Kamikaze

• Kamakazi pilot

  • Left at sunrise
  • Took water and a samurai sword
  • Had a shaved head full of strong ideas
  • Only enough fuel to go to destination, not return
• Pilot halfway through mission


  • Looked down at fishing boats and beauty of nature
  • Reminded him of his own childhood playing on the shore
• Pilot turned the plane around


  Came back from his mission
• Pilot's wife never spoke to him again or even looked at him</b>
• • Everyone treated the pilot as shameful
  • His children also eventually learned to be silent, to treat him as if he wasn't there
• Pilot must have wondered

  Whether kamakazi death would have been better than this emotional death
• The poem shows an inner conflict between the cultural military and national expectation that he would commit suicide as a kamakazi pilot and the pilot's own desire to return home
• Poem structure


  • Tight structure of 7 stanzas with 6 lines each
  • Written in free verse with numerous examples of enjambment
• Tight structure of stanzas


  Reflects tight control of military and national expectation
• Free verse and enjambment

  Reflects the freedom and personal conviction the pilot wants to have
• Tuna fish

  • Described as the 'Dark Prince', muscular and dangerous
• Tuna fish

  Most powerful character in the poem
• The poem suggests that true power belongs to nature, and humanity's efforts are futile
• Realization of how minute and unimportant human life is

  Causes the pilot to turn around and return home