Beatrice Garland is a British poet with a fascinating past. Born in 1938, she has worked as a teacher as well as a clinician as well as having a poetry career as a sideline spanning decades. In 2001, she won the National Poetry Prize before taking a break from poetry altogether. Kamikaze is one of the GCSE syllabus poems, along with some of Garland's contemporaries including Grace Nichols.

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What Is the Kamikaze poem about?

"Kamikaze" is a poem that describes the actions and mindset of the Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II. Kamikaze pilots were soldiers who flew aircraft loaded with explosives into enemy ships in suicide attacks. The poem may explore themes such as sacrifice, duty, and nationalism.

The poem may also describe the pilots' thoughts and feelings as they prepared for their missions, as well as the reactions of those around them. It may also touch on the cultural and historical context that led to the rise of the kamikaze tactic.

It could also be used as a way to examine the impact of war on soldiers and civilians and the idea of sacrifice for one's country.

Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland

Her father embarked at sunrise
with a flask of water, a samurai sword
in the cockpit, a shaven head
full of powerful incantations
and enough fuel for a one-way
journey into history

but half way there, she thought,
recounting it later to her children,
he must have looked far down
at the little fishing boats
strung out like bunting
on a green-blue translucent sea

and beneath them, arcing in swathes
like a huge flag waved first one way
then the other in a figure of eight,
the dark shoals of fishes
flashing silver as their bellies
swivelled towards the sun

and remembered how he
and his brothers waiting on the shore
built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles
to see whose withstood longest
the turbulent inrush of breakers
bringing their father’s boat safe

– yes, grandfather’s boat – safe
to the shore, salt-sodden, awash
with cloud-marked mackerel,
black crabs, feathery prawns,
the loose silver of whitebait and once
a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.

And though he came back
my mother never spoke again
in his presence, nor did she meet his eyes
and the neighbours too, they treated him
as though he no longer existed,
only we children still chattered and laughed

till gradually we too learned
to be silent, to live as though
he had never returned, that this
was no longer the father we loved.
And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered
which had been the better way to die.

Watch Garland read her poem below:

Form

The poem has seven stanzas of six lines each, with an irregular, unrhymed rhythm. This freedom of form suits the poem as a drifting reminiscence that shifts its focus from one character to another and moves through time. The shape of the poem is then simply created by the writer's choice to tell or to stop telling details of the events and feelings. The second and third sentences both begin with 'And', helping this sense of a story verbally retold. There is very little punctuation which keeps the free form.

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Themes

Let's explore some of the themes of the poem and how they tie into the message behind Kamikaze.

Choice and Consequence

The pilot's choice not to spend his life by attacking his enemy may have saved lives, but he seems to have made new and more personal enemies out of his wife and family: 'they treated him | as though he no longer existed'. In fact, if the poem didn't include the shift of perspective and time at the second sentence, we might not know that the pilot returned from his 'one-way' mission. This means that there is an air of mystery about his reasons: his daughter imagines why he may have turned around, but in truth his family simply do not know. On top of this, the fact that they never spoke about it means that she did not even know whether he regretted his choice to return. In fact, the daughter is sure that 'he must have wondered | which had been the better way to die.'

Family relations are also explored in another of the poems included in the GCSE syllabus, Nettles by Vernon Scannell.

Honour and Warfare

One of the interesting themes in the poem is that of honour, and of the shame brought upon the pilot when he returned. It is perhaps a commentary on the absurdity of war, brilliantly highlighted by the fact that this man's choices were a suicide mission or shame on his whole family and isolation from loved ones.

Patriotism seems to play a big part, and the family are seeming of the opinion that you should give your all for your country, even if that should mean giving your life. Warfare and "fallen empires" is also a theme in other GCSE poems including Ozymandias.

Structure

Kamikaze is made of only three sentences: notice the full stops after the description of the tuna ('the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.') and the two in the final lines. This gives the first part of the poem - the first five stanzas - a flowing unstoppability, like the train of thought that takes the character of the pilot from the fishing boats to the sea, to the fish and on to his memories. There is something inevitable and unstoppable about his choice for life instead of death.

The poem begins as told about a woman ('her') and her family, but the poet uses the italic font to mark when the poetry becomes the woman's own words. We can tell because of the shift of pronouns to include 'my mother' and 'we children'. As we saw earlier, this shift of perspective is effective in putting his behaviour in context and actually explaining his return.

Imagery

Beatrice Garland describes the fish beneath the boats as 'a huge flag waved first one way | then the other in a figure of eight'. She turns the individual fish into a collective - a shoal - just as the individual can become lost in society, particularly in a society with very rigid codes or in wartime. The 'flag' that the pilot imagines in the water mocks the flags of nations at war: the fish are simply waving their flag for the joy of movement. In fact, this massive flag is much more significant, viewed from the air, than the tiny flags of the 'bunting' of the fishing boats. This is another nod to the patriotic themes in the poem.

GCSE poem analysis: Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland

The poet also uses the senses to give a sense of immediacy and reality to her writing.

Water and the sea are mentioned throughout the poem, from the second line. Terms relating to fishing, the sea, and many of the creatures within cleverly conjure sensory feelings for the reader. She references the colours of the 'green-blue translucent sea', the 'pearl-grey pebbles', the 'silver fish' and so on, as well as describing the shapes of the shoals, the cairns and the boats. She references the 'salt-sodden' texture- or perhaps taste or smell - of the grandfather's boat.

Memory

The poem is written in a set of nested tenses. The first stanza takes place in the past, but then time moves forward when 'she thought, | recounting it later to her children' is placed in a continuing past tense. Then, in turn, the pilot remembers his own father. When the daughter speaks her own mind, remembering what happened on her father's return, she explains how she also changed: 'till gradually we too learned | to be silent…' There is a palpable sadness about this memory, but also love and respect for the father, just as he sadly chose to value his family and peace over his own duty.

Is the Kamikaze poem based on a true story?

The poem Kamikaze is a work of fiction and is not based on a specific true story. However, the author draws inspiration from the historical context of World War II and the kamikaze pilots who were members of the Japanese military and were asked to carry out suicide attacks using aircraft. Although the poem is not a factual account given by a specific person, it does aim to capture the emotional and psychological aspects faced by these pilots during this period. 

For extra support with poetry analysis, why not book a lesson with one of our experienced GCSE English tutors? With Superprof you can browse through a selection of great tutors to find the right one for you.

For More GCSE poem analyses similar to Love's Philosophy: The Farmer's Bride, My Last Duchess, Love's Philosophy, Neutral Tones, The Yellow Palm, Medusa, and Bayonet Charge.

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Jon

As an Englishman in Paris, I enjoy growing my knowledge of other languages and cultures. I'm interested in History, Economics, and Sociology and believe in the importance of continuous learning.