A century later

• “A century later”


  Published 100years after start of WWI and echoes the opening to the poem “Anthem for doomed youth by Wilfred Owen

  In this poem, the war girls are fighting for an education
• Poem begins with 15yr old girl making her way to school

  Shes shot in the head by an unknown attacker, but carries on her fight for education.

  Her mind remains intact + there are hints that her knowledge blooms

  Her bravery encourages other girls to stand up for their right to go school
• ”the school bell is a call to battle

  every step to class, a step into the firing-line”


  metaphor of education as a battlefield which is extended across poem

  “class”= youth + vulnerability: contrasted to ”firing line” = danger the girls are in

  Threat comes from knowledge + education
• ”surrendered, surrounded, she takes the bullet in the head

  and walks on“

  sibilance “surrendered, surrounded” increases sinister feeling

  Caesura= entrapment of young girl + reflects sounds of shots

  Casual language “takes the bullet” reduces the bullets power to hurt her and empowers the young girl

  Enjambment between stanzas acts as reminder that the girl cannot be defeated
• ”bullet, she says, you are stupud

  You have failed. You cannot kill a book

  Or the buzzing in it”


  Declarative sentences suggest a form of protest through a non violent action and reflects confidence and determination of the girls

  Direct speech= gives the girl a voice despite the attackers attempts to deny her one (power)

  The bullet = addressing the attackers

  Natural imagery: the girls are working together and the “buzzing” reflects the energy that comes from education and their ideas
• “A murmur, a swarm. Behind her, one by one

  the schoolgirls are standing up

  to take take their places on the front line“


  Shift from ”murmur” to ”swarm” suggest the movement is growing

  Switch from the defensive “firing line@ in stanza 1 to the attacking “front line@ of final stanza refelcts the girls determination and the stanza length grows form couplets to tercet to reflect growing movement
• conflict- thirteen

  power + authority- thirteen

  oppression- thirteen

  prejudice- thirteen

  injustice- thirteen

  education + change- thirteen

  time- thirteen

  rebellion + revolution- portable paradise/ jewellery