Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The Yellow Palm - Robert Minhinnick
Anlagen:
- Subject and Themes
- Poem is about an unknown conflict
- Conflict is not overt in the poem
Anmerkungen:
- Past/present/future?
- Title
- The yellow palm is a date-producing palm tree
- The leaves, bark and fruit are used for a variety of helpful purposes
- Shade
- Food
- Positive image
- Contrasts with context
- Form and Structure
- Written in form of a ballad
- Strong rhythm and rhyme scheme
- Song like quality
- Contrast with the context
- Six stanzas
- The second, forth and sixth line of each stanza rhymes or has a half rhyme
- Language
- Imagery
- Religious connotations
- 'to watch the faithful there'
- Muslims going to pray
- 'the muezzin's eyes'
- Official who calls the faithful to prayer at mosque
- 'blessed it with a smile'
- Missile - mile - smile
- Weapon has become a smile
- Negative into positive
- Makes the missile appear harmless
- Child doesn't know it's a threat
- 'were wild with his despair'
- Mosque should be peaceful
- Links religion to violence
- The different senses are used throughout
- 'I heard the call'
- 'I smelled the wide Tigris'
Anmerkungen:
- Tigris is a river that flows through Baghdad.
- 'I pressed my hands'
- 'I watched a funeral pass'
- War connotations
- 'I met two blind beggars...and their salutes were those of the Imperial Guard'
Anmerkungen:
- Imperial Guard were a unit of largely volenteers who served Hussein
- Contrast
- Soldiers - smart, order, power
- Beggars - scruffy, have nothing, no power
- Suggests that the soldiers have become beggars
- Saluted like soldiers
- Makes them sound sinister, violent
- 'Mother of all wars'
- Hussein's description of the first Gulf War in 1990
Anmerkungen:
- Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq, 1979-2003
- 'had breathed a poison gas'
- Victim of war
- Ending
- Last stanza is positive
- Ends on a positive note rather than dwelling on the conflict
- Suggests that life will continue on
- Poetic Techniques
- Repetition
- 'As I made my way down Palestine Street'
Anmerkungen:
- Palestine Street is a major street in Baghdad, which is the capital of the Republic of Iraq.
- Repeated throughout the poem in the first line of each stanza
- Enjambment
- No punctuation at the end of lines
- Makes the poem flow quickly/erratically
- Adds to the song like quality
- Alliteration
- 'all sweeter than salaams'
Anmerkungen:
- Salaams is an Arabic greeting meaning peace.
- Positive image
- Adds to the song like quality
- Personification
- 'down on my head fell the barbarian sun that knows no armistice'
- 'armistice'
Anmerkungen:
- An armistice is a truce. People at war agree to stop fighting.
- Links back into war
- Violent, wild, strong
- Negative image
- Contrast/juxtaposition with optimist image given in same stanza
- 'the river smell lifts the air'
- 'the river smell that lifts the air'
- clears the air
- as moves away from conflict
- Positive image
- Comparison
- Belfast Confetti
- Positive images created by title
- Conflict is expressed in a way that doesn't make it obvious