kamikaze - garland

Question 1

what is the poem kamikaze about

Answer 1

a mother talking to her son about her father who was a kamikaze pilot. he returned alive from a kamikaze mission and no one spoke to him in disgust

Question 2

what does this poem symbolise

Answer 2

the national expectation to put on soldiers to do their duty

Question 3

how does garland present nature

Answer 3

when the pilot is mid air he thinks about a tuna, “a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous” this could suggest that the poet sees power belongs to nature and might even be what made the pilot turn around. there is more to life than what he thinks.

Question 4

how does the poet explain the effects of this conflict on the pilot

Answer 4

“he must have wondered which had been a better way to die.”
suggesting the after effects of this conflict was so bad he might’ve debated death.

Question 5

how does the poet compare national expectation and personal conviction

Answer 5

all 7 stanzas are made of six lines which could reflect the tight control of the military and national expectation.
on the other hand, the poem is written in free verse and uses enjambment and symbolises the freedom the pilot wants to have

Question 6

what quote tells us his role wasn’t escapable

Answer 6

enough fuel for a one way journey into history”