The Bright Lights of Sarajevo

Question 1

Hidden danger

Answer 1

Opening sentence - lines 1-16. Hidden danger.

‘Dodging snipers’, in middle of a list of queuing… and thus is hidden, not at the start and not at the end of a line or a list, mimicking the concealed snipers. (Embedded subordinate clause). “Often” and “on the way” add to the sense of casualness / as if it is just one of many inconveniences (shown by the long sentences). Everyday horror.

Question 2

Violence

Answer 2

• on two shell scars, where, in 1992 /Serb mortars massacred the breadshop queue /and blood-dunked crusts of shredded bread / lay on the pavement with the broken dead.,
• ‘shell scars’ damage is still visible but has begun to heal. Metaphor.
• ‘Mortars massacred’, alliteration, takes away agency and thus blame, massacred is emotive and shocking, personifies the mortars. Emotive.
• Juxtaposed with the everyday nature of the “breadshop queue” with mortars “massacred” Terror is present in the everyday. Link to line 4 - perhaps not just an inconvenience in the opening sentence, but a real, concealed threat.
• “Blood dunked crusts of shredded bread” Visceral imagery, dehumanising as it focuses on the visual image instead of the victim. Plosives and a sense of violence.
• ‘lay on the pavement’ the bread is lying on the pavement just like the people, makes them seem the same, dehumanising metaphor of ‘broken dead’
• Rhyme scheme, throughout all of this, jarring as the rhyming couplets sound positive, and the juxtaposition of language and structure highlights the horror of the content.

Question 3

Juxtaposition of danger and hope

Answer 3

• “…even the smallest clouds have cleared away,
  leaving the Sarajevo star-filled evening sky
  ideally bright and clear for bomber’s eye,”
• Pathetic fallacy of ‘Clouds’ being ‘cleared’ and ‘star-filled’ “bright”, hope, optimism and romance. Seems positive, but contrasted with last half line ‘ for bomber’s eye’ implying that in any moment which seems hopeful, there is still a real sense of danger.
• …the boy sees
  “fragments of the splintered Pleiades,
  sprinkled on those death-deep, death-dark wells
  splashed on the pavement by Serb mortar shells.”
• “Splintered” plosives, violent, onomatopoeia
• Violence is contrasted with ‘sprinkled’ and ‘splashed’, but splashed has connotations of blood, again not allowing us to have sense of security and comfort
• Repetition of “death” and use of plosives in “death-deep, death dark’. Negative tone alters interpretation of “sprinkled” / highlights the extremes they are faced with

Question 4

Romance

Answer 4

• “Flirtatious ploys”, seems incongruous, doesn’t fit with the tone of the poem so far. Reminds us there is romance even in war.
• Tender radar - metaphor (military of naval) / oxymoron
• “Candlelit cafe” - alliteration, romance aspect, simultaneously romantic and to avoid the danger of being bombed. Are the romances the only “bright lights” / hopes for the future in Sarajevo?