Kamikaze

Question 1

Who is the poet that wrote kamikaze ?

Answer 1

Beatrice garland
- not Japanese she is white so don’t say it’s about her experiences because it’s not

Question 2

What is the key theme in the poem ?

Answer 2

The conflict between his conscious and his nation
- compare well to exposure

Question 3

What is the key point to grasp ?

Answer 3

It’s narrator (a mother) speaking to her children about her father (the pilot) and her grandfather ( the fisherman)

Question 4

What is the context of the poem ?

Answer 4

Kamikaze pilots
- suicide missions and crash into enemy warships

Question 5

How can we analyze the structure of the poem ?

Answer 5

1. 6 stanzas
   - sounds like a cautionary oral telling
   - tightly controlled which is symbolic of the military and cultural expectations placed upon the pilot
2. Free verse and Enjambment
   - juxtaposes the tightly controlled stanzas
   - breaks through the structural barriers as is symbolic of his inner conscious of honor and service to his country conflicting his love of nature and life

Question 6

What are the 7 quotes you should know for this poem ?

Answer 6

1. ‘ green- blue translucent sea’
2. ‘ shoals of fishes flashing silver’
3. ‘ a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous’
4. ‘Loose silver of white air’
5. ‘Her father embarked at sunrise’
6. ‘ built cairns of Pearl grey pebbles’
7. ‘ she thought’

Question 7

What is there s romantic field of and what are the two quotes that show this ?

Answer 7

Pastoral imagery
- ‘ green- blue translucent sea’
- ‘ shoals of fishes flashing silver’

Question 8

How can we analyze the imagery of the sea? Qoute, what and why

Answer 8

‘ green blue translucent sea’
- semantic field of pastoral imagery
- vivid imagery and beautiful pastoral imagery
- the poet employs this to exacerbate the intense beauty of nature and we therefore sympathize with the pilots decision to not deprive himself or anyone he may kill of this beauty

Question 9

How can we analyze the imagery of a group of fishes ? Quote, what and why

Answer 9

‘ shoals of fishes flashing silver’
- sibilants and sounds euphoric therefore mimicking the beauty and fluidity of nature

Question 10

How can we analyze the imagery of fishes ? 2 Quotes, what and why

Answer 10

1.‘ a tune, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous’
2. ‘ loose silver of whitebait’
- the tuna is the most dangerous thing within the poem
- the metaphoric comparison between the materialistic goods and social positions is juxtaposed by the beauty of life as the poet suggests through the use of this heavy pastoral imagery that nature itself is a luxury

Question 11

How can we analyze the imagery of a flag ?

Answer 11

‘ her father embarked at sunrise’
- nature vs man due to the alluded militaristic imagery of the Japanese imperial flag of the rising sun
- metonym of imperial Japan

Question 12

What is a good quote that shows what’s at stake for the pilot ?

Answer 12

‘ built cairns of Pearl grey pebbles’
- cairns are landmarks for graves and this imagery of implied death highlights what is at risk for the pilot and invites us too, like the pilot, to question the morality of suicide attacks

Question 13

What is a good quote showing the barrier between the mother and her father ?

Answer 13

‘ ,she thought,’
The caesura either side of the sentences grammatically desperate her from her father and is symbolic of how she was kept from him