kamikaze

• the poem is about a daughter considering what her father, a kamikaze piloot who failed his mission went through during the mission itself and how he was shunned for not completing it when returning to japan
• "full of powerful incantations" he has been put under a spell of patriotism as he thinks this is what he must do, shows the power that a country has over a man
• "green-blue translucent sea"the world is too beautiful for him to leave behind, nor does he want anyone he kills to loose the privilege of seeing nature
• "cairns of pearl-grey pebbles" cairns are stacks of pebbles put onto graves, as the pilot is know considering whether his death is worthwhile as he can no longer enjoy nature.
• "nor did she meet his eyes" the eyes are the window into the soul, showing that his wife doesn't want to know her husband and is ashamed of being his wife. shows how conflict effects everyone, not just the soldiers.
• "to live as though he hadn't returned" shows that while his physical body and he was alive, socially he was dead as no-one respected him and they refused to talk or acknowledge him
• this poem is written in third person from a daughters perspective, showing how the daughter feels detached from her father and the distance from him she grew up with due to the culture of japan however there is a volta where the author changes to first person to show the external vs internal thoughts
• each stanza is tightly controlled to 6 lines, perhaps showing how the soldier is controlled by the leaders of the military
• the last word of the poem is "die" signifying that no matter what the soldier did he was dead either physically or socially. shows the power of the military over soldiers as he would either be dead physically or socially, and had no choice
• within the first two lines of the poem there is reference to both the pilot and the father showing that he had more to live for than killing himself for his country.
• poppies

  similarities: in both poems they study how conflict effects civilians physiologically, as the mother is grieving while the daughter can't know her father due to culture

  in both poems they are processing memories they have, in kamikaze she is trying to rationalize why her father came back, while in poppies she is trying to work out why he left

  differences: while the father is alive the son is not, shows the power of the culture in japan as she no-longer has a father in her eyes due to the culture