Poems

" Probably armed, possibly not"

• repeated twice
• feels guilty afterwards
• repetitive- his mind set is relentless, cannot move on
• can't escape his guilty mindset

"all"

• repeated throughout stanza 2
• passes the blame around
• putting blame on others to make himself feel better

" I see every round as it rips through his life"

• image replaying in his mind
• imagery
• brutal, cruel image

"He's here in my head when I close my eyes/ dug in behind enemy lines"

• metaphor
• as if he has dug himself into his head
• haunting him

" his bloody life in my bloody hands"

• self critisism
• hates himself for what he did
• accepted responsibility, no longer using personal pronoun ' we '

• Two lined stanza at the end
• comes to an abrupt stop, mirroring how the 'looter's' life came to a quick end

" as though this were a church and he/ a priest"

• simile
• dedicated to his job
• importance
• religious ritual
• serious tone

" all flesh is grass"

• metaphor for death
• we all die eventually
• life is fragile
• religious aspect

" from the aeroplane... and they do not care"

• stares out of window
• miserable
• feels a failure, links back to his job, he hasn't done it right
• detached from group of people in England, not a part of those suffering from the war, alone in his own group
• reader sympathises with him, feels sorry for him

• organised sestets
• rigid, structured, strict, reflects the importance of his job to him, contrasts with the chaos of war
• ABBCDD rhyme scheme
• moved from different places, the war has displaced him

" but nothing happens"

• repeated
• shows how repetitive war is
• maybe forgot he already said it, too busy thinking about staying alive, stressed
• long periods of boredom
• although fighting, they aren't tackling the problem

" pale flakes with finger.ing stealth"

• feels vunerable, paranoid
• thinks even the snow is attacking him

" misery of dawn begins to grow..."

• another day, relentless war
• dawn is usually positive, contrasts

• uses lots of para-rhymes which gives it an awkward, jarring edge, reflects how unpleasant war is
• assonance used for the same reason

" placed on individual war graves."

• talking about the poppies being placed on the graves ' three days before Armistice Sunday' - which shows respect and importance, they care
• caesura after the word 'grave' to emphasise it- anti-war, emphasis on death, lots of people die from war

" spasms"

• associated with pain and suffering
• uses violent language to describe something peaceful like a flower
• oxymoron

" blockade"

• stops freedom of movement
• describes normal thing like attaching a poppy to a blazer in an aggressive way to reflect violent nature of war
• the son's going off to war and she feels that there is a ' blockade' in their relationship, and that they grew distant when he decided to go off to war

" when you were little. "

• caesura, emphasis on the word 'little'
• maternal gesture
• wishes that she could go back to when he was young
• wants to revisit her memories of his childhood
• talks about Eskimo kisses- loving caress

" blackthorns ... hair. "

• caesura, emphasis
• thorns on head- links to Jesus, who sacrificed his life for others much like soldiers

" released a song bird"

• metaphor
• she feels as if she has let her son fly from the nest, she has let him go, let him be free, much like a mother bird

" leaned against it like a wishbone"

• simile
• she's leaning against it like she wants to break it so that she can wish on it so that she can get her son back
• supporting her as well, because she has been left alone with no one to lean on, not even a shoulder to cry on

• lots of words associated with war, uses military diction / military language
• uses lots of caesuras to emphasise the importance of what she is saying and how serious the poem is