may be to criticise the patriotic ideals surrounding war and expose the true horrors of war.
  4. Hughes may have based his poem on his father’s stories of WW1 .
  5. Hughes' fathers stories were so vivid that Hughes felt he himself had witnessed the apocalyptic carnage.

Common misconception

Poetry about war is always based on first-hand experience.

Many poems about war are from the perspective of family members who are also impacted by their loved ones going to war.

Keywords

  • Patriotic - having devotion or love for one’s country

  • Dehumanise - deprive someone of the qualities that make them human

  • Harrowing - highly distressing

You can supplement the answers to some of the questions in the lesson with more quotes from the poem.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You will need a copy of the AQA Power & Conflict Poetry Anthology for GCSE.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What does the word 'patriotic' mean?
Correct answer: to feel devotion or love for one’s country
to feel hate for one’s country
to feel indifferent towards one's country
Q2.
World War I was between which years?
1913-1917
1914-1917
Correct answer: 1914-1918
1915-1918
Q3.
What 'C' is being described here: information we have about the cultural, social or historical events at the time a text was written.
Correct Answer: context, contextual information
Q4.
What is being described here: the writer's is the reason or purpose they are writing.
Correct Answer: intention
Q5.
What does the word 'harrowing' mean?
deprive someone of the qualities that make them human
Correct answer: something which is highly distressing
being unsure of your surroundings
Q6.
What do we mean by 'natural imagery' when used by a writer?
Correct answer: these are images linked to the natural world
these are images which are well known so will occur to the reader naturally
these are images which naturally occur to the writer

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match the key terms to their definitions.
Correct Answer:patriotic,having devotion or love for one’s country

having devotion or love for one’s country

Correct Answer:dehumanise,deprive someone of the qualities that make them human

deprive someone of the qualities that make them human

Correct Answer:harrowing,highly distressing

highly distressing

Q2.
How might you summarise the mood of the first stanza of 'Bayonet Charge'?
peaceful
Correct answer: frantic
patriotic
Q3.
How does the pace of 'Bayonet Charge' change between stanza 1 and stanza 2 of the poem?
stanza 1 is action-filled but it reaches a climax in stanza 2
Correct answer: stanza 1 is action-filled but stanza 2 contrasts with this and slows down
stanza 1 is action-filled but stanza 2 is emotional as the soldier has stopped
Q4.
In which year was 'Bayonet Charge' written?
1918
1947
Correct answer: 1957
1915
Q5.
In 'Bayonet Charge' Hughes shows that war not only damages people but also...
Correct answer: the natural world.
the economy.
the morals of the soldiers.
Q6.
What might Hughes' intention have been in writing 'Bayonet Charge'?
to memorialise the soldiers who fought in the war
Correct answer: to criticise the patriotic ideals that led men to sign up for the war
to act as a release after his experience in the war