What were they like?

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

• Questioner and responder
• Very detached
• Closed questions: possibly simplifying the impact
  -Questioner is in denial about the impact, and responder is wistful and reflective

Question 2

laughter is bitter to the burned mouth

Answer 2

• Resentment and injustice
• Graphic imagery
• Unpleasant
• Injury, pain, suffering

Question 3

Lanterns of stone

Answer 3

• Contrasts there was only time to scream
• Light connotes hope
• Permanent

Question 4

It is not remembered

Answer 4

• Repetition
• Irretrievable loss
• Loss of not only people but an entire culture
• Emphasises magnitude of loss

Question 5

All the bones were charred

Answer 5

• Blunt, brutal imagery
• Obliteration of culture, but also of people
• Violence
• Pain, suffering

Question 6

Who can say? It is silent now

Answer 6

• Caesura reflects sudden stop
• Answers the question in the title
• Flat tone created by monosyllables
• Devastation described is beyond emotional expression

Question 7

Stone imagery

Answer 7

• Features throughout the poem
• Uses the heaviness of the stone to be contrasted with like things to create an oxymoronic image, showing how the war still feels unbelievable, and cannot be comprehended