Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland

• The poem is about a daughter talking about her father who is the kamikaze pilot
• The daughter is telling her own children about her father
• Kamikaze pilot


  A pilot who deliberately crashes their aircraft into an enemy target
• Poem opening

  • Father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword
  • Sibilant sounds give a sense of peace
  • Sunrise symbolises divinity and meeting God
  • Water symbolises purity and baptism
• Father embarking on his journey


  Reminds him of being a fisherman, persuades him not to kill other sailors
• Daughter reimagining father's thoughts


  • Sees schools of fish like a huge flag waving, representing patriotism and sacrifice
  • Figure of 8 symbolises infinity and eternal death
• Daughter establishes a relationship between her father and her own children, making him their grandfather
• Objects on father's boat

  • Whitebait (silver coins, betrayal)
  • Dark Prince (tuna, dangerous but positive act of protest)
• Children learning to be silent about father


  Unnatural and painful, takes a long time
• Daughter wonders if father ever wondered which was the better way to die
• Poem is about hope, how cultures can change and recover from war
• Poem structure

  • Free verse, 6 line stanzas, like natural speech and a narrative with a moral
• Poem's form reflects the father's denied identity, but the daughter is trying to give him a new identity as the grandfather