The kind ghost

Question 1

Themes

Answer 1

Front Line v Home Front
Duty and patriotism and expectations of the Home Front
The role of women/femininity

Question 2

Title

Answer 2

Anger aimed at women here. Or could this be the Britannia personified.

Question 3

“She sleeps” “She dreams”

Answer 3

Passive action, yet ‘she’ is wilfully passive. The third person ‘she’ is mysterious and aloof from the realities of how her world is preserved. Sense that ‘she’ is blissfully unaware of the dangers of the front line.

Question 4

“Red mouths were torn to make their blooms”

Answer 4

Sensual/erotic image of pain and sacrifice, alludes to a mythical or fairyland world. This ultimately suggests that beauty is built on death and sacrifice.

Question 5

“Quite their blood lies in her crimson rooms”

Answer 5

Connotations of luxury as well as death and blood. Throughout the poem, luxury and death are juxtaposed, emphasising how critical and resentful the speaker is at this ambiguous woman it seems she is reaping the rewards of their suffering. Image of a woman oblivious to the sacrifices of men for her pleasures

Question 6

Structure

Answer 6

Unusual use of tercets, all ending in an end-stop. This conveys a strong image of a palace built on death and suffering. The present tense creates a sense of eternal sacrifice Typically decadent as fits with ‘philosopher of pleasure.’