The Yellow PalmRobert Minhinnick

Themes and Ideas

• The writer is talking about war within 3 religions – Jews, Christians & Muslims.

• He is saying that the war between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Palestine is killing the true nature of these religions, but at the same time that there is still hope of change.

• He is also talking about Baghdad and how the city and it’s people are crumbling under the conflict.

• At the end he is weighing up if the city is in balance, or if it’s going to rise or fall.

Structure

• Ballad of 6 6-line stanzas

• It alternates between short and long iambic lines

• Abcbdb rhyme scheme

• 10 syllables in “as I made my way down Palestine Street”

• All have a similar amount of syllables in each stanza

• lines interchange between long and short line length.

The Yellow Palm

Yellow is a symbol of death and decay

CONTEXT: The many varieties of date trees around the city of

Baghdad are very important for food and shade. But in the city the trees are suffering from pollution and

warfare, and so are turning yellow.

a “yellow palm” is a dying date tree

Following his trip to Baghdad, Minhinnick created this poem by using his

observations he took from the visit.

Stanza OneReference to Palestine Street in Bagdad, sets

scene.

The whole first line is repeated in every stanza, showing all different possibilities

Introduces death and grief into the poem

The connotation of lilac is often something precious, perhaps sacred. Religion.

Relating to war e.g. WW1, gas chambers. Also symbolic of death and decay.

The “man” could be representative of all the people affected by war and religion.

Stanza TwoAll relating to religion.

The devout nature of the people of Baghdad is being ruined by warfare. The supposed sanctuary of

the mosque is being violated by bloodshed.May not be literal, may be a metaphor.

“Golden” here relates to the splendor of the mosque and therefore religion, but is also close to yellow so may show how religion is tied into war.

Despair of the muezzin represents how religion in Baghdad is breaking apart.

Stanza Three

recalls Saddam Hussein’s threat to America if theyinvaded Iraq in the Gulf War/ generally referring to the big war.

Act of generosity rewardedwith threatening gesture. Metaphor.

Alliteration. May be ghosts of war. Even the soldiers are presented as victims. May also show they are blind to the truth.

“Pressed” shows its not just a light action. Hope of working together for the good of the country/helping each other out.

Stanza Four

Hint of irony, that the city is supposedly living in peace, which the sun doesn’t respect.

personification, the city is under attack from the sun

The sun is yellow, again relating to death and decay.

Imagery. Shows that this land can be fertile and beautiful again and despite all of the violence

No people, just description. Focusing on nature – sun, river.

Use of “lifts” and “down” are contradictory.

Stanza FiveMetaphor for the missile.

Poet wants us to see what the children of god (beggar child) are becoming. (used to war)

Deliberate image of innocence, with cruel irony in the fact that the child ‘blessed’ the apparently magical flying bomb with a ‘smile’, emphasising these are peaceful and innocent people, ruined by war.

Alliteration of the ‘s’ words.

Stanza Six

Reaches up to accept what fruit he can get from his religion

Begins by celebrating the beauty and bounty of the city; ends in chilling ambiguity, suggesting the alternative paths for the future of Baghdad

Salaam means peace so it seems that the child wants to embrace peace. alliteration.

Yellow is again repeated – death and decay.

The fact the fruit falls could show either that religion is collapsing (the tree is so dead the dates just fall off), or that he accepts religion/religion accepts him/gives hope.

Language

• The author uses repetition and alliteration –this highlights the problems that war has on the people and religion.

• Colours are used such as “golden”, “lilac” and “yellow” – show the city to be colorful but whenever mentioned something bad goes with it e.g. lilac stems around a coffin.

Voice

• The poem is narrated by the writer, Robert Minhinnick, and is supposed to represent his visit to Bagdad and what he saw whilst walking down Palestine street.

• There are no opinions – it is what is happening through his eyes although it’s not literal.

Poppies

Jane Weir

Themes and Ideas

• ‘Poppies’ is a poem written in a mother’s perspective as her son leaves to go to war.

• Throughout it, we are shown some of her overwhelming emotions such as love and anxiety.

• These emotions are shown within images of conflict – such as the fallen soliders – and the idea of someone leaving – the start of school, leaving for war, dying in battle.

• It describes how the mother remembers times with her son, saying goodbye, and finally morning his death, all of which we are shown with strong imagery used in it.

• You could argue the end of the poem is suggesting that peace would make the world a better place - like her son, the world is missing innocence.

Poppies

Context:• Came out of sadness and anger which Weir felt as she researched wars • Even though women had huge diversities in the war, their voices were only

heard in letters. • At the time this was written there were over 5 wars going on around the

world • Her way of doing something to show what these ‘voiceless’ women felt

during the leaving and loss of their sons.

War Fields:-Death-Soldiers-Battles

Nature:-Growth -life -Beauty-Flower

Poppies:-Sorrow-Hope-Remembering

Mythology of Poppies:Represents stopping grief – to give a ‘gentle slumber and healing’.

Structure

•4 Stanzas

•No particular rhyming scheme expect one line. (Nose and Eskimos)

• Iambic Pentameter – makes it more realistic like a conversation the mother is having.

•One enjambment is used – (stanza 2 to 3) – it has the effect of keeping the poem flowing without having a usual rhyming scheme.

Stanza 1

Three days before Armistice Sunday

and poppies had already been placed

on individual war graves. Before you left,

I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals,

spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade

of yellow bias binding around your blazer

The poem focuses on a specific unnamed victim –the son of the mother who is the narrator

‘Blockage’ –could be a recollection of a memory from war, this continues with the idea of uniform as a ‘blazer’

Strong word –Hints at pain from war?Pain that the mother feels?

Automatically indicates the theme of war, then Poppies symbolising Remembering those who have gone and/or died to war.

Stanza 2

Sellotape bandaged around my hand,

I rounded up as many white cat hairs

as I could, smoothed down your shirt’s

upturned collar, steeled the softening

of my face. I wanted to graze my nose

across the tip of your nose, play at

being Eskimos like we did when

you were little. I resisted the impulse

to run my fingers through the gelled

blackthorns of your hair. All my words

flattened, rolled, turned into felt

The normal object of sellotape reminds of family life – but then the word ‘bandaged’ reminds of war hinting at pain once again.

Alliteration of three sibilants (‘s’ sounds) could be highlighting the mother restraining her emotions . Alternatively the ‘s’ sounds are soft which could represent the way a mother is soft and kind with her son.

Playfulness of the rhyme is carefree and shows how the mother is more happy when remembering her son.

Only use of ‘we’; elsewherea very separate ‘I’ and ‘you’ is used –this stanza is more personal to the mother and son.

Metaphor of her feelings. The processof felt making can be applied to her crushed, compacted and intense feelings she is holding in because of his death.

Stanza 3slowly melting. I was brave, as I walked

with you, to the front door, threw

it open, the world overflowing

like a treasure chest. A split second

and you were away, intoxicated.

After you’d gone I went into your bedroom,

released a song bird from its cage.

Later a single dove flew from the pear tree,

and this is where it has led me,

skirting the church yard walls, my stomach busy

making tucks, darts, pleats, hat-less, without

a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves.

Irony – usually it’s the son/soldier who is brave leaving home, but this focus the purpose of the author to write it in the mothers view and how emotional it was for her.

The Enjambment could be linking the stanzas together, or perhaps emphasises The harshness of the separation she went through losing her son. E.g. it makes you take a breath which could linkto crying.

Shows him leaving quickly from home and also the abruptness of death (both to the deceased and the news for the mother).

Sense of emotional release like tears from her heart;This is a contrast with earlierrestraint (‘steeled’,‘resisted’)

Suggestive of graveyard

Another military image highlighting how she feels vulnerable as she lists her inner feelings using describing words for material to do so.

Stanza 4

On reaching the top of the hill I traced

the inscriptions on the war memorial,

leaned against it like a wishbone.

The dove pulled freely against the sky,

an ornamental stitch. I listened, hoping to hear

your playground voice catching on the wind.

A sensory image,seeking comfort from someone -maybe a hug from her son?

The Simile, the shape leant againstmemorial, could perhaps characterise the two halves of the wishbone joining to come together representing the mother and the son together again.

Finishes the poem leaving an innocent image in the readers mind – showing the mother seeking reassurance or comfort for her loss. The innonence could be telling the reader that the reality is that ‘people’ who died in war were really mother’s sons who which they felt love and loss for when they left for war.

The metaphor of a dove suggests that she thinks peace would make the world a better place. (Connotation of dove is peace and freedom –‘freely’)

Another link to texture, the ‘stitch’ could be the memories holding the mother and son together.

Language

Textures: Featured strongly in the poem such as the metaphor of ‘felt’ - emotions have been packed and pressed together. ‘tucks, darts, pleats’ ‘ornamental stitch’ at the end of the poem ties this together. Represent the strong bond that a mother has with her son.

Juxtaposition: Weir juxtaposes military images with domestic ones, e.g. ‘blockade’ and a ‘blazer’ – could represent a school uniform and innocence compared to strict control of war and uniform.‘sellotape’ and then ‘bandaged’.

Emotive Language: Stereotyping an emotional women sharing her feelings?

Voice•The narrator of the poem is a woman, representing a mother of a solider who has died at war.

•Tone – This therefore means that the poem is an elegy (sorrowful, mournful poem or text). Showing sadness and despair which derives from her memories.

•The poem is written in the past tense which adds to the sense of loss, as well as being in first person it makes the poem seem even more real for reader and feeling the loss that the mother has felt for her son.

Do you have any questions?

Thank you for listening…