Flag

Question 1

The rhyme in flag

Answer 1

The first and third lines of the first three stanzas rhyme. This suggests a bond between the two voices in the poem. This structure then breaks in the third stanza, where “field” and “bleed” don’t rhyme. It is gone by the final stanza which ends on a rhyming couplet.

Question 2

The effect of the rhyme in flag

Answer 2

It shows how the ‘argument’ of the poem has been developing and building towards a conclusion and the characters are going in different directions.

Question 3

How flag in like a convo

Answer 3

The poem is built around a conversation between two voices – one that asks the child-like question of each opening stanza; the other, perhaps Agard himself, who responds in the next two lines.

Question 4

How the subject of the flag changes

Answer 4

.In the first four stanzas the response is the same, with the line “It’s just a piece of cloth” echoing throughout the poem.
There is a sense that the poet and the questioner are on some kind of journey – each time they discuss a flag in a different place. The subject matter becomes more personal each time, though, changing from a general discussion of a “nation” (line 3), to focus on actual “men” (line 6), then specific examples of men (“the coward” in line 9) before focusing on the person asking the questions: “you” (line 12).

Question 5

Theme of flag

Answer 5

This poem seems to be built on the idea that nationalism is a purely abstract idea (an idea that exists in the head rather than in physical, concrete reality). He draws on views of countries as “imagined communities” – groups of people bound by myths, stories and flags. We are all human and yet certain individuals, powerful leaders, will create divisions simply by giving meaning to a limp and fluttering piece of cloth.

Question 6

Attitude towards the flag

Answer 6

The poem is therefore about the power of symbolism. Agard admits that the flag is a powerful symbol – but he urges us to see it as just that: a symbol whose ideas are dangerous and an invention of mankind.

Question 7

Idea about the flag

Answer 7

The word that is repeated most in the poem, for example, is “just”. This therefore becomes the most important idea in the poem. It seeks to lessen the power of the flag.

Question 8

Poems to compare flag to

Answer 8

At the border

Poppies

Question 9

Structure of answer

Answer 9

The (introduction) will explain the relevance of the question to what feelings the poem expresses and an overview of the story the poem tells.
Paragraph that covers form.
Paragraph that covers structure.
Paragraph that covers language (sound and verbal imagery).
Conclusion: You then conclude on the meaning that emerges from this.

Question 10

Flag stanzas

Answer 10

Flag is written in a tight, regular form. It has five stanzas, each with three lines. The middle line of each stanza is shorter than the other two. The form therefore mimics the shape of an old medieval flag.