1. ‘Kamikaze’ Beatrice Garland

2. Quick context
Kamikaze pilots were Japanese volunteers who offered to give their lives to destroy the enemy (in short a WW2 suicide bomber).

3. Soldier’s / Kamikaze Pilot’s oath
1. A soldier must make loyalty his obligation.
2. A soldier must make propriety his way of life.
3. A soldier must highly esteem military valour.
4. A soldier must have a high regard for righteousness.
5. A soldier must live a simple life.
It is an ancient Samurai ritual to commit suicide if you dishonoured yourself or your country – this is called Seppuku. Seppuku involved taking a knife or sword and stabbing yourself in the stomach, disembowelling yourself in the process. (This occurred in WW2, soldiers would rather kill themselves than be captured if the battle was lost)

4. Double meaning – gets on a plane / going on an adventure
Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword in the cockpit, a shaven head full of powerful incantations and enough fuel for a one-way journey into history
Why a sword and not a gun?
Soldiers shaved their heads as part of a ritual to demonstrate their readiness as well as remaining dignified, even in death.
What is the significance of the noun “incantations”?
Implies death
Almost sounds pleasant / sense of achievement and pride at making history

5. KQ: How does the poet approach the themes of power, conflict and death?
What is significant about this word?
Who is the narrator?
but half way there, she thought, recounting it later to her children, he must have looked far down at the little fishing boats strung out like bunting on a green-blue translucent sea
Why is the modal verb, “must” used?
What poetic technique is used? What is the effect?

6. Poetic technique?
When might a flag be waved?
and beneath them, arcing in swathes like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight, the dark shoals of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swivelled towards the sun
Why is the pilot bothered about the fish?
Swivelling = movement of a kamikaze plane/pilot as it attacks a target.
Why is the motion of swivelling important here?
The repetition of ‘s’ and ‘f’ sounds create pace and could mimic the motion of the aircraft.

7. KQ: How does the poet approach the themes of power, conflict and death?
Why is it important that that this part is identified as a memory?
Cairns – pile of stones/pebbles that acts as a memorial or marker (safety/direction for walkers)
and remembered how he and his brothers waiting on the shore built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles to see whose withstood longest the turbulent inrush of breakers bringing their father’s boat safe
Extended metaphor, what do the “turbulent” waves represent? (Think conflict)
Why does the poet choose to omit punctuation from this stanza?
Returning home safely? Not applicable for this soldier.

8. KQ: How does the poet approach the themes of power, conflict and death?
Why does the narrator highlight the natural beauty witnessed by the pilot?
Why is this in italics? What is it talking about?
– yes, grandfather’s boat – safe to the shore, salt-sodden, awash with cloud-marked mackerel, black crabs, feathery prawns, the loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.
Sibilance gives the effect of being read like a nursery rhyme – why is this significant?
Alone, removed from the rest of the group.
Unpredictable? How does this relate to the pilot?
How does this stanza link to the theme of conflict?

9. KQ: How does the poet approach the themes of power, conflict and death?
What does the “And though” reveal?
Why are most of the last two stanzas in italics?
And though he came back my mother never spoke again in his presence, nor did she meet his eyes and the neighbours too, they treated him as though he no longer existed, only we children still chattered and laughed
How does this stanza link to the theme of power?
Why is it only the children will talk to the pilot?
What is the conflict in this chapter?

10. KQ: How does the poet approach the themes of power, conflict and death?
The modal verb ‘must’ creates a bond between the pilot and the narrator. There is a hint of desperation in the tone as though the narrator wants the reader to also show him mercy.
till gradually we too learned to be silent, to live as though he had never returned, that this was no longer the father we loved. And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die.
What has happened here? Why has it happened?
What is the deeper meaning / underlying theme?
What does this mean? Can you link this to conflict?

11. Themes in the poem Conflict Death Power
Find quotations to support each theme in the poem and explain them to help you revise.

12. How could this poem compare to Charge of the Light Brigade?
Themes – bravery
How are the soldiers in the poems perceived differently?
The portrayal of conflict – positive/negative
Structure – do the poems use rhythm?
Tension – what techniques are used to create tension in the two poems?