kamikaze

• Context


  Garland said “I spend a lot of the day listening to other people’s words” - poetry immerses herself in other’s perspectives

  Japan’s military attitudes were founded on codes of honours and self sacrifice. Typically, Kamikaze pilots were volunteers which conveys how firmly people believed in these values, enough to sacrifice their own lives
• Title “Kamikaze” and “her father” 


  The noun “father”: imbues the poem with the sense of intimacy. Garland’s ability to see the person beneath the facade of a soldier suggests that she is questioning the ethics of patriotism and how it disregards identity. The use of “father“ contrasts between the role of the Kamikaze pilot contrasting her father. Garland’s way of critiquing how being a soldier strips the individual of their identity and it dehumanises them
• Title of poem “Kamikaze” and “her father”


  Juxtaposes military role as a “kamikaze” pilot: Military expectations corrupt familial life and strip a person of agency – there is a disparity between the pilots assigned role within the title of ”Kamikaze” and his personal role “her father”. Contrast between role as a kamikaze pilot to be this stoic, brave, soldier who has to commit act of self—sacrifice but also being a father, paternal figure. Conflict of duty vs personal duty
• Full of powerful incantations 


  Image on “incantations”: It suggests the pilot was under an indoctrinating propaganda spell. It portrays the influence of propaganda as hypnotic and bewitching. This is contextually important as Japanese soldiers were taught that self sacrifice was the only means by which they could win the war. At the beginning of the poem, shows the beginning of his life, and sacrifice, he was indoctrinated by this propaganda. Again, Garland’s criticism about it strips an individual of their agency and their individuality because they just become Like a mechanism in war.
• Full of powerful incantations

  Irony on “powerful”: the use of power is bitterly ironic, as the pilot is powerless to the propaganda enforced upon him and his dehumanisation and marginalisation when he goes back home. He is a victim to these powerful elements of propaganda and dehumanises him.
• Form


  Sestets: divided into sestets (stanzas of 6 lines) which can be grouped into two

  The first 5 describe the story of her father’s mission, yet, the final two stanzas explore his return, this compresses the years after his return to be far shorter than his flight that would’ve happened within minutes or hours. He was marginalised, dehumanised and ostracised from his family and society, evident in compression of stanza lengths

  The gravitas (seriousness) of his decision within that one moment cut his life short
• Form


  Metre: Initially, the poem is written in free verse to allow it to unfold quickly, mimicking the flight of the plane.

  The end resorts to iambs which reinstate a steady and melancholic tone - mirrors a eulogy. The end having a shift created a somber, melancholic tone towards the end, almost like a eulogy commemorating his life. Although he is alive, he is dead symbolically to his family and his society
• Comparisons


  Identity - Exposure (identity robbed by the war)

  Human control/power - Exposure (powerless to propaganda + war)

  War - Bayonet charge - questioning the sacrifice

  Memories - Poppies (memories of loved ones tarnished by war)