KEY POEM WUOTES

REMAINS
‘we get sent out’ This suggests that the soldier is trying to rationalise his guilt for
killing the “looter”, as he is justifying it by assuring himself it was a
command from a higher authority.

It also suggests that initially he responded unthinkingly, but only

later the guilt and regrets developed.

‘tackle looters raiding a The word ‘tackle’ implies football or rugby or a sport that the
bank’ speaker played as a child, and perhaps he is hardly out of his
teens. The line is significant in that initially he seems to be relating
an insignificant event; no more important than any other. Yet this is
far more than a simple ‘tackle’ as it leads to the looter’s death. The
narrator is trying to down play the events as though they were only
minor.

The speaker here is using a euphemism; a mild description that

softens the harshness of reality. So ‘tackle’ is preferable to ‘attack
and if necessary kill’.
Despite the apparent trivialisation of the death of the looter, we
understand later how profoundly tortured the soldier is. But he
chooses to make light of the killing at this stage as a way to cope
with guilt and recurring flashbacks. As seen by the use of the
colloquial phrase ‘looters raiding a bank’.
‘probably armed, The speaker is unsure whether the looter was armed and
possibly not’ prevaricates by saying ‘probably’ and ‘possibly’, which mean
different things. The alliteration and rhythmic balance of the line,
stating the worrying alternatives, hint the internal conflict within the
soldier. It may ease his conscience to tell himself that the looter
was armed and then his own life would be at risk. In military terms
this is a justification for killing, yet the event clearly disturbs the
soldier.

‘Probably armed, possibly not’ could imply that the soldier does not
know if the ‘looter’ was an innocent person who was killed or an
enemy.
The soldier’s guilt is roused by this uncertainty.
The repetition of this line suggests that this is the thing that he
most remembers about the war and will always remember it.
The rhythmic sound and balanced construction is a device known
as syntactic parallelism.

This phrase is repeated in the 6th stanza to emphasise the narrator

is reliving these events constantly.
‘so all three of us open There is a sharp contrast between the casual, conversational tone
fire’ of the opening stanza and the sudden violent statement that the
three soldiers opened fire, without being sure that the looter was
armed. The effect of this juxtaposition is to shock the reader.
‘Three of a kind’ This poker reference may suggest the games of childhood or of
young men, a dramatic contrast to the serious nature of death and
 war.

They have lost their individuality and the speaker seems to

downplay their humanity. As soldiers they become just a ‘kind’.
Note the rhyme of ‘mind’ at the end of line 2 of the stanza and
‘kind’. It has an ironic jogging, nursery-rhyme rhythm.

The homophone ‘kind’ is a pun; they are a group of similar people,

but anything but ‘kind’ in their actions.
‘Round as it rips This line shows Armitage’s clever use of words. It consists of
through his life’ monosyllables, sharp consonants, with alliterative ‘r’s in ‘rips’ and
‘round’; and a plosive ‘p’ to imitate a single shot. If read out loud it
sounds slow and emphatic and enraged.

The image, ‘rips through his life’, is complex and ambiguous. The
looter’s life is lost, his body violently assaulted. Ironically, the
soldier’s action also ‘rips through’ his own life. He too is deeply
damaged by what he did; his peace of mind murdered.

The verb ‘rips’ is particularly expressive. It shows the fragility of the

life of the looter and how easy it was to kill him. Consequently,
memory ‘rips’ through the soldiers mind leaving him tortured with
guilt.
‘His blood shadow This indicates that the killing will haunt the soldier’s future life day
stays’ after day. The ‘shadow’ is not only the physical place on the
ground where the man was shot, but also the imprinted memory of
him that will stay in the soldier’s mind forever. The imagery of a
shadow also implies this memory will ‘shadow’ him; he will never
be free of this trauma. He is not proud of shooting a possibly
innocent civilian.

‘Blood-shadow’ is wonderfully concise, a compound noun forming

a vivid description, where ‘blood’ is a noun modifier for ‘shadow’.
An example of this type of construction is Ariel’s song in ‘The
Tempest’, where he refers to a ‘sea-change’.
‘He’s here in my head The soldier is unable to forget the victim. Even with his eyes shut
when I close my eyes’ he can’t eradicate the pictures in his mind — typical of PTSD.

The heavy, alliterative ‘h’ sounds in ‘he’,‘here’ and ‘head’ mirror the

heavy thoughts which weigh on the speaker’s mind.
From the last line in the previous stanza till the end of the poem
the grammatical construction is a continuous sentence, with no
capitals and enjambment from line to line. It suggests the ongoing
pain, the endless repetition of the distressing scene.
‘Near to the knuckle, This has a rhythmic balance that reminds the reader of the
here and now, his opening stanza with its line ‘probably armed, possibly not’. It has a
bloody life in my circularity that matches the unending distressing memories of the
narrator.
bloody hands’ The guilt lingers within him. The repetition of the word bloody
shows how the speaker finds it difficult to differentiate between the
looter and himself. His guilt has blurred the normal process of logic
in his mind.

An interesting suggestion is that the narrator may be close to

 ending his life. The idiom, ‘near to the knuckle’ suggests that he
cannot cope with life, so tormented is he by the nightmare.

POPPIES
‘I pinned one onto your This is ironic as it foreshadows a time when she would have to
lapel’ wear a poppy herself in remembrance of her son. It could also be
that she is unknowingly marking him for death.
‘spasms of paper red’ ‘Spasms’ suggests injury, showing that she’s thinking about her
son’s possible death. The word has associations with short but
severe stabs of physical pain, or convulsions suffered during death
throes. ‘Red’ also refers to blood and injury. It is a powerful,
emotive image.

The word ‘spasms’ could also relate to a short time span, implying
that the life expectancy of a fighting soldier is brief.
‘Yellow bias binding The blazer is trimmed with ‘bias binding’, that is material cut on the
around your blazer’ cross which decorates and makes firm the edge of a garment. It
has a rhythmic sound and is alliterative. It could suggest that his
uniform represents an outward display of firmness and smartness,
but inside he could be nervous and worried. For a conscripted
soldier the ‘binding’ may be a metaphor for the compulsory
requirement to fight, being ‘bound’ by the laws of the country to
make a sacrifice. ‘Blazer’ is referring to the soldier’s dress uniform.
However the word also brings back memories of what a schoolboy
would wear, hence she’s reminiscing about his childhood.
‘Sellotape bandaged The idea of a sellotape “bandage” could be a metaphor for those
around my hand, I with bandaged limbs caused by war injuries.
rounded up as many
Cleaning cat hairs from his uniform — especially ‘white’ cat hairs,
white cat hairs as I
white being the symbolic colour of innocence — sounds tender
could’ and motherly, an ironic contrast to the serious injuries sustained in
war that need treating and dressing. It suggests that she will
always look after him. To her he never grew up
‘I wanted to graze my The words ‘graze’ and ‘nose’ are consonant, similar sounds that
nose’ create a memorable rhythm, like a children’s playground song.
However sweet and reminiscent of childhood this may be, she still
chooses the word ‘graze’ – the tenderness of the poem is
constantly being broken up by words suggesting injury. It is one of
a lexical field of related words that also include ‘spasm’ and
‘bandaged’.
‘A split second and you The word split is a plosive, that is, the sharp ‘p’ split suggests
were away,intoxicated’ disruption or agitation.

Throughout the poem the theme of time is woven through. The

start of the poem is ‘Three days before Armistice Sunday’. She
refers to ‘before you left’, ‘after you’d gone’ and ‘later’. Most
importantly his ‘playground voice’, that of the small boy, is always
in her mind. She is constantly thinking of the past.

The ‘split second’ breaks this pattern with a sudden, sharp shock
when she is tugged back to the present.
 He is intoxicated — meaning ‘drunk’ — with the excitement of
freedom and adventure. In literal terms he may only be just old
enough to drink alcohol and maybe his body is not used to it. The
adjective ‘intoxicated’ also shows the narrator’s son is excited at
the adventures he believes he will have in the army, but also
references the dangers he will experience, as being intoxicated is
also dangerous.

It is clear from the ‘split second’ in the previous line that he moved
at great speed from his mother’s home to the battle field, two
completely different worlds. It suggests that neither were able to
cope easily.
‘Later a single dove The dove is a symbol of peace so this could suggest that the
flew from the pear speaker’s son has died and passed on to a peaceful world. There
tree’ is irony, however, in the fact that he died fighting.

The pear tree is a symbol of long life and strength. This is again
ironic, as he dies prematurely.

One inventive suggestion is that this could be a reference to the

carol, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, where the turtle doves are
in a pair whilst here there is only one that flew from the pear tree,
symbolising her sense of isolation after her son has left her and
presumably died in battle.

WAR PHOTOGRAPHER
‘Spools of suffering’ A spool is the cylinder on which photographing film is coiled. This
photographer’s photos, and therefore his photographic films, are
filled with images of the pain caused by war. The ‘spool’ contains
pictures of war victims; the spool is therefore a metaphor for grief
and pain, which the photographer captures.
Also the, harsh alliterative sibilant ’s' sounds in ‘spools’ and
‘suffering’ establish the negative mood.

A contributor has commented that the word ‘suffering’ may refer to

the suffering of Christ and alludes to the idea that the innocent
men and women dying in wars are ‘reborn’ (‘half-formed ghosts’) in
the photographs in order to show us error of our ways. 
‘All flesh is grass’ This is a biblical quote from both Isiah:40, in the Old Testament
and the First Epistle of Peter in the New Testament. This
continues the religious theme in the funeral metaphor and signifies
the transient nature of life, especially during times of conflict- when
one death can mean so little.(The statistics fail to explain the
suffering of the individual people.)

Note the rhyme scheme, with ‘rows’ and ‘glows’ in lines two and
three, and ‘Mass’ and ‘grass’ in lines five and six. This pattern is
continued throughout the poem. The couplets suggest tightness
and restraint. It implies that the photographer has to keep his
emotions in check.
‘Ordinary pain’ The words “ordinary pain” is an oxymoron, suggesting that the
photographer is rationalising the painful memories.
‘The reader’s eyeballs People may be slightly upset by the pictures, but they do nothing
prick with tears to end the wars, and simply carry on their comfortable Sunday
between baths and rituals regardless.
The word “prick” can be likened to the pain felt when pricking one’s
pre-lunch beers’ finger. It is fleeting and quickly forgotten. Duffy likens this to the
effect the photo has upon the reader. Although the photographer
hopes to change the readers' point of view and inspire change, he
knows realistically that he will not be making a difference, as the
audience is not able to relate to the pictures or see the stories
behind them as he can.

TISSUE
‘TISSUE’(the title) The title introduces the poem as an extended metaphor. This one
word is ambiguous, meaning fine flimsy paper, but also in the
biological sense it refers to the materials of which our bodies are
made, for example muscle, bone, nerves.

There is a further metaphorical application as in the expression ‘a

tissue of lies’, meaning a fragile construction of dishonesty which
can easily be torn apart or seen through. This makes the metaphor
appropriate in the sense of the fragility of human existence.
‘Paper that lets the This has religious connotations. Christianity asserts that Jesus is
light shine through’ the light of the world, and belief leads to redemption. Also, in
Islam, the Qu'uran (‘Koran’) states that ‘Allah is the light of the
heavens and the earth’ Light, therefore, symbolizes God and purity
— light is both a metaphor for God and, later in the poem, a
metaphor for nature.

Ancient religious books are often written on flimsy parchment or

vellum. It also evokes the imagery of the stained glass window in a
church, where the light of God shines through.

It can also suggest the fragility of life. We record thoughts and

feelings on paper that is easily destroyed and the writing becomes
faint over time. However, there is a greater ‘light’ — that of the
spirit — that shines and sanctifies frail human endeavour.

Another interesting suggestion is that the light is an extended

metaphor for a human soul. By showing how light (our souls)
shines through paper it shows how we attempt to be remembered
by putting little bits of us into these fragile documents. This,
however, is shown not to work as paper “thins with age” and “was
never meant to last”
‘Pages smoothed and This suggests that by frequent use the paper is worn thin, just as
stroked and turned our lives may be examined and rethought. That the pages are
transparent with ‘turned transparent with attention’ suggests that we learn more,
can see more deeply, the more we examine our lives and grow
attention’ mature.

Note the construction of these two lines. The conjunction ‘and’ is

used twice, suggesting a compounded ongoing progression. There
 are long vowels and alliterative and sibilant ’s' sounds in
‘smoothed and stroked’, suggesting a soothing, comforting
process. The alliterative ’t’s in ‘turned’, ‘transparent’ and ‘attention’
give the last line and the whole stanza unity.

The poet is developing the idea of paper as a means to support

the rhythms of life, transparent to let the light of God through.
Paper is frail yet meaningful.

Dharker also implies that the same paper which some consider
unimportant could be the difference between life and death for
others. She is insinuating that human beings underestimate the
power of paper and treat it as if it is another thing that they can
keep under lock and key. This may be related to how religious
people treat their holy books with extreme respect; Muslims cannot
let the Qur'an be placed under another object and be left on the
floor. By using examples of religious texts, Dharker attracts the
reader’s attention to the importance and power that paper holds
over the lives of human beings.
‘If buildings were Buildings made from paper is a metaphor that suggests that
paper…. They fall away society is fragile. It implies how delicately balanced civilisation is
on a sigh, a shift in the — a sigh or change in the wind’s direction could cause it to “fall
away”.
direction of the wind’
An interesting idea is that there is an ‘air of transparency’ in the
poem; that it could be read as society’s frailties are all too easily
seen. Or it could mean the opposite, that too many secrets are
kept in society. The meaning is complex and open to
interpretation.

The change in ‘direction of the wind’ could mean change in the

public’s view of, say, governments or leaders. Like the buildings,
the institutions of the state are fragile and pliable.

The poet uses the most simple language to convey complex ideas.
Most of the words are monosyllables. She uses sibilant ’s' and ‘sh’
sounds in the third line of this stanza to convey the idea of a gentle
wind that, ironically, has enormous potential power.
‘The sun shines The fact the sun shines through a map, a human construct, shows
through their nature as more powerful than mankind to emphasise society as
borderlines’ fragile linking to the extended metaphor of fragile paper.
‘Might fly our lives like This simile shows that we value freedom but remain controlled,
paper kites’ just as a kite flies freely but people control their movement. The
metaphor of a kite emphasises the guise of control and freedom
veiled over our eyes by society, hence showing society is far from
the ‘transparent’ society Dharker idolises. Alternatively it is nature
or God that controls the kite.

On a more prosaic level this can be compared to spending money

on day to day items and using credit cards. Despite the freedom—
‘lives’ — these give us, ultimately the bills must be paid.
‘Raise a structure Never meant to last implies the mortality of us as humans and the
never meant to last’ fragile society we have created ,emphasising that we are
 temporary. The enjambment of ‘structure’ places the readers
focus upon it, relating to purposeful complexity and design; linking
to God
‘turned into your skin’ This is implying that humans are as fragile as tissue or paper. It
also implies that we too, the humans on this earth, have bodies
made of tissue — skin, bone, flesh etc. But we also draw our
plans, devise our lives with paper, which may be thin and fragile or
powerful.

Note also that the direct second person pronoun, ‘your’, means
that the reader is being directly addressed. This emphasises that
we’re all equal, like God’s ‘grand design’, especially since in the
end none of us is ‘meant to last’.

THE EMIGREE
‘There once was’ The poem starts like a children’s fairytale, in the style of ‘once
upon a time’. This is ironic as her story is far from what a child
should experience.
‘The bright filled The “paperweight” — a heavy, often pretty or interesting object
paperweight’ which keeps flimsy papers in place — is a metaphor for the solid,
unchangeable ideas in the narrator’s mind that keep any flimsy,
untidy doubts in check. This ‘paperweight’ is filled with ‘bright’ and
positive memories. The narrator wants to hold onto these, to grasp
and keep the beliefs that are essential to her being. The narrator is
in denial of the reality of the state she grew up in- she clings to an
idealised and utopian view even though this country has
descended into a dystopia run by ‘tyrants’.
‘It may be at war, it The poet uses a lexical field of words relating to a country in
may be sick with conflict, such as ‘war’, ‘sick’ and ‘tyrants’. This is in contrast to the
tyrants’ other lexical field dealing with its opposite; ‘sunlight’, ‘mildest’,
‘bright’ and ‘clear’. The two extremes constitute two important
contrasting themes in order to represent the narrators inner
conflict- their idolised past and the bleak present.
The country is personified as being ‘sick’, as a living creature
might be, showing that the narrator cares about the country much
like you would to a fellow human
‘I am branded by an The repetition of the word ‘sunlight’ suggests the speaker has an
impression of sunlight’ almost dream-like picture of the past.

The country has ‘branded’ her. It has left marks on her.

Metaphorically she is saying that she remembers only positive
things. However, the word ‘branded’ could suggest that she has
been physically disfigured by her experiences almost as though
the realisation that her memories are have been falsified by her
present experiences has shocked her in such a way it scarred
her.. It has also negative connotations of brandings inflicted on
animals.

It could also indicate that she has been branded by society as an

outsider, because of the country she came from.
‘Even clearer as time Time is slipping away so in some respects time is the enemy. The
rolls its tanks’ tanks therefore represent the physical conflict on the one hand and
 time’s destruction on the other. Furthermore, the negative reports
that the speaker hears of her country make her cherish her
positive memories more dearly

An interesting interpretation is that the war is metaphorical,

representing the opposing viewpoints of child and adulthood(i.e.
the narrators inner conflict of what to believe). The tanks could
represent the child’s reluctance to grow up and face the real world
which rumens uses to create a sense of loss as though the
narrators identity has been lost to time- she isn’t who she thought
she was. Then it is inevitable that relations fray.
‘They accuse me of These last two lines are ambiguous and seem to contrast the tone
being dark in their free of the rest of the poem. “They mutter death” seems to imply not
city. My city hides just oppression from her former city, but evil and hatred. It’s as if
there’s a darkness to her city that she doesn’t remember, or that
behind me. They she is trying to forget because she wants to maintain an image of
mutter death and my a utopia. She impresses this utopian idea upon herself in the last
shadow falls as line- “my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.” She is the one in
evidence of sunlight’ the wrong, not her city.
Yet, despite the threat of death and the mention of “dark”,
suggesting a threat to her well-being, the speaker ends the poem
on a positive note, with the final last reference to ‘sunlight’. Her
shadow represents the contrast between light and dark, proving
the sunlight does exist.

CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY

‘Dem tell me Agard, speaking for immigrants, black people, mixed race people
Dem tell me and other ethnic minorities in the UK, suggests that he is only
Wha dem want to tell taught what the British education system deems it appropriate to
impart. His feelings about this are expressed in this poem in the
me’ form of a dramatic monologue. He describes events and
characters in black history in a way that enables the reader to
understand the injustice felt by the poet.
In the first three lines of the first verse he repeats the phrase “Dem
tell me”. This is a technique called anaphora. This repetition
reinforces the view that the teaching of white history amounts to a
process of indoctrination, as is the teaching of white nursery
rhymes. “Dem tell me” suggests passiveness, but this changes at
the end of the poem — the pivotal ‘But’ in the penultimate line —
when the character becomes assertive and declares “now I
checking out me own history”.

The word “dem” emphasises the chasm between minority groups

and the white Establishment. ‘Dem’ may refer to politicians, as
education is a political issue, but it also it refers to society as a
whole, which hasn’t yet grasped and absorbed the complexity and
richness of its diverse population. ‘Wha’ is another dialect word.
Agard chooses these to signify rebellion against the conventional
forms taught in schools.
‘Bandage up me eye to The reference to metaphorical 'bandages’ and ‘blind me’ is ironic
me own history and has great impact; they are powerful metaphors, belonging to
Blind me to me own the same semantic field. Bandages should be used for healing and
education is to enlighten, not the opposite. The speaker is saying
identity’ he is discouraged from learning about his own culture and history.

The plosive ‘b’ consonants create an underlying tone of

aggression (seen throughout the poem) as well as showing
readers how aggressive the covering up of black history was.

The two lines are similar in construction and give the stanza its
rhythmic movement. This is known as syntactic parallelism.

KAMIKAZE
‘One way journey into He was not expected to come back from this mission, but to die for
history’ his country and be remembered honourably for it.

The first stanza sets the tone for the rest of the poem, with concise
descriptions and understated emotions. Though the pilot was
leaving to what should have been certain death, this isn’t
mentioned, and the idea of suicide is subsumed in the rituals. The
last phrase, ‘one-way journey into history’, juxtaposes the
mundane idea of a journey, describing it like a bus-trip to the next
town, with the momentous act of sacrificial suicide for one’s
country. Note that ‘one-way journey’ is a euphemism for suicide in
order to suggest that the pilot is trying to avoid the idea which
could imply his fear in order to mock japan sending troops to their
death. The pilots fear allows us to sympathise with him so this
emphasises the brutality of japans treatment of its soldiers.
‘Little fishing boats This ties in with the theme of fish and fishing.
strung out like bunting’
Fishing is a practice deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, and it is
further referenced later on in the poem.

The image of the bunting suggests public celebration and jolly

colours, but ironically juxtaposed with the idea of death.

It shows how the death of these pilots were widely celebrated as

they were sacrificing themselves for honour and their country.

What the pilot was seeing was the essence of his country and his
own being. The reader can sympathise with the man, especially as
in Western society life is regarded as precious and suicide
missions, though they do happen in war, are not ingrained in our
culture.
‘He must have The last of three sentences is a simple thought, which makes us
wondered which had think that it hangs in the mind of the narrator.
been the better way to
The narrator starts to show that she might be feeling remorseful for
die’
her and her family’s treatment of her father.

“die” doesn’t necessarily mean actual death, more likely the death
of any respect for him; the death of his social standing and
recognition.

It should be noted that the narrator never condemns her father,

and that she might regret her actions towards him, linking to the
theme of memory and emphasising the importance of identity as
the father ‘dies’ without any identity or recognition-a concept
criticised by garland as she made the reader sympathise for the
father.