Power & Conflict Poetry

Meaning:

Superficial- war photographer develops his photos whilst remembering the events

Implications- are we guilty of 'compassion fatigue'? do we really care about others?

EFFECTS OF WAR

VIOLENCE AND BRUTALITY

CONFLICT- warzone BUT ALSO between warzone and 'rural england' emphasising how out of touch people are about the truth of war

'Spools of suffering set out in ordered rows'

- metaphor; reminds of war graves, regiments of soldiers

- paradox; chaos and suffering reduced to something ordered

- sibilence; images of war, empahsises the dark nature

'light is red' 'he, a priest' 'intone a mass'

- semantic field; alludes to hope, comfort, role of a comforter contrasts war

                          emphasises seriousness and solemnity of his work

- like in Church, do we just go through the motions?

- metaphor; evokes religious imagery + notion that photographer and reader have moral duty

- connotes blood + violence, but 'glows' connotes positivity

'All flesh is grass'

- Metaphor; emphasises the scale of death and fragility of life, suggests that this life is as meaningless to people at home as mowing the grass is

- evokes idea of transience of life/rejuvenation through refernce of life cycle

- draws on nature of the futility of life and the ineveitibility of deacy and death highlighted by war

'readers eyeballs pr!ck... pre-lunch beers'

- Juxtaposition; shows short duration of the reader's pain with everyday language + comfort

- connotation 'pr!ck'- pain for a short time, then move on and forget

'Half-formed ghost'

- Metaphor; photo is still developing, but also signifies death + possible mutilation of the body.

- Shocking and evocative image

'running children in a nightmare heat'

- intertextual referance to Vietnam hotogarph

- image of innocence and desperation

- Dynamic verb 'running'; fear and terror

- pathetic fallacy + metaphor 'nightmare heat'; evokes fiery explosion / burning caused by the napalm attack + the oppression

- barbarity & horror of war

STRUCTURE:

'he has a job to do'- parataxis shows emotional detachment, puts emotions beside as a soldier must

'something is happening'-  volta, focus shifts to the personal cost of war as the photograph develops

Structural progression of photo-developing-newspaper-public: link between photographer and reader, shows how he connects the two together and conveys the emotional dimension of the reporting of war

Meaning:

Superficial- goes to fly into an enemy warship, remembers childhood, abortsmission, has to deal with family shunning him

Implications- kleos - what's the better way to die

EFFECTS & AFTER EFFECTS OF CONFLICT

POWER OF NATURE

FUTILITY OF AVOIDING FATE

CULTURE & SOCIETY

'Like a huge flag'

- similie

-national identity of Japan

- symbolic his countrie's flag stopped his mission

- power of nature (fish)

'We too learned'

- inclusive pronoun

- conflict in daughter, wants to love her father

- realised rules of culture forced upon her, can emphasise with her

SEMANTIC FIELD OF JAPANESE CULTURE

'Samurai sword'

- Japanese pride, dignity + honour

'Shaven head'

- military, alludes to war

- forced to do something he doesn't want to, prisoner of war + culture

- no more individuality

'Incantations'

- propaganda, under a spell, indoctrinated, 

- power & strength of culture forced, something attractive about belifs, chanting

'Feathery prawns... dark prince'

- juxtaposition

- innocent prawns contrast to danger he's in

- dark connotes satanic, contrasting feathery

- glorified 'prince' representing kleos

'embarked at sunrise'

- active verb

- sounds like a positive journey, ironic

- reminiscent of rising sun flag.. passion, loyalty

'little fishing boats strung out like bunting'

- simile

- ironic as connotes celebration OR not, as may show his turning point, epiphany, cause for celebration

- irony/foreshadowing juxtaposes to battleships

'to live as though he had never returned'

- simile

- there is a loss worse than death, exile by his family

Structure:

regular stanzas- regularity of war, repetition of propaganda

enjambement- intense memories, life flooding before eyes

irregularity of last stanza- disjointed family, inner conflict of thought

3rd person perspective- piolet's voice ommited, cut off from society

voice is recounted- fabricated version of reality, loss of control/identity + fragmentation of war

Meaning:

Superficial- the remains of a statue are found

Implications- hubris of people - power doesn't last

POWER

DESTRUCTION

LEGACY

STRUCTURE:

Irregular rhyme

Sonnet- subverted, loves himself

Iambic pentameter- natural speech, alludes to the pharoe's wish to be eternal

Caesura + Enjambement- focus on message

Meaning:

Superficial- soldier murders someone in war + is haunted by memories, PTSD + Alcaholism

Implications- angry at higher up's who put him in that position

AFTER EFFECTS OF CONFLICT

'Legs it up the road' 

- Colloquial

- comfortable, realistic, could be anyone

'probably armed, possibly not'

- parataxis

- quick desicion, uncertainty, regret

- undermines severity of statement, should he have been shot? soldier had a choice

'Three of a kind'

- analogy

- described as cards in poker, all about chance

'Rips through his life'

- Graphic hyperbole

- demonstrate lack of honour/glory in this killing

'looter.. sort of inside out'

- Dehuminised

- appear more of an object = easier to deal with

'blood-shadow'

- kenning & metaphor

- memory of man & events, death + memory

'armed'

- repeated from start

- thought replaying in his mind + racked with guilt

- powerless

'bloody-life'

- pun

- covered in blood, but also anger / hate

- at conflict with dead man, but also his own mind

- ends poem with sense of despair & open ended, no resolution

STRUCTURE:

8 stanzas- last is a couplet, leaving dramatically

loose set of rhymes- give a childish aspect to the horror of the warzone, suggests how numb the soldier is to what's happening