How does the writer present the lives of the people of Sarajevo in The Bright Lights of Sarajevo?
In your answer, you should write about:
The living conditions of the people of Sarajevo
The relationship between the young couple
The use of language and structure
You should support your answer with close reference to the poem, including brief quotations.
The Bright Lights of Sarajevo is a poem full of juxtapositions of light and dark, war and peace, hatred
and love and ultimately of death and love. Harrison focuses on an intimate sharing of love, just for
one evening, using the iambic rhythms to echo the heartbeats of two young lovers.
The title of the poem evokes a positive response to the reader, and the use of the word “bright” may
suggest that despite the conflict and catastrophe the city is facing, there could still be hope for its
citizens in the form of a similarly “bright” future. Harrison wrote this poem to portray the real-life
experience of what it was like for people living in the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war of the
mid 1990’s. Harrison explains one night in the city to present a graphic and disturbing recount of the
war that had a big impact on the lives of city’s innocent civilians. Ironically, the “bright lights” could
represent danger, as seen through the clear skies. Fire and bombing in the night sky of Sarajevo. Full
of death and agony. The darkness of the night allows the poor civilians of Sarajevo to hide within it,
but the dark has also consumed their world. The paradox of daytime being dangerous, while night-
time is safe shows how life is in a state of disorientated and muddled up.
Light is mentioned frequently throughout the poem. Light is generally associated with hope and
happiness, as well as the feeling of new life. The “star-filled evening sky” is a sense of hope for the
future for the Sarajevan’s, as hope is one thing that is lost easily in these hard times. This phrase also
shows the sacrifice you have to make to have any sort of beauty. This beauty is a risk due to the
“bombers”, as they have better vision of the city in a clear bright sky. But it also shows that beauty is
found everywhere, even in war zones, it might just be hard to find. On the other hand, the sky is
“ideally bright and clear for a bomber’s eye” making it more dangerous. The alliteration here shows
that the spectre of war is never too far, it’s always going to be somewhere. A risk has to be taken in
order to provide some sort of beauty, hope and light into their city, even just for one night.
The phrase “Queuing for the precious meagre grams of bread” uses an oxymoron, showing that the
people will queue up in danger even for the “precious meagre grams of bread” that they get. The
use of oxymorons emphasises the people trying to survive during the war, connecting to the theme
of resilience. People of Sarajevo had to line up to collect necessary things like food and gas. The
repetition of queuing demonstrates that they are still civilised and a community through the
hardship of war. As well as showing the difficulty these poor people had to go through just for
“meagre grams of bread”, they didn’t just queue for a few minutes but more like a few hours. The
way the bread is referred to suggests it was treated like gold, “precious” and sold in “grams.” They
had no choice but to go out in the danger of the night “dodging snipers” to just barely obtain their
necessities that had to be “rationed each day.” Each family is fed on one bread per day. The verb
“rationed” has a powerful effect, showing how the families were forced to manage with a small
In your answer, you should write about:
The living conditions of the people of Sarajevo
The relationship between the young couple
The use of language and structure
You should support your answer with close reference to the poem, including brief quotations.
The Bright Lights of Sarajevo is a poem full of juxtapositions of light and dark, war and peace, hatred
and love and ultimately of death and love. Harrison focuses on an intimate sharing of love, just for
one evening, using the iambic rhythms to echo the heartbeats of two young lovers.
The title of the poem evokes a positive response to the reader, and the use of the word “bright” may
suggest that despite the conflict and catastrophe the city is facing, there could still be hope for its
citizens in the form of a similarly “bright” future. Harrison wrote this poem to portray the real-life
experience of what it was like for people living in the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war of the
mid 1990’s. Harrison explains one night in the city to present a graphic and disturbing recount of the
war that had a big impact on the lives of city’s innocent civilians. Ironically, the “bright lights” could
represent danger, as seen through the clear skies. Fire and bombing in the night sky of Sarajevo. Full
of death and agony. The darkness of the night allows the poor civilians of Sarajevo to hide within it,
but the dark has also consumed their world. The paradox of daytime being dangerous, while night-
time is safe shows how life is in a state of disorientated and muddled up.
Light is mentioned frequently throughout the poem. Light is generally associated with hope and
happiness, as well as the feeling of new life. The “star-filled evening sky” is a sense of hope for the
future for the Sarajevan’s, as hope is one thing that is lost easily in these hard times. This phrase also
shows the sacrifice you have to make to have any sort of beauty. This beauty is a risk due to the
“bombers”, as they have better vision of the city in a clear bright sky. But it also shows that beauty is
found everywhere, even in war zones, it might just be hard to find. On the other hand, the sky is
“ideally bright and clear for a bomber’s eye” making it more dangerous. The alliteration here shows
that the spectre of war is never too far, it’s always going to be somewhere. A risk has to be taken in
order to provide some sort of beauty, hope and light into their city, even just for one night.
The phrase “Queuing for the precious meagre grams of bread” uses an oxymoron, showing that the
people will queue up in danger even for the “precious meagre grams of bread” that they get. The
use of oxymorons emphasises the people trying to survive during the war, connecting to the theme
of resilience. People of Sarajevo had to line up to collect necessary things like food and gas. The
repetition of queuing demonstrates that they are still civilised and a community through the
hardship of war. As well as showing the difficulty these poor people had to go through just for
“meagre grams of bread”, they didn’t just queue for a few minutes but more like a few hours. The
way the bread is referred to suggests it was treated like gold, “precious” and sold in “grams.” They
had no choice but to go out in the danger of the night “dodging snipers” to just barely obtain their
necessities that had to be “rationed each day.” Each family is fed on one bread per day. The verb
“rationed” has a powerful effect, showing how the families were forced to manage with a small
