What could this poem be about?

Lesson Aim To understand what the poem ‘August 6, 1945’ by Alison Fell is about. To analyse how the poet has used language and structure to convey thoughts, feelings and ideas.

Alison Fell Alison Fell was born in Dumfries, Scotland in 1944. She was educated at Dumfries Academy and Edinburgh Art College. She began writing for Scotland Magazine in 1962, and moved to London in 1970, where she co-founded the Woman's Street Theatre Group, later known as 'Monstrous Regiment'. She held the School of English and American Studies Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in 1998.

What Happened in hiroshima What Happened in hiroshima? During the end of World War II the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These are the only atomic bombings ever. The US wanted the Japanese to surrender but they refused. ThE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE FIRST BOMB WAS CALLED ENOLA GAY, NAMED AFTER THE MOTHER OF THE PILOT. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. Six days after the bomb on Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War II, as Germany had already signed its Surrender on May 7, ending the war in Europe.

http://www.danielpemberton.com/videos.html Watch this clip from a documentary that was made about Hiroshima bomb. Listen to the interviews with those in the Enola Gay and on the ground. How does it make you feel?

August 6, 1945 by Alison Fell In the Enola Gay five minutes before impact he whistles a dry tune Later he will say that the whole blooming sky went up like an apricot ice. Later he will laugh and tremble at such a surrender, for the eye of his belly saw Marilyn's skirts fly over her head for ever On the river bank, bees drizzle over hot white rhododendrons Later she will walk the dust, a scarlet girl with her whole stripped skin at her heel, stuck like an old shoe sole or mermaid's tail Later she will lie down in the flecked black ash where the people are become as lizards or salamanders and, blinded, she will complain Mother you are late. So late Later in dreams he will look down shrieking and see ladybirds ladybirds

Which images are particularly shocking? Which colours suggest images of fire? Why have they been used? How does the experience of the pilot change? Why would he want to have named a plane carrying weapons of mass destruction after his mother?

Plenary Our lesson objectives were: To understand what the poem ‘August 6, 1945’ by Alison Fell is about. To analyse how the poet has used language and structure to convey thoughts, feelings and ideas. In your own words, answer the following questions: What is ‘August 6, 1945’ about? How do language and structure contribute to meaning