Light & Darkness
In the poem, the "star-filled evening sky" is described as "ideally bright and clear" for this dangerous thing.
What is the bomber's eye?
The young couple in the poem meets in this location, which creates a romantic setting despite the war.
What is a candlelit café?
This quote from the poem describes citizens carrying gas canisters "they wheel home in prams."
What is "the refills they wheel home in prams"?
This technique uses descriptive language appealing to the senses, like "the aroma of fresh bread drifted through the air."
What is imagery?
According to the analysis, this is one of the two major themes explored in "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo."
What is light and darkness? (or love and war)
This phrase describes the wells in the poem, combining the idea of death with both depth and darkness.
What are "death-deep, death-dark wells"?
Despite the danger of snipers, the young couple does this action in the streets of Sarajevo.
What is walk? (or meet, date, etc.)
The phrase "black shapes impossible to mark" refers to this group of people in the poem.
What are the people walking in unlit streets? (or the young couple, citizens)
This term refers to the deliberate choice of words to shape tone and meaning, such as choosing "child," "brat," or "youth."
What is diction?
The analysis identifies this as the rhyme scheme used throughout the poem.
What is rhyming couplets?
In the poem, these fragments of a constellation are "sprinkled on those death-deep, death-dark wells."
What are the Pleiades?
The analysis suggests that by contrasting romantic moments with war imagery, Harrison highlights this idea about war.
What is how war disrupts or destroys normal life?
The poet uses this technique when he says "death-deep, death-dark wells" to emphasize the overwhelming presence of death.
What is alliteration?
This technique builds up ideas to the most intense point, as in "he came, he saw, he conquered."
What is climax? (or crescendo)
This theme is represented by the young couple sharing coffee and walking together despite the danger.
What is love? (or perseverance, hope etc.)
According to the analysis, light in the poem can represent this positive idea OR this dangerous idea.
What are hope and danger?
In the final stanza, the young couple shares this simple action, which symbolizes their connection.
What is sharing coffee? (or drinking coffee together)
The analysis says that Harrison uses this technique to change the tone suddenly when describing the star-filled sky.
What is enjambment?
This technique uses similar grammatical structures for balance, as in "easy come, easy go."
What is parallelism?
This theme is represented by the images of queuing for bread, dodging snipers, and destroyed streets.
What is war? (or suffering, deprivation)
The analysis notes that darkness in the poem can represent this negative idea OR this comforting idea.
What are evil and comfort?
The poem shows that even during war, people still experience these two universal human emotions or experiences.
What are love and hope? (romance and perseverance also accepted)
The analysis suggests that Harrison uses the diction "fragments" and "splintered" to highlight this consequence of war.
What is destruction? (or brokenness, fragmentation)
This technique is a sharper form of contrast placed within a single sentence, such as "speech is silver, but silence is golden."
What is antithesis?
The analysis suggests that by combining romantic imagery with images of war, Harrison highlights this message about human nature.
What is that love and hope persist even in the darkest times? (or humanity endures despite suffering)