AQA English Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology

“Probably armed, possibly not“

Remains

• Shows the speaker’s internal conflict

• He doubts whether his actions were justified

• Repeated:

  • Said once near the beginning,and once near the end

“His bloody life in my bloody hands“

Remains

• Final line of the poem:

  • Shows how the effects of the war will last forever

• Imagery of blood is repeated throughout the poem

“End of story, except not really“

Remains

• He is supposed to have forgotten the events when he returned home, but he still feels guilty

“are all of the same mind“

Remains

• the soldiers are trained to think and act the same

• they have no individuality

“I see every round as it rips through his life“

Remains

• “rips” connotes carelessness, violence, messiness, and speed

“three of a kind, all letting it fly“

Remains

• shows how they were all conditioned to do the same thing, and act in the same way

• Euphemism shows how they didn’t consider the looter’s life in the moment

“But nothing happens“

Exposure

• Short line breaks up stanzas

• Is repeated throughout the poem, always at the end of stanzas

• The final line of the poem

  • The only way out of their suffering is death, or they will continue to be stuck in the cycle

“For the love of God seems dying“

Exposure

• The speaker loses hope as he wonders how God could let this happen

“black with snow“

Exposure

• juxtaposes how snow normally is

• shows how nature is cruel:

  • black connotes evil

• shows the threat the snow brings

“Is it that we are dying?“

Exposure

• rhetorical question emphasises the effects of the war:

  • results in hallucination and hypothermia

• Is unsure about reality

“Slowly our ghosts drag home“

Exposure

• “Slowly” emphasises exhaustion the soldiers are feeling

• “ghosts” suggests a loss of physical life, but their spirits are able to return home

“half-known faces“

Exposure

• the war has changed the soldiers

• they try not to know people too well, for fear of losing them

“spools of suffering“

War Photographer

• present participle emphasises the ongoing nature of war

• “spools” are circular, suggesting a cyclical structure for war

“half-formed ghost“

War Photographer

• slow forming image is seen by the photographer as a “ghost”

• The photographer is brought back to the moment he took the photograph as it develops in front of him

“A hundred agonies in black-and-white“

War Photographer

• shows how many people suffered, and how their suffering is captured in a picture, which cannot truly capture what happened

• “black-and-white” suggests that it is not the full picture of what happened

• only a few are chosen, the rest are forgotten

“children running in the nightmare heat“

War Photographer

• references the “Napalm girl” photo which depicts a child suffering

• children are seen as innocent, which juxtaposes with the environment they have been put in

“He has a job to do.“

War Photographer

• short declarative sentence

• shows how the photographer tries to remain detached from reality

“He remembers the cries“

War Photographer

• shows the guilt he feels, and how he cannot escape the memories

• the image is still vivid in his mind

“A split second and you were away, intoxicated“

Poppies

• Patriotism is presented as poisonous or addictive

• “split second” shows the son’s eagerness to leave

“I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind“

Poppies

• The mother cannot let go of her son, and longs for him back

“making tucks, darts, pleats, hat-less“

Poppies

• asyndetic listing creates an unsettling atmosphere

• shows how overwhelmed the mother is, and how she has fallen apart without her son

“leaned against it like a wishbone“

Poppies

• frustrated wish

• ironic use of symbol of luck with the terrible situation suggests a cyclical tone

“released a songbird from its cage“

Poppies

• represents letting her son go

“I resisted the impulse“

Poppies

• she has to contain her emotions now that her son is grown up

• her son has changed

“Dem tell me“

Checking out me history

• repetition mirrors the rote learning of Eurocentric facts

• refers to his white teachers

“Blind me to me own identity“

Checking out me history

• covering up his culture

• suggests the education has injured him

“I carving out me identity“

Checking out me history

• Changes pronoun “dem” to “I”

• forceful verb shows that he is now in control

• turning point in the poem

• final line of the poem ends it on a positive and hopeful note

• the poem is now about him, rather than them

“But now I checking out me own history“

Checking out me history

• shows how things have changed

• he can now learn about his culture

“living tissue“

Tissue

• connotes skin, compared to the paper that was described before

“The sun shines through“

Tissue

• highlights the overwhelming power of nature

• nature can break through man’s markings and divisions

“fly our lives like paper kites“

Tissue

• the money is controlling them

• criticising the significance that humanity puts on money

• flimsy and could break

“the back of the Koran“

Tissue

• paper has power over the way humans act

“smoothed and stroked and turned transparent“

Tissue

• metaphor for how humans age

• paper may change, but it does not lose its importance