The Bright Lights of Sarajevo

"Bright Lights" From title (4 points)

1. Double meaning

2. Bright lights could mean the bright lights of a city and be a metaphor for the people and hope they create

3. or it could mean the brightness of bombs, fire and destruction.

4. Mixed meaning is intriguing for the reader.

Rhyming Couplets structure (3 points)

1. Rhyming couplets,

2. Sense of rhythm,

3. reflect the couples and pairings of men and women in the poem

Enjambment structure (3 points)

1. Enjambment

2. Creates a flow in the poem

3. reflects the patterns of speech so the poem feels like a conversation.

Lines 1-11 (4 points)

1. Use of paradox

2. Communicates that daytime is more dangerous than night time

3. This is unexpected as people would expect daytime to be safer.

4. This shows how unusual and different the situation is in Sarajevo to the readers' experience.

"You'd think". (3 points)

1. Direct address to the reader

2. engages the reader and the reader is one who hasn't experienced war

3. The purpose is to dispel assumptions the reader might have about war.

"precious mere grams of bread" (3 points)

1. vocab choice

2. communicating how food is scarce

3. the basic necessities to live aren't easily available or abundant.

"in prams" (3 points)

1. Emotive language

2. Brings to mind babies and young children and how war kills and affects indiscriminately.

3. Thinking of the very young, very old and the vulnerable in the situation and experiencing war and lack of food creates an emotional response in the reader.

"stroller's pace" (3 points)

1. Paradoxical

2. This creates a contrast with the use of the word 'dodging' used to describe movement in the daytime.

3. Shows how it is more relaxed at night

"black shapes impossible to mark as Muslim, Serb or Croat" (5 points)

1. Irony

2. You can't tell peoples' ethnicity in the dark.

3. darkness brings anonymity and refuge from ethnic tensions because

4. people are less easily identified

5. this is opposite to what you might expect.

"strollers stride" (3 points)

1. Sibilance

2. It slows the pace

3. references how at night you are safer and can go slower.

"flirtatious" (2 points)

1. Juxtaposition

2. this juxtaposition of romance and war humanises the Sarajevans.

"fancied" (2 points)

1. colloquialism

2. Fancied is a teenage term and is a contrast between teenage hormones and the war that surrounds them.

"radar" "signals" (3 points)

1. Language choice

2. "radar" "signals"

3. Authors choice of vocab has militaristic this is juxtaposed with the ideas of romance it is being sued to describe.

"Match or lighter" (2 points)

1. Symbolism

2. Symbolising love as a source of light.

"two shell scars" (3 points)

1. Personification

2. Likening the damage from the shells to scars.

3. Scars like war leave a lasting impact

"massacred" "blood-dunked crusts" "broken dead" (2 points)

1. Emotive language

2. emotive, gory language that creates imagery of the horrors of war

"leaving the Sarajevo star-filled evening sky ideally bright and clear for bombers eye" (3 points)

1. juxtaposition of romance and violence

2. Throughout the poem romantic and violent imagery are constantly juxtaposed

3. It shows the resilience of love.

"coffee in a candlelit cafe until the curfew" (3 points)

1. Alliteration

2. again links and juxtaposes romance and war talking of candles cafes and then a curfew

3. Stark reminder of the war.

"he holds her hand" (3 points)

1. this shows the unity and connection that can be found even amidst war.

2. juxtaposition of normal behaviour and the violence of war shows hope

3. makes the reader feel both admiration and sadness.

Iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets structure (3 points)

1. Iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets

2. These poetic devices create a rhythm and movement similar to the heart beat of the couple

3. the forward movement the rhythm creates could also be symbolic of the relentlessness of war.

enjambment and juxtaposition structure (4 points)

1. enjambment, juxtaposition

2. it creates an intermingling of daily life, romance and war.

3. Shows the real people who are trying to survive and the resilience of the human spirt, hope and love.

4. The poem begins with hardship and ends with romance and hope.

"rationed" "dodging" "struggling" (2 points)

1. Verb choice

2. Create impression of suffering, difficulty and hardship

"streets Serb shells" (2 points)

1. Sibilance

2. Creates a feeling hush that is ominous