Conflict Cluster (poetry)

Poetry - Conflict Cluster 

Flag 

• Repetition illustrating the insignificance and worthlessness of a flag 'It's just a piece of cloth' 

• Rhetorical question - almost as if the questioner doesn't understand why the flag is so revered and worshiped - downplays the flag - allows the reader to see a flag as just a piece of cloth without being blinded by nationalism. 

• Juxtaposition (2nd and 3rd line contrast) - 3 lines sharp and concise, there is no argument to the power of a flag given to it by humans 

• Perhaps its just a tool used by militaristic, powerful men to get the people to adhere to their imperialistic ideas; it's a tool of manipulation. 

Out of the Blue 

• Literal language used to illustrate the reality of the situation - normal person ' a bird goes by' - effect of conflict 

• Alliteration - Frustration, almost as if the only way he can be heard is through repeating it - Desperation 

• Personification - Unbearable - and suggests pain and anguish - thoughts racing in his head.  

• Everyday images are used almost as if things are surreal - oblivious to the noise below, contrast with 'bullying, driving'. Rhetorical question confirms this. 

Mametz Wood 

• Metaphors - gives the soldiers importance and illustrates how delicate they were, yet they were left wasted. 

• Nature - wise, affected and still remembers despite everyone else forgetting. Commemorates their lives. 

• Literal Language and controlled 3 line structure - brutality of war, treated like animals (20 men buried together in one long grave)
• Imagery - clear image that depicts how they looked 'In boots that outlasted them' ....Idea of wasted young is illustrated.

The Yellow Palm

• Juxtaposition - Beauty contrasted with pollution and gore - illustrates destruction of a once beautiful city by conflict 'Yellow Palm'
• Alliteration - 'Blind Beggars' a common occurrence in the city perhaps because of  war?
• Repetition of 'As I made......' - Literal view of how the city is and the damage that has been done to it 
• Regular structure/pattern changed in last stanza 'child reached up to touch....' - perhaps new generation will bring hope to a city absorbed in conflict.

The Right Word

• Built around a single image - someone trying to see beyond the facade of a persona 'Terrorist ----child'
• Direct address to reader - perhaps we are blinded by stereotypes - lack of communication and not trying to see beyond the external portrayal of a person is the cause of conflict?
• Literal and Metaphorical - 'eyes too hard...hands too steady' - perhaps because of what he has been subjected to
• Mother's perspective - sympathetic - creates a sense of realism and forces us to rid ourselves of our stereotypes
• Explores stereotypes and condemns them - every guerrilla warrior or hostile militant is a human being... a child.

At the border

• Deliberate Ambiguity to suggest how humans have erected borders for themselves that nature didn't set (perhaps the cause of conflict)
• No…