Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland

• Kamikaze


  A suicide attack carried out by an aircraft loaded with explosives and deliberately crashed into a target
• Kamikaze pilot


  • Left at sunrise
  • Took water and a samurai sword
  • Had a shaved head full of strong ideas
  • Only had enough fuel for a one-way journey, not to return
• Halfway through the mission


  The pilot turned the plane around and came back, filled with shame
• The pilot's wife never spoke to him again or even looked at him</b>
• The pilot's children also eventually learned to be silent and treat him as if he wasn't there
• This was not the man they had once known and loved
• The conflict in the poem

  Between the cultural, military and national expectation that the pilot would commit suicide, and the pilot's own desire to return home
• Poem's structure


  • Tight structure of 7 stanzas with 6 lines each
  • Written in free verse with enjambment, reflecting the contrast between tight control and freedom of expression
• Tuna fish metaphor


  Described as the 'Dark Prince', 'muscular', 'dangerous' - the most powerful character in the poem
• The tuna fish


  Represents the power of nature, suggesting human efforts are futile and human life is minute compared to the vast array of nature
• Other poems in the 'Power and Conflict' cluster also focus on the power of nature