kamikaze

• Her father embarked at sunrise


  Japan is known as the land of the rising sun. Embark means to get on but also to begin something - he is beginning a new chapter of his life - both choices lead to a type of death
• a shaven head full of powerful incantations


  He is under the spell of patriotism and propaganda Not making his own decisions - his decision would be to keep living
• one-way journey into history


  Painful irony to his search for remembrance Sought death to be remembered and immortalised by respect.
• bunting


  celebrating the honour he will bring to his community
• a green-blue translucent sea


  Connotations of peace and tranquillity in the colour imagery. Doesn't want to deny himself - nor those he will kill - the beauty of nature and the beauty of life. Associating nature with precious possessions
• figure of eight


  Figure of eight the symbol for infinity. This may be used to imply the eternal nature of nature - continue indefinitely - nature is infinite in comparison to the transience of humanity, and life is brief, transient and precious. War and honour will be forgotten - nature will remain. Nature is more powerful than mankind.
• shoals of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swivelled towards the sun


  Sibilance implies a sense of grace and peacefulness, as well as suggesting an elegant and graceful tone, also works to increase the pace to make the poem sound more emotional.
• waiting on the shore


  How leaving the family in order to provide for them was something required by every generation, just in different capacities. The father feels a responsibility to return to them. This is a selfless reason to return, rather than just a fear of death.
• cairns


  Stacks of pebbles that mark graves, shows the father is starting to consider the consequences of death and reminds readers that all the beauty of nature is undermined by the role he's about to play- will lose his ability to enjoy nature
• pearl-grey pebbles


  Nature's beauty is precious and valuable Life is valuable and sacred - shouldn't be ended prematurely Nature presented as powerful
• safe


  Repetition of safe - it is safety and life he is focusing on
• a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.


  Imbalance of power between humanity and nature. Even a kamikaze pilot - the epitome of bravery - sense the danger of it. Pilot (symbol of military power and determination) is not the most dangerous thing in the poem - a fish is! Metaphor - it is a prince - important and significant - deserving of respect and honour (like a soldier) Emphasise its significance by using first punctuation in poem (first full stop) Signal it is deserving of notice.
• nor did she meet his eyes


  Wouldn't "meet his eyes" - eyes are the windows to the soul. Doesn't want to see the person he has become - ashamed of her own husband. Doesn't want to communicate with him - distance herself from him as her daughter will. Thus the impact of conflict is ongoing - passed down from generation to generation. OR doesn't want to face what she is doing - feels guilty - painful to give up her husband but has no choice because her culture demands it
• too learned


  Learning about cultural values
• to live as though he had never returned,


  By living he traded this for being forgotten and ignored. Story is not told by historians but by a daughter who never knew him - the whole poem is speculative. Suggests the father physically survives but dead to the community and society he returned to
• which had been the better way to die.


  Both options offer a kind of death and this line implies that soldiers are controlled by indoctrination and propaganda, and used as tools of the government. Written in a detached third-person viewpoint which might suggest the speaker doesn't agree with this cultural view.

  
  

  "die" chosen as the last word of the poem, which creates a sense of futility and inevitable fate: the soldier was destined to die one way or another. The reader is also forced to reflect on their own mortality and life which will end the same way as the soldiers. In a more overarching societal application, the writer may be suggesting that conflict and patriotism denies humanity the enjoyment of life and nature.
• Kamikaze + the Prelude

  K-Celebrated the beauty of nature

  P- Feared the power of nature

  
  

  K-Patriotism vs Nature

  P-Man vs Nature

  
  

  K+P- Both speakers are forced to reconsider their perspective and consider the power and influence of nature
• Kamikaze + poppies

  Similarities-

  ● Both poems convey the grave impact on civilians that war and conflict can have, including the psychological impact. In Poppies, the mother is grieving and suffering from loss and this emotional breaking is displayed through the structural use of caesura and enjambment. Similarly, in Kamikaze, the daughter suffering from a life where she cannot know her father and this is a struggle against culture (third person).

  ● They both also display characters trying to process memories, and how memory interacts with impact of conflict. In Kamikaze, this is the speaker going over memory of father whilst trying to rationalise why he came back and why he left, and in Poppies this is the main character going back over memories of her son whilst trying to rationalise why he left - "I was brave"

  ● The poets both offer non-conventional perspectives of war, Kamikaze rom the perspective of a daughter (loss of father) and Poppies from the perspective of a mother (loss of son).

  Differences-

  ● Whilst both are suffering from loss, one ne is loss of father not because of a physical death but because of her culture's rejection of him, whereas in Poppies it is the physical loss of a son to war, but also loss of her memories of him as they are corrupted by connections to war. These contrasting perspectives display the multitudes of way war and conflict can cause loss for those left behind.
• Kamikaze + checking out me history

  Similarities-

  ● Both poems express the Importance of a person's history and origins (as well as their culture) in forming their identity. In Kamikaze, it is shown that without her father, she cannot understand herself and is therefore distanced from him

  Differences-

  ● Whilst Kamikaze presents conflict with her culture, COMH shows conflict with those restricting his culture, fighting for it not against it