Structure in ‘August 6, 1945’

Try this as an exercise: put the stanzas onto a timeline? What order do you find they go in?

1. Why has the poet, Alison Fell, decided to structure the poem in this way?
2. Which words indicate the passage of time?

1. Structuring the poem in this manner allows us to see the effects of the conflict on bothpersonas within the poem, creating a stronger effect by mixing in both of their viewpoints. The male pilot equates his action with a sexual thrill; seeing the image of Marilyn Monroe’s skirts blowing up reminds him of the thrill of dropping the bomb. Yet, the same cannot be said of the ‘scarlet girl’, who may lay down in submission but its one of a very different kind. The structure of the stanza order allows us to place these two images side by side.

The stanza in the middle beginning ‘On the river bank’ creates a ‘calm before the storm’ feeling. If this stanza is symbolic of the moment of impact (bees = plane, drizzle = noise/bomb, rhododendrons = people), then this is the dividing point of the poem – and the dividing point in this conflict. From this moment on, life is not the same, for either of the personas within the poem.

2. The passage of time is indicated by the words ‘later’ being repeated. How much time has passed is up to the reader to decide. We are included in the present before the consequences with the stanza ‘In the Enola Gay’ writting in present tense. His reflection on the events and her death as a result of them are then described as ‘later’. The suggestion of this is that when the pilot is in the moment of physical conflict (dropping the bomb), although he is nervous he doesn’t truly understand the horrendous consequences of what he is about to do. It is only as he gets older, lives and experiences more and reflects upon his past that the horror truly strikes him.

“Ladybirds

Ladybirds”

Why are these words written separately at the end? Leave a comment to win a prize!

Alison Fell – Poet Biography and Links

Alison Fell – Poet of August 6 1945

Information from the British Council of Literature:

 

“Alison Fell was born in Dumfries, Scotland in 1944. She was educated at Dumfries Academy and Edinburgh Art College. She began writing for Scotland Magazine in 1962, and moved to London in 1970, where she co-founded the Woman’s Street Theatre Group, later known as ‘Monstrous Regiment’. She held the School of English and American Studies Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in 1998.

She has published poetry and fiction for both adults and children, and has written for a number of publications, including Spare Rib magazine. She was joint winner of the Boardman Tasker Memorial Prize for her novel Mer de Glace (1991), and holds a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship for 2002-3 based at University College London.
She also co-wrote Mapping the Edge, a site-specific theatre piece, with Amanda Dalton and Bernardine Evaristo, first staged at the Sheffield Crucible in September 2001 and subsequently adapted for BBC Radio 3.

Her last novel, The Mistress of Lilliput (1999), is a re-working of Gulliver’s Travels in which Gulliver is followed on his journeys by his wife. Her most recent novel, Tricks of the Light (2003), is a powerful portrayal of love in middle age.”

Key Themes:

In her poetry, Alison Fell returns to many of the same themes. Some of these can be seen within August 6, 1945.

• Descriptions of light and landscape
• Sensual/sexual imagery

How are these themes seen in ‘August 6  1945’ and what effect do they have? Are they important? Do they add anything else to our understanding of the poem and the poet’s ideas within it?

Links for Further Reading:

• Wikipedia Entry on Alison Fell
• British Council of Literature – read biographical entry here
• Other poems about nuclear war here

 

 

August 6, 1945

Ladybirds ladybirds

11×7 and 11y8 have completed the first lesson looking at August 6, 1945.

Powerpoint can be downloaded here:

L4 August 6 1945

How did we feel about the poem? First reactions to the ideas of the poem?

What has Marilyn Monroe got to do with it?

Key Questions to think about:

1. Why is nature and natural imagery used so much within the poem?
2. What and where is the main contrast in ideas, viewpoint and imagery?
3. How does the poet feel at the time compared to later on in his life?
4. How does this poem compare to ‘Base Details’?

“Apricot Ice”

Rebutia (Aylostera) Hybrids ‘Apricot Ice’

 Later he will say
that the whole blooming sky
went up like an apricot ice.

In the poem, ‘August 6, 1945’ the cryptic quote ‘apricot ice’ could mean several things. This picture above – found by Mrs Cannon – shows a wonderfully visual aspect to the phrase. The catcus itself has the following description: “Soft spines, flower colour changes from orange to a beautiful apricot shade, flowering over many weeks”.

Answer in the comment box, how could this relate to the image of the atomic bomb and what it produces? The best comment will win a small prize in class next week.