Top 3 Quotes with Analysis for Conflict Poems - Part 1

Flag ‘It’s just a piece of cloth / that brings a nation to its knees’ The middle line of each stanza is repeated throughout the poem. This reinforces Agard’s message that the physical item of a flag is relatively insignificant, ‘just’ is the key word here. However, symbolically the effect is detailed on the third line of each stanza. This line ‘brings a nation to its knees’ could either mean the effect of the flag is to inspire allegiance and so everyone is doing the same thing, or to suggest subjugation. The repetition of ‘n’ sounds reinforces this message, by showing that this phrase is significant. ‘that makes the guts of men grow bold.’ The emotive language of ‘bold’ shows how the poet feels a flag will change the emotional state of those it comes into contact with. A theme throughout the poem is the changing states that a flag creates, especially on men. The word ‘guts’ is often associated with bravery and that soldiers have ‘fire in their guts’ for example, which is the connotation Agard is playing on through personification. ‘Just ask for a flag, my friend / Then blind your conscience to the end.’ In the last stanza Agard decides to change the rhyme pattern he’s used throughout. The poem ends on a rhyming couplet. The reason he does this it to give it a memorable closure. He uses direct address ‘my friend’ to address the reader and to ensure his point has maximum effect. Despite talking about the effects a flag has on people, he concludes with a fairly negative point, that patriotism allows you to ignore the moral consequences of war. The word ‘blind’ suggests a physical disability has been inflicted. Out of the Blue ‘The depth is appalling. Appalling / that others like me / should be wind-milling, wheeling, spiralling, falling.’ The word ‘depth’ tells us how the poet feels about the expanse of air and horizon, followed by ‘appalling' we are left with no doubt that he feels terrified by the choice he might have to make. The word is then repeated, but seems insufficient to describe the severity of this horrific experience. It is followed by a group of dynamic verbs, with the writer emphasising the ‘-ing’ to fit the rhyme scheme and downward rhythm of the poem which also mirrors the victims’ plight. ‘Does anyone see a soul worth saving?’ The rhetorical question asks the reader to act as judge to decide who should be saved. Obviously this is an impossible task to do. There are emotive words, such as ‘soul’ which are used deliberately to connect with the individualism of the mass of people who are also trapped in the twin towers. ‘The heat behind me is bullying, driving / but the white of surrender is not yet flying.’ Here the heat is personified by Armitage to show the force with which the people in the twin tower are faced. They have to decide whether to be consumed by the flames or to jump. The image of the white of surrender is a metaphor, comparing the stereotypical sign of surrender with the mentality of those in the tower. Mametz Wood ‘The wasted young, turning up under their plough blades.’ The juxtaposition of the ‘wasted young’ reinforces how the bodies of the dead young soldiers are being brought to the surface. The adjective ‘wasted’ suggests the narrator’s view point on the sacrifice of war. ‘A chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade, / the relic of a finger.’ The chit is a receipt for something, here it acts as a receipt for someone’s life. In another metaphor the fragility of the remains is compared to a china plate, while the idea of the bone being a relic gives the found remains a religious / spiritual significance. Sheers in these three images suggests that the ‘wasted’ life was precious, valuable and fragile. ‘like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin.’ In this simile, Sheers uses alliteration to reinforce this point with ‘wound working.’ Throughout the poem the earth has been represented as a literal body itself, here it is healing itself through the rejection of the bones of the soldiers. The ‘surface of the skin’ is the earth of the field. The Yellow Palm ‘I saw a Cruise missile, / a slow and silver caravan, / on its slow and silver mile.’ The repetition suggests not only the pace with which the missile is headed for them, but repeating silver also gives it a beauty which is incongruous for a weapon. This also sounds like a nursery rhyme rather than imminent danger. ‘Down on my head fell the barbarian sun / that knows no armistice.’ The poet uses personification in a metaphor to compare the sun to a barbarian. Our associations with the word barbarian suggest that the sun here offers no protection and is as indifferent to the events in the poem as the narrator seems to be. In each of these stanzas there is a consequence of war – in this stanza it is the never-ending cycle of the sun rising on conflict without ‘armistice’ or surrender. ‘Armistice’ is a particularly evocative word as it is often connected to WW2. - Form and Rhyme The 6 regular stanzas allow us to go on a journey ‘down Palestine street’ with the poet. He allows us to examine events, but offers us no comment on them. This is reinforced with the simple ABCBDB rhyme scheme, which is also reflected in the fairly simple language. The writer uses a point of colour in each stanza, ‘lilac stems’ or ‘yellow palms’ to construct his stanza around and to appeal to our sense of sight.