Themes
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Power & Conflict, topic 9.1.2
Danger and Brutality of War
Hughes uses different images to show the brutality and danger of war. Here are some examples:
Image 1
- “Bullets smacking the belly out of the air” highlights the danger of the battlefield.
Image 2
- “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.”
- This is a gruesome image of the brutality of war.
The Powerlessness of Soldiers
A running theme is the powerlessness of soldiers to their fate in war. Hughes uses the following techniques to explore this idea:
Harsh alliteration
- “Cold clockwork”.
- This is potentially a reference to fate governing the soldier and his powerlessness to it.
Simile
- “He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm”.
- The image suggests the rifle is useless and therefore emphasises how vulnerable he is.
- It could also foreshadow the injuries he might gain because of war.
"Stumbling"
- "His sweat heavy, / Stumbling across a field of clods".
- “Stumbling” indicates his lack of control as he is caught up in the chaos of war.
Test yourself on Themes
Which of these are images showing the brutality and danger of war?
What word in this quote from Bayonet Charge suggests the soldier's lack of control?
"His sweat heavy, / Stumbling across a field of clods"What might the quote “cold clockwork” symbolise, in relation to the theme of the powerlessness of soldiers?