1. It’s set in a dead tree, and perched on it are plenty of vultures, overlooking a corpse.

And
later on in the poem, that scenery is compared to that of German-occupied Europe. More
specifically, it’s compared to that of Belsen Camp, as we come to hear later on in the
poem when it speaks of said camp’s commandant.

2. Maybe the writer’s intention was, as said in #1, to compare such heinous acts of a
certain group(in this case, the Germans) against another certain group(i.e. Everyone
else in Europe), to that of foul and squalid scavengers that eat the flesh of the dead.

3. The phrase “Despondent Dawn” describes the disheartening and dismal atmosphere
that revolves around the setting in the poem.

4. Unstirred doesn’t bring up any image or feeling to my mind, but the phrase “harbingers of
sunbreak” gives off an image of a dark and gloomy day, marked with depression, being
lit up by the warm sun.

5. The writer may have used “sunbreak” to indicate the breaking of dawn, maybe as a way
of saying that sunbreaks on a harrowing day, rather than saying sunrise.

6. The line could signify the loss of life, seeing as vultures are a symbol of death. It could
be saying that Death is perched above, looming over those who have met their end in
the world.

7. The poem describes the vulture with a ‘bashed in head’, and rooted in a dump of gross
feathers. Possibly could signify a high degree of violence.

8. The commandant of Belsen Camp is described heading to the wayside sweet shop
buying chocolate for his dear son, a shade of humanity within him, covered by the evil
that is racial supremacy.

9. The line connotes death, a grim and ugly one. It also connotes the dealer of said death.

10. Like I said in no. 8, his humanity within him, as described by him buying chocolate for his
son, is covered in a sheet of evil and cruelty, as described by his role in Belsen Camp.

1. Sight
2. Sight
3. Smell
 4. Taste
5. Sight
6. Sight
7. Smell
8. Feeling
9. Feeling
10. Sight

1. Bashed, gross, cold, telescopic

2. In the greyness and drizzle of one despondent dawn
A swollen corpse in a waterlogged trench
A corner in the charnel house
Unstirred by harbingers of sunbreak
3. The commandant stops at the wayside sweet shop to pick up a chocolate for his
offspring
Nestled close to his mate
Inclined affectionately to hers
How love in some other ways so particular