In both ‘Bayonet charge’ and ‘Remains’ , both Hughes and Armitage show the idea of how mental suffering can persist both during and long after conflict , and the morose effects soldiers suffer from the passive disregard for human life. The poets both illustrate the devastating reality of wars against the facade of patriotism , and how soldiers are psychologically and physically incapable of lasting the harsh reality of war. Armitage bases ‘Remains’ on a soldier in Iraq , whereas Hughes focuses on a WW1 soldier , relating to him personally as his own father fought in WW1 and was one of the only men to survive the Gallipoli campaign. Firstly , both poems exemplify the theme of violence to portray the general cruel effects of war on the soldiers , and the rest of society. In ‘Bayonet charge’ , the poem begins in medias res with ‘Suddenly he awoke’ By starting at an unconventional place in the narrative , the reader is left confused and a tense atmosphere is established. This reflects the confusion and panic soldiers would have felt in war , which allows the reader to relate to their experiences. Hughes establishes an emphasis on the disgruntled soldier , but also conveys to the reader the hastiness of war with ‘’ Bullets smacking the belly out of the air’’. Air is personified reflecting the lingering presence of danger. The use of the onomatopeic word ‘’smacking’’ contributes to the virulent tone of the poem ; therefore describing the aftermath of the shots in the air. The use of ‘smacking’ conveys harsh auditory imagery , that brings the scene to life for the reader. The sound of the bullets hitting the air is palpable , creating a sense of immediacy and immersion in the battlefield experience. Hughes also shows how farmland has become a battleground. This amplifies the sense of chaos and destruction as the very atmosphere is not spared from the cruelty of war. Hughes continues the militaristic imagery to show the unsettling nature of the soldier at war , and the physical unsuitability he faces with his role as he ‘lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm’’. The rifle is presented as ‘cold’ and ‘numb’ reflecting how unnatural the soldier deems committing acts of violence. The soldier also seems disconnected from his weapon and uncomfortable holding it , reflecting his moral inability and physical incapability to carry out such a role. Hughes combines the semantic field of body parts with the semantic field of violence with metaphors which dehumanise the soldier , and blur the lines between what is human and what is weapon. Similarly , Armitage uses colloquial language to accentuate the idea of the soldier becoming desensitised due to the vexatious events at war. The poem begins on ‘ on another occasion’ , which establishes a sense of pessimism but also suggest how war has become normalised , and the soldier has almost detached himself from the grotesque war events. The nonchalant soldier is caught in a state of midpoint after killing , when the looter ‘ legs it up the road , probably armed , possibly not’. The colloquial language again reflects the idea of how the soldiers have become deadened to the effects of war , allowing them to talk about death and suffering in colloquial terms. The poet’s use of caesura in ‘probably armed , possibly not’ creates a dramatic pause in the thinking process as he is lingering in incertitude. The plosive sound ‘p’ also frames his irritated state of mind : which is foreboding of his confrontation with the looter. Armitage continues the vexatious effects of war with the unceremonious and coldness treatment of death further disturbing the reader when the soldier ‘ tosses his guts back into his body’. The unemotional verb ‘tosses’ reinforces how the narrators comrade is so used to conflict he has no morose when handling a dead body ; depriving a body of its last sacrament. The graphic imagery used in the gory detail of ‘tosses his guys’ creates a grotesque image of apathy towards the dead. The imagery reduces the human body to mere ‘guts’ emphasising the dehumanisation experienced in combat. The soldier is no longer seen as a person with a life and story but a collection of body parts. Thus both poems illustrate the melancholic effects of conflict on the psychological and physical aspect of the soldiers , where they are de attached from there own human nature. In addition , both Hughes and Armitage create a sense of the hidden aspects of conflict hidden by the facades of patriotism. Armitage utilising a dramatic monologue in the present tense using present participles such as ‘legs it’ and ‘tosses’. This gives it a sense of being an account from memory in a flashback , usually symptoms of PTSD. Armitage accentuates the depictions of the human suffering the soldiers experience behind the confines of patriotism which glorify war.At the end of the poem , the structure of the stanza length breaks down. This breakdown in structure could mirror the breakdown of soldiers during the war. It could also suggest this is truly where the speaker is broken , and collapsing stanza length mirrors his gradual decline in speech and mental health. Armitage continues the war imagery with ‘ his bloody life in my bloody hands’. The possessive pronoun ‘my’ indicates the soldier recognises his actions , and alludes to the idea of self blame and guilt where the soldier is unable to comprehend in the moment the severity of his actions. The use of assonance in the repetition of ‘bloody’ also reinforces his inner suffering , but could be utilised by Armitage perhaps as a intertextual focus to Macbeth on how guilt can drive you mad. Armitage's use of ‘blood’ could also indicate fragmented feelings, the soldier is stuck on the past and cannot bear the utter solitude and demise he faces from committing a loathsome action. Similarly , Hughes illustrates the shackles of patriotism as demanding yet unrealistic , due to the some soldier’s inability and incapability to go to war. Hughes uses ‘cold clockwork’ in the poem , where the use of ‘clockwork’ invokes the idea of time ticking away inevitably , emphasizing the relentless and unforgiving nature of war. It suggests a sense of urgency and inevitability , as if the soldier is caught in a relentless cycle of violence and destruction. This defies his allegiance to his country as he feels he is merely a ‘hand’ on a clock , exploited by the powerful military regime. In this way , his existence on the battlefield is insignificant. Hughes use of free verse also mirrors this , as the poem develops , the reader notices that the rhythm is not only constrained by a rhyming pattern ; but it also does not contain specific rhyme. Therefore , this is a reflection of the bland existence of the soldier whose sole motive is to charge towards enemy lines , in spite of his patriotic fulfilment and destiny. Hughes use of listing in ‘King , honour , human dignity ‘ establishes a sense of pessimism , Hughes is actively critiquing the causes of soldiers to go to war which lead to a a fatal , futile outcome of death. The further simile utilised creates a paradox ; Hughes portrays how the soldiers drop the warm and comfort of normalcy of their civilians life and uses the noun ‘luxuries’ to symbolise this , yet the soldier is blinded by his own moral obligation to fulfill his patriotic desires. Hughes actively critiques this , yet foreshadows the regret of the soldier as the poem ends with the metaphor ‘ His terror’s touchy dynamite’ . Hughes uses the metaphor to show how the soldiers are cut out from the normalcy of civilian life , and the lack of warmth and familial love , but also equates it to the foreboding nature of war as the soldiers life’ will lead to ‘dynamite’ , which suggests connotations of explosion and disaster. Therefore , Both ‘Remains’ and ‘Bayonet Charge’ establish the disintegrating state of the soldiers who suffer at conflict , and mirror the passionate desire and obligation of soldiers to fulfill their own patriotic desires. Both Hughes and Remains also illustrate the futile nature of war , and how it only equates to the soldiers' foreboding death and excruciating pain and suffering.