1. What is happening in this image?
In ‘Kamikaze’ by Beatrice Garland’, a Japanese woman explains to her children what happened to their grandfather in the war.
What is happening in this image?
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

2. LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question
Kamikaze:
During the Second World War, Japanese airmen were sent on suicide missions, crashing planes filled with bombs into Allied naval vessels in the Pacific Ocean. Nearly 4,000 pilots were killed as a result. A belief in the importance of death, instead of defeat, capture and shame was a key element in Japanese military culture. For a Japanese military man, the Bushido code of loyalty and honour until death was one of the main traditions.
Read the definition opposite.
Read the first verse of the poem.
What thoughts and emotions might a kamikaze pilot have experienced just before setting off on a suicide mission?
Now read the rest of the poem. What do we learn about the father’s suicide mission?
Why might the father have turned back for home?
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

3. Soldier/ Kamikaze Pilot’s oath:
A soldier must make loyalty his
obligation.
A soldier must make propriety (conforming to accepted standards/respectability) his way of life.
A soldier must highly esteem military valour.
A soldier must have a high regard for righteousness.
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)
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

4. Exploring detail
Read through the poem and highlight images that suggest life, colour, beauty and energy.
Look closely at how the poem is structured;
How many sentences are there?
In what ways is each sentence different?
For each sentence, in a copy of the table below, sum up the content and the main idea about war that is explored or expressed:
What is the impact of the final short sentence?
Sentence
Content and ideas 1 2 3
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

5. Exploring details There are 7 exploration sheets circulating
around the room, to help you with your
annotations.
You must find and use all the sheets!
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

6. 1
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”?
Almost sounds pleasant / sense of achievement and pride at making history
Implies death
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

7. 2
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?
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

8. 3
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?
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.
Swivelling = movement of a kamikaze plane/pilot as it attacks a target.
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

9. 4
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.

10. Why does the narrator highlight the natural beauty witnessed by the pilot?
Why is this in italics? What is it talking about? 5
– 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?
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

11. 6
What does the “And though” reveal?
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 are most of the last two stanzas in italics?
What is the conflict in this chapter?
Why is it only the children will talk to the pilot?
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

12. 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. 7
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?
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

13. Lasting thoughts
The poem doesn’t explain why his wife and neighbours treated the father in the way they did following his return. Why might they have behaved like this?
Look at the final two lines.
What is being suggested about the choice the father made? Refer to the rest of the poem in your response.
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question

14. -Attitudes to warfare; honour and shame.
Key themes:
-Attitudes to warfare; honour and shame.
To summarise
You could compare ‘Kamikaze’ to:
‘COLB’, ‘Poppies’ and ‘Bayonet Charge’.
Key vocabulary:
Kamikaze: (see slide two).
Incantation: A magic formula, spell, or chant.
‘a flask of water, a samurai sword’: Ceremonies were carried out before kamikaze pilots took their final mission. They shared ceremonial cups of sake or water. Many kamikaze pilots took their swords with them if they were officers.
Key features:
Formal structure of seven verses, each of six lines.
Vivid imagery to contrast with the destructive nature of war.
Unusual use of sentence lengths.

15. Comparing poems
Compare the ways in which ideas concerning orders and honour are presented within ‘Kamikaze’ and either ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ or ‘Bayonet Charge’. ~
Remember to carefully address the AOs which are assessed for this question within your response.
To be able to comment on structural features and poetic devices in a poem
To be able to respond creatively to a poem through analysis paragraphs
To identify the meaning of a poem through close language analysis
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question