Hi, I'm Ibrahim and I got a Grade 9 in my English Literature exam in 2024, in the AQA exam board. I only dropped 6 marks in English Literature so here are my Power and Conflict notes, which really helped me.
The notes cover 5 of the poems: Poppies, Storm on the Island, Kamikaze, Exposure, Check...
Power and Conflict - Key Quotes (Poppies, SOTI, Kamikaze, Exposure, COMH)
Poppies
‘spams of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer’
- ‘spasms’ - injury, convulsions of pain - shows the mother’s uncontrollable waves of grief
- ‘blockade’ - semantic field of war - juxtaposed with the semantic field of textiles, shows
that war overwhelms the sanctuary of a home
- ‘blazer’ - has ambiguity, does it mean a blazer for school or war? this alludes to the
universal experience of motherhood
- plosives - shows the bitterness and resentment at the speaker’s loss of her maternal
identity
‘through the gelled blackthorns of your hair’
- ‘blackthorns’ - religious allusion to Jesus’ crown of thorns during crucifixion: implies that
sending her son off to war is an unjust sacrifice to the country - she resisted the impulse
to prevent his patriotic sacrifice
- ‘thorns’ - dangerous, prickly: the son discourages the mother from touching, contributing
to the bonds of motherhood that are broken from war (the son dismisses her)
‘the front door, threw it open, the world overflowing like a treasure chest’
- ‘door’ - symbol of change and exposure to the world’s dangers - acts as a threshold
between her maternal identity and the loss of it - caesura shows the dramatic decision
- ‘treasure chest’ - emblematic of the son’s naive perception of his new freedom (sees the
glory and adventure he thinks he will gain as a soldier)
- ‘overflow’ - overwhelm of mother’s emotions - inability to control
‘a single dove flew from the pear tree [...] pulled freely against the sky’
- ‘dove’ - subconscious desire of her own peace but is a symbol of peace that the son’s
soul is at rest - could be ironic as he died fighting, the dove may be carrying away the
spirits to a resting place
- ‘pulled freely’ - the juxtaposition between ‘pulled’ and ‘free’ suggests bird is still trapped
like the mother who is still encased in grief and isolation
- ‘pear tree’ - symbol of longevity and immortality in Chinese culture - ironic as he died but
the mother’s love and memory are eternal
‘leant against it like a wishbone’
- ‘wishbone’ - used for good luck but ironic as the son’s life was not spared: wishbones are
fragile and vulnerable (should be sturdy if leant on) - mother is weak in grief
- ‘wishbone’ - over the heart in bird anatomy but traditionally broken - alludes to her
inevitable loss of maternal identity which she keeps dearly in her heart
- a wishbone has two halves, symbolising the mother and son who face inevitable
separation
Storm on the Island
‘we are prepared, we build our houses squat’ ‘sink walls in rock [..] with good slate’
- ‘we’ - collective pronoun, suggesting the community is accustomed to nature’s attack/war
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