Kamikaze Flashcards
Form
Intimate/closed tone as rhe Garland works to contrast both the speaker and daughter’s voices, which merge into one, ensuring the reader is aware it’s a very personal story and narrative being imparted in the poem
Speaker features four generations(children(“recounting it later to her children”), speaker, father(“no longer the father we loved”) , grandfather(“-yes-grandfather’s boat”)) showing conflict will impact each generation by the impact it has on those before
Structure
Repetition of “safe”: pilot focuses on his safety and life
First full stop in poem after claiming “a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.”- Imbalance of power between humanity and nature, fish most dangerous thing in the poem and is important just like a “prince” and soldier
Dramatic shift in narration from third to first person when the speaker discusses her father’s return(he “was no longer the father we loved. And sometimes, she said,he must hafe wondered which had been the better way to die “), but the final line returns to the third person.
Poem structured into tightly controlled stanza lengths of 6 lines, reflecting the order and obedience expected of a soldier, but this structure is juxtaposed by the free verse and enjambment, with these attempts of freedom suggesting her father had his own desires, roles and individuality within the constrictions put in place by the Japanese government:”he must have looked far down at the little fishing boats”
“Die” is last word of poem, creating a sense of futility and inevitable fate for soldier
Language
Conflict between identities is established in first two lines of poem, contrast between title “kamikaze” and father”
Patriotic imagery “her father embarked at sunrise” reminds the reader Japan’s known as the land of the rising sun, but he’s heading towards his death(no hope” and “embark” suggest the father’s beginning a new chapter of his life through reflecting his role as a Kamikaze pilot. Father provided “feathery prawns” and “cloud marked mackerel” so appreciates beauty of nature(life, so rejects death, but “cloud-marked” and “feathery” have angelic and heavenly connotations suggesting while the father has rejected death, the concept of it’s now present forever in the family life
