A century later by Imtiaz Dharker

• Theme - Knowledge and education

  Learning is a human right that must be fought for
• Theme - Power and Oppression

  The juxtapositon between education and conflict runs throughout the poem - those with an education oppress those without one
• Theme - Gender

  The fight for the right to female education
• Context - Anthem for Doomed Youth

  • The poem echoes Wilfred Owen's WWI poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
  • The similarity between the two poems represents how, even a century after WWI, conflicts are still being fought with young people on the front lines
• "A century later"

  • Little has changed since WWI
  • Fighting oppression is still necessary even after 100 years
• "The school-bell is a call to battle"

  • plosives
  • violent connotations from the beginning
  • war imagery
  • sets the tone for the rest of the poem
• "every step into class, a step into the firing-line"

  • cesura
  • slows down the pace
  • more impactful
  • "firing-line"
  • they are being attacked, not attacking
  • juxtaposition
  • emphasising the injustice of the situation
• "cheek still rounded ... Surrendered, surrounded"

  • assonance
  • links the ideas together
  • her youth is linked to the danger that she is in
• "takes the bullet in the head / and walks on"

  • enjambment
  • connects the two stanzas
  • reflects how being shot didn't stop her
• "a field humming under the sun"

  • contrast with the violence
• "full of poppies"

  • WWI allusion
  • link to Anthem for Doomed Youth
  • reminder of how little has changed in the century since the conflict
• "This girl has won / the right to be ordinary,"

  • reflecting how she stood up for herself
  • juxtaposition between "won" and "ordinary"
  • she shouldn't have to fight to be herself
  • reiterating the injustice of her situation
• "go to school. Bullet, she says"

  • cesura around "Bullet"
  • slows down the pace
  • isolates the bullet
• "You cannot kill a book / or the buzzing in it"

  • plosives
  • harsh connotations of violence and standing up to it
  • onomatopoeia
  • implication of the subtle power that books hold
  • enjambment
  • connects the two ideas
  • implications of progress and moving forward
• "A murmur, a swarm."

  • onomatopoeia
  • implication of subtle resistance slowly growing
• "schoolgirls are standing up / to take their places on the front line."

  • war imagery
  • reiterating the violence
  • implies the necessity of the fight
  • contrast from the opening
  • they're no longer being attacked, they're standing up and fighting
  • suggests that, despite the amount of time it's taken, change is happening
• Structure

  • No rhyme scheme or rhythm
  • Alternates between couplets and quintains, the last stanza is a tercet
  • Free verse
• Free verse

  • Suggests breaking free of expectations and authority
  • The last line breaking the rhythm emphasises this
  • implications of breaking vicious cycles