Out of the Bag - Seamus Heaney

STORY OF THE POEM:

- Poem is a rumination on origins and creativity that sets an apparently potent and disturbing
male form against a gentler, but more powerful female one.
- Speaker describes the image of Doctor Kerlin delivering his siblings, with strange symbolism
used with allusions to classical mythology and the truth of healing.
- Home birth’s would’ve been the norm during Heaney’s childhood - routine hospitalisation for
birth is a late 20th century phenomenon.

CONTEXT:
- Hyperborean - In Greek mythology people who lived in perfect existence.
- Poeta Doctus - a truthful poet based on classical models, who marries the art of poetry with
learning.
- Sanctuary of Asklepois at Epidaurus - Asklepois was the Greek God of medicine
- Lourdes - Catholic shrine in France where the faithful go in the hope of a cure.
- Hygieia - Asklepois’ daughter, the goddess of health.
- Thurifer - The person who carried the thurible in Catholic ceremonies, a mental censer
suspended from chains.

THEMES:
- Class - exploration of the class di erences between the working class, Catholic Heaney’s
family and the upper-middle class, Protestant Doctor Kerlin, semantic eld of luxury.
- Gender - Doctor Kerlin could illustrate masculine power, whilst the mother’s pain in delivery
sees insigni cant.
- Motherhood - poem is very personal, tracking the narrator’s childhood and the cyclical feel
that it has by going from births to illness, mother and child relationships are presented.
- Childhood - poem directly relates to childhood through the way in which childhood
understanding and development is depicted, along with transitions away from childhood.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Title plays on the idiom ‘let the cat out of the bag’, which refers to the revealing of secrets. This
also alludes to the idea that the speaker will nally learn the truth about something signi cant:
the ideas of class, gender, motherhood and creativity.

PART I - KEY QUOTES:

- ‘Kerlin’ , ‘disappear’, ‘reappear’, ‘hypnotist’ - Semantic eld of magic, ‘Kerlin’ alludes to
‘Merlin’ Arthurian legend.
- ‘Those nosy, rosy, big soft hands of his’ - Assonance of ‘O’ could be indicating the child’s
mouth gaping in awe. Hand imagery suggests purity and absence of scarring, expected of a
middle class man. Internal rhyme in tangent with ‘nosy’ implies the idea of doctor being
invasive. ‘Soft’ refers to sense of familiarity and paints doctor in positive light.
- ‘The trap-sprung mouth unsnibbed and gaping wide’ - personi cation of bag, somewhat
demonic and sinister to a child who doesn’t understand, sense of ambiguity.
- ‘Wide’, ‘unwinding’, ‘wind’, ‘lining’, ‘like’ - assonance of ‘I’, re ects the Childs curiosity and
hypnotic way doctor cleans his instruments. Doctor simultaneously represents familiarity and
the unknown to the child.
- ‘Darken the door and leave’ - sinister imagery, colloquial phrase used with negative
connotations in reference to someone who is unwelcome.

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- ‘A plump ark by the keel…’ - A keel is the base of the bag, due to the bag being plump at the
base it is a symbol of pregnancy, bag replaces the incubation the mother would give.
- ‘Fur-lined leather collar which was also spaniel coloured’ - semantic eld of luxury.
Emphasises the child’s innocence and inexperience. Juxtaposition of pleasant connotations of
‘dog’ with ‘fur’.
- ‘Not plumping hot, and not lukewarm, but soft, sud-luscious, saved for him from the rain-
butt’ - sensual description and imagery. Soft sibilance mimics the ow of water as the
symbol of life, soothing and comforting sound.
- ‘Squired and silk-lined into the camel coat’ - Sibilance and semantic eld of luxury
explores the lifestyle di erences.
- ‘Hyperborean, beyond-the-north-wind blue’ - metaphor suggests the doctor is godly,
represents divide between working family and the greek utopia.
- ‘Two peepholes to the locked room’, ‘skimmed milk and ice’ - Child associates doctor with
familiar images, but doctor also provides a bridge between the child and the unknown. Child
doesn’t yet understand the workings of life and death.
- ‘Chill of tiles, steel hooks, chrome surgery tools’ ‘blood dreeps in the sawdust’ -
Grotesque imagery alluding to a slaughterhouse. Holds onto the ida of women having little
role, she is a passive object to be poked. Sense of horror contradicts beauty of birth, alludes to
the clinical part of profession and inevitability of loss and death. Implies a sense of secrecy in
doctors work.
- ‘A toe, a foot and shin, an arm, a cock’ - asyndetic list, child believes doctor assembles
babies piece by piece.
- ‘Rosebud in his buttonhole’ - crude, humour is macabre.

PART II - KEY QUOTES:

- ‘Poeta doctus Peter Levi’ - Erudite, Herney referring to his studies.
- ‘Sanctuaries of Asclepius’ - Greek God of healing, doctor has a god-like status. Connection
between past and present, explores how humans have healed themselves throughout history.
- ‘When I nearly fainted’ ‘again I nearly fainted’ - connection of two past events,
interconnected time spanning references, speaker explores how healing has always been both
technical and ritual.
- ‘Doctor Kerlin at the steamed-up glass’ - Shows the continual impact of Doctor on narrators
life. Steam imagery alludes to an area of production or kitchen, links to idea of manufacturing
babies, water symbolism in di erent form.
- ‘miraculum’ - latin for miracle, language of science adds authority.
- ‘Into his soapy big hygienic hands’ - Triadic asyndetic listing, motif of water as symbolism
of life, hand imagery.
- ‘Blinking and shaky in the windless light’ - coming out of trance, epiphany of sorts like those
one would look for in Ancient Greece.

PART III - KEY QUOTES:

- ‘To one going in to chemotherapy And one who had to come through’ - musing on the
limitations of poetry and how even though poetry can do good, it cannot erase everything bad.
- ‘Under hogweed, under seeded grass’ - Hogweed can cause blistering, seeded may allude to
sperm. Narrator wants to su er so that he can make sense of it all.

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 - ‘By Hygieia’ ‘the haven of light she was, the undarkening door’ - Goddess of health,
speaker is now older and perhaps in need of healing. Contrast illustrates narrators better
understanding of light, death and illness from both a medical and spiritual point of view.
Increased Knowledge, feel calmer towards the people and the places that provide healing. Shift
from masculine to feminine inspiration.

PART IV - KEY QUOTES:

- ‘The room I came from and the rest of us all came from’ - cyclical, eternal signi cance of
birth within the circle of life.
- ‘Wedding presents… useful at births and at deaths’ - Enjambment, multitude of life events,
semantic eld of rights of passage. Juxtaposition of life and death creates a sense of unity
inn the present, succinct description of the circle of life.
- ‘Me at the bedside, incubating for real’ - transitioned to being an adult and at the bedside of
his ill mother, illustrating the transition that he has undergone from being unaware outside the
room, now directly next to his mother. Symbolic of the shift in generation.
- ‘Appearing to her as she closes and opens her eyes’ - enjambment, internal rhyme and
ocular imagery. Sense of connection through the eyes in visual intimate moment of connection
and love.
- ‘Hoarsened whisper of triumph’ - irony, the exhaustion of the mother is the true sacri ce.
- ‘..of the new wee baby the doctor brought for us all when I was asleep?’ - perpetuating of
the myth that doctors deserve credit for birthing, rather than the mother who endures intense
pain.
- FINAL LINE - Narrator denied his revelation, keeps mystery of birth alive. Highlights the
constraints of the time in which there is no recognition of the strength of the female body.

LANGUAGE:
- Complex vocal - makes it more likely that a Reaser will feel a child-like sense of being
overwhelmed in their lack of knowledge and appreciation of events.
- Semantic eld of complexity - ‘scullery’, ‘hypnotist’, ‘forceps’, ‘squired’ etc. Helps to build
empathy with the narrator, makes poem feel more personal.
- Semantic eld of Ancient Greece - idea that birth is ancient, extent of being an ‘ancient
ritual’. Could be seen as a technique to make reader confused due to lack of knowledge. Or
perhaps demonstrates distance, both physical and mental, between the narrator and their
appreciation of what is going on.

STRUCTURE:
- Split into four sections - may be used to illustrate the transitions experienced by individuals
throughout life, from childhood to adulthood. Sense of separate poems forming a whole may
emphasise how, whilst a person is essentially the same, ones perception of the world changes
throughout life.
- Tercets of iambic pentameter - 5 iambic beats in each line
- Enjambment - within regular rhythm maintains the ow between lines, especially across
tercets, varying the emphasis for e ect as he points up images and ideas.
- Tercet stanzas - illustrates how memories are often broken, and often must be viewed with the
bigger picture in the mind in order to fully appreciate life.
- Inconsistency in line length - re ects how signi cant each stage in his life was in impacting
narrator, childhood forms the basis of his person for his entire life.

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 - Free verse with loose background of iambic patterning - complements the idea of memory.
- Lack of rhyme structure - combined with enjambment creates a owing idea of memory.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Poem compresses time and belief, from the ancient world to ours - uses doctor as a
symbol of continuity, argues that modern poetry has same healing power as Epidaurus to give
its visitor their epiphany.
- Class di erences - this higher social class seems to infuse the doctor with god-like powers, as
though Hyperborean, he is visiting the humble farmhouse from a perfect mythological realm.
- Doctor’s rituals suggestive of a religious ceremony - ‘like a hypnotist’ maintaining the
religious mystery of birth, to child miraculous birth of sibling could only be explained by he
mysteries of faith.
- Doctor’s ‘powers’ could be terrifying - horri cally gothic scene, reminiscent of Doctor
Frankenstein where infants parts are hung up - ‘A toe, a foot and shin, an arm, a cock/ A bit
like a rosebud in his buttonhole’. Impact of asyndetic list alongside the shocking con ation of
the horror and charm of Kerlin in the simile.
- The speaker also hints at religion through the 'shrines' that he visits in Greece and also the way
he describes his pilgrimage in order to help his friend who is going through ‘chemotherapy'.
The speaker carries the idea of mythology and almost naivety throughout the poem as he seeks
a 'sanatorium' and 'God' to help save his friend.

TONE:
- There is a friendly and warm tone at the beginning of the poem as we see how the speaker
idolises the doctor who 'savoured' and appreciated the miracle of birth and 'like a
hypnotist with magical powers made these babies piece by piece'.
- Further into the poem the tone shifts to a feeling of helplessness as the speaker goes through
'heat and fumes' all in an attempt to nd the magic he saw as a child. He hallucinates and looks
back at memories of this magician doctor.

IMAGERY:
- A key contributor to the strong imagery which the poem provides is the frequent use of
adjectives in conjunction with the listing of description, such as "chill of tiles, steel hooks,
chrome surgery tools" which could almost be interpreted as giving an 'overwhelming' sense
of the setting, enabling a reader to fully understand empathise with the narrator.
- To a certain extent the imagery could seem to contrast with the complex vocabulary, however
they can also be seen as working in harmony as it allows for an understanding and appreciation
while still maintaining the sense of secrecy and the unknown.

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 The Gun - Vicki Feaver
STORY OF THE POEM:
- Speaker explores the e ects of bringing a gun into her household - the expected negative
perspective is subverted, and instead the speaker delights in the sensual joy violence can
bring.
- Positions itself against liberal attitudes towards guns and hunting - concludes that gun has
electrifying impact. A gun can bring intensity, an excitement and a celebration of life, despite (or
because of) life’s fragility.
- Initial fear and disruption a gun brings, followed by a delightful relish.

CONTEXT:
- Poem explores one of society’s most controversial issues in society - guns/
- Dunblane Massacre 1996 - purchase of handguns controlled in UK.
- Firearms Act 1968 - illegal to purchase or own any kind of handgun in UK.
- Amendments didn’t apply to hunting ri es - might point to the bigger cultral ideas about gun
ownership, all dangerous.

THEMES:
- Power - explores the power that the gun has over her view of life, and in her relationship with
her husband. Ideas about power of humans over nature also evoked, as life is muted by
hunting.
- Gender - guns are typically associated with men, yet narrator subverts gender expectations by
actively participating in hunting and is therefore responsible for the loss of natural life.
- Con ict - exploration of the gun and death which stems from it allows exploration of con ict.
References to a ‘house’ could also help the poem be interpreted as looking at con icts within
households.

RELEVANCE OF THE TITLE:

- Foreboding title, one which invites opinion, evoking ideas of protection, violence and hunting -
the expected negative stance is subverted as narrator participated in the violence.
- Ominous - makes reader feel somewhat apprehensive for what may be described in the poem/
Gun has negative connotations, use of ‘the’ gives additional emphasis to the object, indicating
that it will be integral to events.

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘Bringing a gun into a house changes it’ - a gun is a phallic symbol, used to explore link
between men, violence and sexual potency. As the man uses the gun to kill, and he becomes
more powerful, his physical attraction increases, and she becomes excited and a willing
participant In the ritual of death.
- ‘You lay it out on the kitchen table’ - feminine imagery juxtaposed, connotations of family/
home.
- ‘Stretched out like something dead’ - ironic simile hints at how the guns power comes to life
through death. Has inherent sense of danger about it, as if it weer a wild animal, should be
afraid of its presence.
- ‘Jutting over the edge, the long metal barrel casting a grey shadow on the green -
checked cloth’ - masculine imagery described the ominous presence of the gun, with its
immense power. The colour imagery of a grey shadow, with connotations of misery, over
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 the green cloth, a rustic symbol with connotations of the vitality of nature, foreshadowing
the guilty actions of the couple which results in the subjugation of nature.
- ‘At rst its just practice’ - negative tone and sense of apprehension, sinister colon ensures
that reader has time to consider the height of the phrase, and would assure that death is
inevitable.
- ‘Then a rabbit shot clean through the head’ - stark, clinical Volta in tangent with brutal
imagery, entirely monosyllabic sounding like gunshots, at this point narrator does not take
pleasure in the death.
- ‘Your hands reek of gun oil and entrails. You trample fur and feathers’ - sensory language,
with use of listing and caesuras conveying the horri c, unnatural impact of the gun. The verb
trample implies a clear disregard for life, with the fricative alliteration re ecting muted life.
- ‘There’s a spring in your step’ - ironic verb, as spring is accounted with new life, instead this
joy is fuelled by destruction of life. The anapaestic rhythm conveys bloodlust.
- ‘Like when sex was fresh’ - simile conveys the sensuality of violence, with the seductive
nature of hunting hinted at, couple nds primal pleasure in death, a new dynamic in their
relationship. Animalistic tone, ‘fresh’ evokes images of meat from previous descriptions of
butchered animals. Shift to provocative dynamic shows power the gun has over relationships
- ‘A gun brings the house alive’ - irony emphasises a switch in power. Contrasting ideas of how
violence consumes life and the resulting pleasure. Personi cation of inanimate object, ironic
as poet brings gun to life when it is used to kill.
- ‘I join in the cooking. Jointing and slicing, stirring and tasting’ - use of sibilance in the
polysyndetic list of present participles produces a soft sound similar to a snake, evoking
ideas of temptation and creating a sinister feel. Stereotypical female roles presented, yet
narrator does not show a stereotypical female response to this murder, instead she is an active
participant in it. Edenic connotations where gun is tempting couple to delve into power.
- ‘As If the King of Death had arrived…’ - Pagan gure. curious simile, gun is personi ed
with a male title feeding into the traditional view of masculine power and hell. Animalistic verb
‘stalking’ introduces reader to idea how guns are able to hunt life, like a predator hunts prey.
- ‘His black mouth/sprouting golden crocuses’ - juxtaposition of life from death. Crocuses
are beautiful, vibrant owers but are deceptive as they are poisonous. Like a ‘polished’ gun, it
appears enticing but is really a killing machine. Black associated with death, crocuses
associated with spring. In Greek literature the yellow or golden crocus Is used a s the carpet of
the gods.

LANGUAGE:
- Combines the quietly domestic and the energetically violent - description of house in
contrast to description of gun which is described objectively and in a matter of fact way -
'metal, barren, stock'.
- Semantic eld of death and guns - works simultaneously with speci c sounds to help
reinforce the destructive imagery and highlight the power of guns. ‘Reek’, ‘entrails’, ‘dangling’
and ‘dead’ all contribute to ideas of death, however sometimes juxtaposition such as ‘clean’
described to shot rabbit, or ‘spring’ to describe movement of individual. The more positive and
arguably innocent ideas act as a sharp contrast to the death being described, with the context
demonstrating how truly destructive a gun is.

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STRUCTURE:
- Free verse dramatic monologue - allows speaker to subvert the readers expectations.
- Extensive use of enjambment - conveys impact of gun and its victims on the woman, and her
growing horror, fascination and sexual arousal. May re ect how the speakers joy in violence
crosses a line of acceptability.
- Line break in opening - suggests that the house has been disrupted by the gun, creates a
pause/hesitancy before the revelation of the second line. Our eye is thus drawn towards the
verb ‘changes’, indeed a poem about change, the movement ofrom fearful apprehension
towards a primitive ecstasy.
- Stanza length varies - shifting attitudes to the roles of guns.
- First stanza enjambment - used to evoke negative ideas of guns but is ambiguous. The
bloodlust and disturbance of peace which ensues is thus unexpected.
- Punctuation used to shape the rhythm - can be interpreted as creating the piercing sound of
shooting and bullets. The use of colons causes caesura and disrupts the poems ow and
rhythm, which could be interpreted as showing the unnatural impact that guns and killing has
on the world.
- Line breaks, sentences and enjambment - lines are at odds with the syntax as the sense of
excess develops.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Could interpret gun as a symbol of domestic or sexual violence
- ‘King of Death’ may therefore be shorthand for sex of a particularly satisfying kind - links
with the association of the gun, fresh sex, and fresh kills in stanza 4. The excitement in the nal
stanza, and the culinary activities, may carry a sexual undertone.
- Poets interest in nding common ground between the genders extends to the possibility that
some women are as grati ed by violence as men.
- In her fantasy of the King of Death stalking out of winter woods, the speaker imagines bringing
into her house the visitor of the rst draft, who will one day arrive uninvited. Providing a feast
for the King of Death is perhaps a strategy for disarming him, diverting him from his sinister
purpose, to perform his other role as the bringer of new growth to the winter earth - his black
mouth sprouting golden crocuses.
- One of the basic elements of Freudian theory is that we contain a life instinct (eros) and a death
instinct (thanatos). The poem shows how blurred the distinctions between these two drives can
be. The man who kills is also the man who prepares and cooks food (life-giving activities).
- It acts as a paradigm for the paradox of human nature: we want to live, but we are also capable
of self-destruction and killing, can even be excited by it.

TONE:
- Dangerous and transgressive tone challenging liberal notions of liberal attitudes towards
weapons.
- Feminist might critique the traditional focus on masculinity and sex, while others might
celebrate a woman’s enjoyment of a normally deemed ‘deviant’ object.

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 Please Hold - Ciaran O’Driscoll
STORY OF THE POEM:
- Satirical poem where narrator describes his anxieties about modern Britain while feeling
frustrated with automated responses on a phone call, which is an extended metaphor for the
restriction of a world with only binary response.
- Diatribe against the increasingly impersonal relationship between consumers and providers,
expands this initial premise into a wider consideration of how we are becoming increasingly
dehumanised, makes strong ‘political or social’ statement about the e ects of Capitalism in the
form of technology in modern world.

CONTEXT:
- Cultural reference of Mozarts Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - piece that is well known for its
repetitiveness, used as holding music.

THEMES:
- Power - speaker is powerless against the advancing technology and its restrictions on human
interaction.
- Society - pessimistic consideration of the e ects of technology on society, forcing us to
become more distant and colder. Poses the question through the frustration of the telephone
line whether technology is bene cial to society or hinders it.
- Pretence - resignation to the fate of society in the advent of technology.
- Language - Breakdown of language and communication shows interesting perspective on the
impact of technology. Language is used to help express emotions that the narrator is feeling,
including satirical phrases.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Title invites the reader to compare this with the common experience of helplines. The constant
repetition of the word ‘please’ also reduced the sincerity of the message.
- Polite imperative

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘This is the future, my wife says’ - anaphoric reference, supports the idea that technology is
not working properly, shows narrators frustration.
- ‘Goes money, my money, to pay for nothing’ - Phonological features, alliteration implies a
level of sel shness inside narrator, as if word ‘my’ is being repeated.
- ‘Yes but I’m paying for it, I shout, out of my wonderful account’ - building anger as humans
continue to pay, perhaps with their own meaning, for the advancement of technology.
- ‘And my wife says, This is the future’ - simple statement or declarative, explores fears of
speaker.
- ‘Yes or No’ ‘You can say Yes, No, Repeat or Menu’ - anaphora, increases narrators anger
with robot, repetition of robots speech speeds up poem, and therefore speeds up the narrators
irritation with technology.
- ‘Someone real, who is just as robotic’ - irony since the lack of connection between customer
and employee is just as inhumane and meaningless as binary responses to a robot.
- ‘I scream Agent! And am cut o ’ - onomatopoeia of active verb ‘scream’ and exclamatory
sentence illustrates frustration of narrator, dynamic verb ‘cut’ is onomatopoeic showing
angst.

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 - ‘And he is giving me no options/in the guise of countless alternatives’ - oxymoron, clear
indication of the sinister nature of increasing automation and reduced human interaction, idea
of appearance and reality in the use of ‘guise’, indicates deliberately misleading information.
- ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Please hold. Eine fucking Kleine Nachtmusik’ - Ornate, lyrical
classical music by Mozart built on repetition, metaphor for repetitive, irrelevant conversations
and emotionless technology. This elegance is juxtaposed strongly by narrators anger at the
cyclical inhumanity of his holding experience, made clear in the use of the expletive.
Universally known piece, shows such frustrations In daily life are now common.
- ‘The only way you can now meet your need is by looting’ - metaphorical sense of anger
breaking out through violence, such barbaric acts highlights the primitive levels to which
humanity will return if technology continues to degrade civilisation.
- FINAL STANZA - clear lamination of how technology is taking over, with worries about how the
elderly will cope in this new world and the distressing e ects of division/
- Cyclical sinister repetition is ironic as humanity is trapped in a cycle where human interaction
continues to disappear.
- The internal rhyme of lines emphasises the loss of social interaction in a maze of binary
conversation with technology.
- Multiple caesuras create harsh, staccato phrases with monosyllabic words and plosive
alliteration - creates overall e ect of oppression and fear and almost sounding like static, as
humanity becomes more isolated and divided and technology takes over.
- Assonance of ‘O’ in tangent with consonance of ‘ld’ sounds bitter and repetitive.;
- Monosyllabic lexis - narrator feels as if he is controlled by technology.

LANGUAGE:
- Language is reduced to a banality boarding on meaningless - become purely operational with
no room for anomaly or shades of meaning.
- Anaphora - to convey mechanistic responses of robot and wifes placid acceptance. Wife’s
mantra ‘This is the future’ provides tragic chorus to the action, raises questions regarding the
bene t of technology and whether it truly makes us happy.
- Repetition - used to emphasise key ideas and make poem feel monotonous to reader. ‘Yes’,
‘No’, ‘This is the future’, ‘Please hold’ consistently repeated, creates a sense of wariness and
apprehension for the potential of this negative and frustrating future, domination of technology
as ‘robot’ is repeated 11 times.
- Pronouns - central aspect of the interactions narrator has with both telephone and wife. ‘My
wife’ forms a personal and human connection, juxtaposed with less personal description of
‘the robot’. ‘Your future’ addresses the narrator and reader, helping them to draw in the poem
and its satirical message about the increasingly impersonal world, repetition of ‘I’ makes it feel
more personal and build empathy by encouraging reader to consider when they have
experienced a similar situation.
- ‘Your call is not important to them‘ - repetition with amendment made to highlight how
false the facade of care is in the modern world.
- ‘Wonderful… great’ - forced positivity is ironic as pretence of comfort causes anger.

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STRUCTURE:
- ‘The stream of consciousness’ - aims to replicate the free- owing, unrestricted thought
process of a human.
- Free verse in a long continuous stanza - re ects narrators circumstance, re ects feeling of
monotony and feelings of lengthened time.
- Heteroglossia - variety of di erent and competing voices within the same text. Speakers
thoughts, speakers dialogue, voice of his wife, the robot and the speakers ‘translator’. Creates
disorientation and confusion, nightmarish piling up of voices in on long stanza. Conversational
tone is developed syntactically through frequent use of the forted conjunction ‘and’.
- Satire and Parody - forces reader to compare this poem with everyday experiences of the
world.
- Constant repetition and monosyllabic words - illustrates the breakdown of communication
and sophistication. Short troubling stanza on humanity’s future.
- Free verse with repetition - emphasises how disconnected society is becoming in the modern
world.
- Loosely based on iambic pentameter to re ect a common experience.
- Direct address in the use of 2nd person - compels reader to evaluate power pot technology.
- Final tercet - di erent voices combined together , individuality has disappeared. Change in
tone, more sombre, brought about by the shortening of sentences and patterns of caesurae.
- Rhyme - The use of very short, rhyming phrases gives the impression that, if read aloud, the
separate fragments of each line would be spoken repeatedly and at the same time, rather than
one after the other. The language of this short stanza is also signi cant: the phrases "Please
hold. Please grow old. Please grow cold." seem to illustrate the transition from life into death,
implying the sense of monotony the poet is feeling. In addition, the frequent use of caesurae,
with a full stop at the end of each phrase, emphasises the robotic nature of the voices.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Darkly comic satire - makes serious point about the impact of technology o our lives and the
breakdown in e ective communication brought about by modernity. The future - which is, as
we are reminded, already happening, - is a society where language is moribund, and individuals
are powerless.
- Impact that technology, and perhaps the wider modern world, is having on language -
poem about inability to communicate successfully, ‘This is the future’ functions as a
nightmarish refrain as his wife seems to suggest we should just accept thus new world.
- Incessant repetition - words tend to lose their meaning, end up signifying nothing. Suggests
communication is operating in a kind of labyrinth loop as language endlessly folds back on
itself.

TONE:
- There is a tone of frustration towards this monotonous voice running throughout the poem. The
poet’s irritation is expressed through the ridiculing and imitation he does of the robot saying ‘I
have a wonderful telephone number and a great account number’. He is sick of being
dehumanized and treated as simply a consumer and number in line.
- There is also a tone of sadness towards how the future is progressing. The connection of
human touch is lost in the future and the poem ends on a dark tone that his future is simply to
‘grow old’ and ‘grow cold’ in this technologically controlled future.
- There is also a very conversational tone throughout as the speaker starts many of his sentences
with ‘and’.

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 History - John Burnside
STORY OF THE POEM:
- Days after the terrorist attack 9/11, the poet is on a beach with his wife and his son on the east
coast of Scotland near an RAF base in Leuchars.
- Ambitiously philosophical poem - asks the big questions about how to be at home in the world
in the face of the vast, impersonal and destructive forces of history. The poem is also located in
the Romantic tradition in its appreciation of the transient beauties of the natural environment at
risk from mankind.

CONTEXT:
- Based on the aftermath of fear from the 9/11 attacks in New York 2001.
- History shows the in uences of the ideas associated with the Romantic Movement
(1789-1837) - Romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge not only admired the sublime
beauty of nature, but they also looked upon it as a source of inspiration for their own poetry. In
opposition to traditional Christianity, Romantic poets felt that a redemptive God, or at least a
spirit, could be felt in nature.

THEMES:
- Con ict - Burnside shows the impact of con ict on individual and society. Re ection,
maintenance of hope and the importance of holding onto the signi cant people in life are the
key ideas explored
- Society - poem directly addresses ideas regarding the reaction of society to signi cant and
traumatic events, poet illustrates a response where hope and re ection prevail.
- Identity - the symbolic use of the setting of the beach represents how experiences hold people
together.
- The metaphysical - although the poem has a very physical and speci c setting, there is also a
yearning for the metaphysical. Poem is attentive to the ever-changing environment which in
itself is a kind of prayer to the natural world. Key metaphysical symbol of th kite- ing. Appears 3
times and helps give the poem cohesion, the kite is a powerful visual symbol of the poem’s
search for metaphysical answers.
- Children - represents an innocent ideal, a common idea in romantic poetry. Poet wonders how
we can live in a world and do no harm, suggests we should aim to regain the innocence and
attentive joy of children.
- Uncertainty - speaker shows a hopeless feeling for the future and recovery of mankind as a
whole. ‘War planes’ have shadowed over the ‘morning light’ thus people do not feel as if a new
day can begin as it is been overshadowed by disastrous events.
- Humanity - theme that humans lose focus on what is important and rather devote our time to
things that in reality mean nothing.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- The title can be perceived as part of the creating a owing sense of rhythm, that represents the
ongoing, natural ow of time that is also present linguistically in the lines through the transition
from past to present.
- Furthermore, 'History' is a very broad unspeci c concept that makes the reader not know what
the expect from within the poem. This is immediately contrasted by the homophoric reference
'St Andrews: West Sands; September 2001'. The date immediately implies speci c images of
fear. The line Today, then juxtaposes the title by bringing the reader to the present. The contrast
between the tranquil present day at the beach and the chaotic 9/11, potentially represents the

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 confused and distressed narrator who reaches moments of clarity within the poem. The present
vs history. calm vs fear.

KEY QUOTES:
- Opening epigraph - before reader begins poem they are informed with time and setting
- ‘Sand spinning o in ribbons along the beach’ - the sibilance conveys a sense of the
elegance of nature. Setting of a beach may be symbolic of the rippling waves of e ects of
history on the present. Pleasant imagery contradicts negative thoughts, but also implies
negativity through sibilance of ‘spinning o ’ representative pod destruction.
- ‘Kites’ - metaphorical symbol, used cyclically, kite represents freedom and is grounded by
responsibility, shows childhood protected by innocence.
- ‘The war planes cambered and turned in the morning light’ - images are reminiscent of the
9/11 planes, yet the allusion to light suggests hope must be held onto.
- ‘Mu ed dread of what may come’ - the events cause a sense of deep-rooted fear in
everyone, and yet this is suppressed as people refuse to discuss the horri c incident. Lewd of
distortion from ‘dread’ which shows emotion, but with ‘mu ed’ sounds sinister with a lack of
free expression.
- ‘I knelt down in the sand’ - The lineation of the poem could visually mirror the motion of the
tide, coming in and out. Which parallels the idea of how people, like 'Lucas', come and go; that
a person's life is here and transitory. Which leaves the reader with the message: don't focus
ourselves on people who have gone or the irredeemable (like 9/11), instead focus on now, the
people and world that surrounds us, shown by the present day beach and the past event of
9/11. Cope and savour the now, don't xate and su er on the past.
- ’Finding evidence of life in all this drift work’ - metaphor of nding hope amidst the loss,
mirrors searching for survivors. Momentous event is contrasted with sweetness of child playing
on. Beach. ‘Leuchars’ phonetically similar to ‘Lucas’ shows connection between new
generation and warfare.
- ‘Snail shells; shreds of razor sh; smudges of weed and esh on tideworn stone’ - triplet
focuses on the variety of nature, the beauty of nature acts as an antidote to hatred and violence.
- ‘Tideworn stone’ - natural imagery beautiful but ominous, tainted by humanity, reminiscent of
death juxtaposing natures beauty, suggests violence should not exist in places like this.
- ‘.. Is neither kinship nor our given states but something lost between the world’ -
philosophical concept that suggests the true nature of human life. Speaker interested in human
aspiration, an ideal or perfect world that is unachievable.
- ‘The rose of petrol blue of jelly sh and sea anemone’ - colour imagery conveys the
vibrance of nature, yet petrol has a double meaning, creating a sinister undertone with
reference to fossil fuels and the destruction of the natural world by mankind. Innocent imagery
juxtaposing the threat of war or violence.
- ‘Sometimes I am dizzy with the fear of losing everything - the sea, the sky, all living
creatures, forests, estuaries’ - asyndetic listing creates an overwhelming sense of just how
much destruction humanity causes.
- ‘The long insomnia of ornamental carp in public parks captive and bright and hung in their
own slow-burning transitive gold’ - juxtaposition emphasis the exploitation of natures purity.
The allusion to slow-burning gold emphasises how short lived humans are - our transience
means that, in the passage of time, we remain insigni cant and at the mercy of nature.
- ‘How to be alive in all this gazed-upon and cherished world and do no harm’ - there is a
great sense of di culty and guilt when posed with the issue of not harming each other or the
planet.
- ‘A toddler on a beach sifting wood and dried weed from the sand and puzzled by the
pattern on a shell’ - image of childhood innocence, the obliviousness of the toddler to what
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 happens in the world around him is complemented by his engagement with the natural world
and its beauty.
- ‘Plugged into the sky’ - kite is a symbol of hope, same sky used for the warplanes, showing
an act of power and hope during tragedy.
- ‘Patient; afraid; but still, through everything attentive to the irredeemable’ - nal line uses a
triplet of adjectives to convey the nature of humanity in the modern day. This line acts as a
re ection on how society can become enthralled by events like 9/11 and forget about the more
pressing world around them.
- FINAL LINE - repetitive phrase due to multiple syllables in both ‘attentive’ and ‘irredeemable’
and consonance of the ’t’ and ‘d’ sounds. Demonstrates society’s focus on key news events
and the way more focus is given to more horrendous acts and events.
- Ending poem on this note acts as a message to reader about the way that society becomes
enthralled with the analysis of events such as these.

LANGUAGE:
- Semantic eld of the sea - references to such variety of animals could be seen as
representing the diversity of human life, demonstrating how despite everyone being di erent
there are still factors that hold them in common, thus creating a shared bond. Would be very
e ective for a reader as they would likely recognise how easy it is for division to arise from any
horri c event, so this allusion to unity would show how important burnside believes it is.
- Just as the twin towers were a pair of buildings, there are many pairings in the poem

IMAGERY:
- Links to universal ideas that are rooted in the natural world is also a key part of 'History' with
descriptions such as "tethers us to gravity and light" midway through the poem
- The use of these fundamental ideas is designed to further highlight the shared experiences of
humanity within the world while the reference to "light" is used to bring a more positive and
hopeful tone through its connotations
- This positive light imagery also is part of a semantic eld, with other references such as "gold"
and "bright" helping to reinforce these positive elements further

STRUCTURE:
- Strong iambic beat written in combinations of loose iambic pentameters and tetrameters
- Breaking lines - indicate the associative nature of his thinking, moving between what he sees
and does on the beach and the context of this day in the wider world
- Fragmented form - with frequent line breaks working against the logic of syntax suggests
something about the di culty of articulation, and the fragments of the building after its
destruction.
- Stream of consciousness re ected in the enjambment - there is a lack of control over the
present, causes a lack of certainty.
- Fractured imagery re ected in the broken lines - illustrates how we have damaged nature.
- No regular rhythm or rhyme - underlines the poets sense of questions and anxiety or maybe
heightens the unpredictability of life.
- Verse - There is a highly irregular structure throughout the poem with the free verse being used
to its full e ect with no particular consistency in stanza or line length whatsoever. This is very
e ective because it helps to convey the confusion and strong changes in emotions that could
be felt by someone hearing the news with their thought process becoming erratic as they
attempt to process the information. Alternatively it could also be interpreted as being a visual

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 representation of the destroyed and damaged twin towers or as a broader representation of
confusion and shock within society
- Stanzas - There are occasional stanzas which seem more deliberate and structured showing
small sections of collected thoughts and helping to convey important meanings and points
from the poem such as the links people share in society described in the line beginning "At
times I think”. Despite this the poem still feels dominated by vague ideas which show the
confusion and uncertainty felt by the narrator. The mix of condensed and fragmented stanzas
could be interpreted as showing the way in which di erent elements and parts of society could
be seen to have disintegrated and been damaged over time as a result of the gradual loss of
collective memory of important past events

TONE:
- However while there is positive imagery this is against a backdrop of more uncertain and war
related ideas that persist through the poem to ensure that there is still a general sense of
unease felt by a reader
- This is most notable at the beginning of the poem with reference to "war planes" which
encourages a reader to consider the global and military repercussions but also smaller
references such as "petrol" and "states" which while are not directly about military or conflict
some readers may link them given the context this would be very effective because it can be
seen as representing the permanence of forms of conflict in the world

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Christian belief - poem ends on word ‘irredeemable’. Has religious connotations, in the
christian tradition, Jesus is often referred to as ‘The Redeemer’ as he saved mankind from sin.
Suggests that nothing described in the poem, human or natural, can ultimately be saved from
history or time, but paying attention to the moment may at leats bring us to a deeper
appreciation of ‘all this gazed-upon and cherished world’.
- Twin towers - stood together and fell together. World peace depends not on the internal
solidarity of individual nations, but on the solidarity of the global, supranational community of
nations.
- the poem suggests that paying attention to the world's transience and beauty might act as a
kind of antidote to the hatreds that create ideologically motivated violence. he focuses on local
history.

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The Lammas Hireling - Ian Duhig
STORY OF THE POEM:
- The poem is a dramatic monologue telling the story of how the narrator – a farmer – came to
hire a young man to help with his cows, young man trans gures into a hireling and the farmer
kills it.
- Farmer tells story in a church as he seeks to confess his sins.

CONTEXT:
- Poem is a rendition of folk tale - ‘lammas’ is the festival of ‘loafmass’, traditionally a time for
hiring help with the harvest.
- Hares - prominent in folk stories, especially ones about animal trans gurations as they were
often associated with evil and witchcraft. Belief that witches could turn into hares, which could
suck the milk from their neighbours’ cows, draining them dry.
- Pagan - considered pagan if you don’t believe in religion or you worship more than one god.
Original pagans were followers of an ancient religion that worshipped several gods. Religious
people sometimes use pagan as a put-down to describe the unreligious as godless and
uncivilised.

THEMES:
- Transgression - ideas of transgression are conveyed through the intertwining of reality and the
supernatural. This use of the imagination creates a maintained sense of ambiguity through the
poem. Poem deals in transgression, exploring the boundary between the real and the
supernatural, the animal and the human, life and death etc. The narrator uses the word
‘disturbed’ at the start of the second stanza and its certainly the case that the poem itself has a
disturbing power, the unreliability of its narrator drawing us back again and again, as in the best
ghost stories, to try and work out what actually happened.
- Language and Truth - speakers account is unreliable, resulting in a maintained feeling of
confusion.
- Society - the ambiguity between presentation of the speakers wife and the hireling through the
use of contrasting imagery raises questions that are never adequately answered.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Refers to the wheat harvest festival - immediately reminds the reader of the past, when this
archaic festival was celebrated. By focusing on an unnamed individual, a sense of intrigue is
established.
- Points reader to a time gone by - both words are likely to be unfamiliar to a modern reader. A
hireling is someone who only stays for a short time. Ironically, this hireling stays with the man
forever, as a guilty secret which he repeatedly confesses.

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘After the fair, I’d still a light heart/and a heavy purse, he struck so cheap’ - use of
anaphora and polysyndeton emphasises how good a deal the hireling was. He appears to be
a good luck charm, there is a juxtaposition of growing fortune and growing gut. The heavy
vowel sound of ‘heart’ contrasts to the lightness of the previous word, foreshadowing the guilt
to come.
- ‘Then one night, disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife’ - use of alliteration alludes to
the speakers potential insanity, and reveals his guilt at the death of his wife. Alliteration
[perhaps emphasises that this is a bad omen.
- ‘I hunted down her torn voice to his pale form’ - ghostly imagery links the wife with the
hireling. Complex interplay of the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘I’, with the disappearance of the third
person pronoun hinting at the death of the hireling. ‘Torn’ has savage and primal connotations
and focuses on the vulnerability of ‘her’.
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 - ‘Stock-still in the light from the dark lantern, stark naked’ - sinister use of sibilance with
light imagery in the oxymoron perhaps hinting at the truth. Pararhyme is used to connect
ideas of mystery. Adds sense of mystery.
- ‘Blew the small hour through his heart’ - time imagery with symbolism used in this murder,
the use of twilight setting re ects signi cance of this death.
- ‘The moon came out. By its yellow witness I saw him fur over like a stone m bossing. His
lovely head thinned. His top lip gathered. His eyes rose like bread’ - light symbolism with
personi cation used to create a gothic image of mystery. This hints at paranoia with a
horri c understanding of the crime. The transformation back into a hare, a magic creature in
British folklore. The use of anaphora hints at sexual attraction, and the tricolour of simple
sentences builds an image of the destruction of innocence. The simile re ects magical
ideas.
- ‘I carried him in a sack that grew lighter at every step’ - enjambment hints at concealing of
guilt.
- ‘Splash’ - enjambment to create caesura at the start of the line, emphasising the
onomatopoeia.
- ‘Casting ball from half-crowns’ - strange image of ammunition from money, fortune is
worthless. Links to folklore whereby silver bullets would kill supernatural creatures.
- ‘Bless me father, I have sinned. It has been an hour since my last confession’ - self focus
on guilt, he has a lot to confess for. Confessions should be full and made with the intention if
making amends, so confessing this frequently to the same crime would indicate that omission
of details, demonstrating the narrators unreliability.
- FINAL LINE - may symbolise the rigid structure of the Catholic church and the act of
confession. noun "hour" also points towards the ritualistic confession and suggests that the
farmer is constantly reconstructing his story, hence he is not telling the truth and this has
become a hyperbolic fairy-tale version of the real event

IMAGERY:
- Shift in moods underpinned by the sound and imagery of the poem - transformation and
transgression taking place at the level of individual words. ‘Light’ starts as an expression of
cheer before becoming the light from the ‘dark lantern’ by which he sees his vision of the
naked hireling, before re-emerging as the queasy yellow light of the moon which is witness to
the murder, then transforming back into the reference of weight associated with hirelings dead
body.
- Literal and proverbial heaviness of the narrators purse in the 1st stanza has become the weight
of guilt and endless confession.
- Uncertainty is anchored to the frequent shifts in light and dark: Oxymoron-"Dark lantern”.
no real light suggests that the farmer couldn't really SEE thing properly which leads the reader
to question the truth of the situation. metaphor for the confusing and con icting events; the
light is blurred with the dark and this represents the transgression of boundaries but also the
blur between truth and malignant lies in a liminal space of transgression, not yet transgressed
fully but waiting to as the dark and light combine but do not blur
- Personi cation: "Yellow witness” - light of the moon is tainted from the typical pure white, a
metaphor for the transgression of the farmer: light often represents good and it's tainted
"yellow" infers that the soul of the farmer is becoming tainted through his actions and thoughts
'Witness' is someone who tells the truth in a case, suggesting that the "yellow witness" is a
representation of the tainted truth. Moon often considered a mystical entity that controls the
menstrual cycle, inferring a transgressing in gender
- Homonym/word play: "in a sack that grew lighter” - farmer is referring to weight which infers
that the hireling is not real. draws the reader away from the murder and brings attention to
supernatural forces to pass blame onto benign forces that cannot be proved as well as playing
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 on superstitions of the audience. play on language links to the concealing of information
because it manipulates the perceptions of the reader and makes them second guess if this is
an adjective referring to weight or to a light that represents truth. perhaps gradual "lighter"
presence is a hint towards the truth of him murdering becomes more real to the farmer but also
to the reader
- Overall, the contrast and blurring of light and dark imagery in the poem re ects the gothic
transgression of moral boundaries by using the supernatural to subvert the realistic and
challenge binary oppositions.

LANGUAGE:
- Force and horror of the action conveyed through similes - ‘fat as cream/fur over like a
stone mossing/ eyes rose like bread’.
- The farmers dream incited him to murder - now he is an insomniac who spends all his days at
the confessional, marked by the devil and cursed like his animals.
- Semantic eld of supernatural - ‘warlock’ (folklore), links idea of religion and how it acts as a
positive force against supernatural imagery.
- Archaic/Irish language - "dropped heifers...gets you muckle sorrow" - The use of this
language helps to illustrate the poem with aspects of a witches chant. This reinforces the idea
that the poem is about magic. It may also seem confusing to initial readers but this only
highlights the uncertainty one feels about the narrator.
- the modern audience transgresses the modern era into a darker and more violent past,
mirroring how the farmer transgresses the rural innocence of farming to the darker murder he
commits
- makes the reader feel confused and uncomfortable, placing them o balance
- may also suggest that the farmer is most comfortable in the darker parts of the agricultural
world and resists moving into a religious sphere
- sign of power as uses language to alienate the audience

STRUCTURE:
- Dramatic monologue written in regular iambic tetrameter
- Extensive use of enjambment with caesura and the absence of a regular rhyme scheme -
give it considerable variation in keeping with its narrative structure.
- Sestet stanzas - balanced and symmetrical appearance. Suggests a level of control and
authoritative nature of farmer.
- Enjambment - creates a sense of urgency, with little opportunity to pause for re ection. This
increases the level of confusion felt by a reader and is one of the reasons why it is initially
di cult to understand the meaning of the poem.
- Caesuras - suggest concealing of information.
- Tonal shift from the exposition material in the rst stanza to the disturbing feel of the rest of the
poem.
- Variety in sentence length encourages the feeling of confusion.
- Ending the poem on one nal line a strong contrast is created - can be seen as re ecting
the idea of conforming to the ideas of repentance, which are shared through this idea of
confession.
- Repeated polysyndetic - conveys the sense of an erratic speaker.
- Vowel sounds and irregular rhyme - contribute to the sense of mystery.
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 - Alliteration - links words through lines, with assonance and half-rhyme used throughout.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Only one word of 3 syllables in the poem - nal word ‘confession’.
- Uncertainty nds its gurative expression in the poem’s frequent shifts between light and ark.
- Cultural references suggest the poem takes place at an indeterminate point n Englands rural
past
- Farmer knows he cannot be forgiven since he cannot reliably articulate his crime.
- Poems conclusion reveals the farmer has change substantially - his xation with money and
wealth is completely gone, instead he melts his money to make bullets.
- Hireling as Christ - comes to save farm and is a miracle worker, religious imagery, christ
disappears out of the tomb.
- Rural landscape - Feels a 19th century setting, a time of superstition and how life can be
utterly changed by doing the wrong thing. There is also a dichotomy of religion set in opposition
of superstition.
- The ending with its direct plea ‘Bless me, Father’ puts us in the role of the priest - In
Catholic tradition, to be absolved of your sins your confession needs to be full and made with a
‘ rm purpose of amendment’. The narrator’s confession is only partial and maybe that’s the
reason that ‘It has been an hour since my last confession’ ie he feels compelled to repeat his
story again and again.
- he image of a cow with leather horns, as well as being an old description for a hare, combines
the male and the female, as does the strange image of the narrator tracking down his wife’s
‘torn’ voice to the hireling’s ‘pale form’. Is it the hireling’s company he is so ‘fond of’, especially
as he knew ‘when to shut up’.

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 From the Journal of a Disappointed Man - Andrew
Motion
STORY OF THE POEM:
- Speaker on a walk to a pier, observes a group of restrained workmen who appear to avoid
discussing emotions.
- The speaker comments on the size and scale, the tools and men. This sense of repression is
maintained for the duration of the poem and is extended to the speaker himself.
- Ironic exploration of self-absorption - the nal words ‘me of course’ demonstrate that the
narrator is concerned with himself. The narrator complained that the workmen, who have job to
do, are ‘ignoring me’.

CONTEXT:
- Piers - solid structures and are remnants of the Victorian eras, periods of remarkable feats of
engineering. Became fashionable at seaside resorts, regarded as ne examples of 19th century
architecture and engineering.
- The success and con dence of these Victorian engineers are perhaps contrasted with the
failure of the 21st century workmen (and the educated speaker) in Motion’s poem.

THEMES:
- Gender - use of homogenising language presents the masculine stereotype as repressive and
dissatisfactory. There is a real absence of vitality in the presentation of both the workmen and
the speaker, with a mutual sense of misery and a shared failure in facing their di culties.
- Society - implicit criticism of the way in which society expects men to behave, with emotional
restraint and lack of vitality.
- Identity - individual identity is lost in the presentation of the homogenised men. Indeed, the
speaker remains passive and anonymous, perhaps re ecting how oppressive gender
stereotypes can be.
- Masculinity - physical strength of workmen as opposed to the passivity of the observe; a
di erence compounded by their use of language. Observer’s language is full of long words and
complex references, stark contrast to the silent workmen, who when they do s[peak, do so with
functional simplicity. Through this juxtaposition the poet o ers the reader two alternate versions
of masculinity, however by the end neither man has an answer to the ‘secret problem’. The old
soviet-era heroism that might once have attached to this scene of the working man dissipates
into littleness. Repairing the pier has further symbolic signi cance. Piers are structures that
don’t go anywhere and are remnants of remarkable engineering. By contrast, neither the
workmen nor the narrator are able to o er a way forward, links back to the disappointment of
the title which applies in di erent ways to both men.
- Failure - perhaps a type of creative failure. The workmen fail at their task as they slow down,
then stop, then stare in silence before walking away. Speaker also fails as despite his education
he does not have an answer to the issue at hand. Failure nds physical embodiment in the
poems imagery, as piers don’t go anywhere. And with the pile hanging useless in mid-air at the
end nds its parallel in the speaker, who ends the poem with a rather listless and faintly absurd
ignorance.

RELEVANCE OF THE TITLE:

- Reference to a journal allows the reader to assume that the account will be personal, yet the
dull account from a passive narrator does not include much opinion.
- A certain anonymity in "man" shows that the speaker is perhaps trying to hide an identity, t in
or simply distance himself from the world of the "men", he is isolated
- The abstract noun "disappointed" only establishes the feeling of failure and being unsatis ed
that the speaker feels
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 KEY QUOTES:
- ‘I discovered these men’ - use of a verb with scienti c connotations. There is a social
disconnect between the educated speaker and the physically capable men. Scienti c lexis
alludes to the workmen being pre-evolution.
- ‘Driving a new pile into the pier’ - phallic imagery of masculinity, with connotations of
strength, structure and integrity. The symbol of the pier may also allude to how their dreams go
nowhere, much as a pier extends into the abyss of the sea.
- ‘Chains, pulleys, cranes, ropes’ - asyndetic list,
- ‘Even the men; very powerful men; very ruminative and silent men ignoring me’ -
homogenising language with use of repetition emphasising just how far the men express
these qualities, whilst the triplet of adjectives conveys the sense of restraint these men impose
on themselves. There is a clear disconnect between the faceless men and the speaker,
re ecting the masculine stereotype of strength and emotional passivity. Repetition of plosive
sounds in ‘powerful’ illustrates a sense of power, and the repetition of men arguably creates
distance between the workmen and the speaker who is more intellectual than physically strong.
- ‘All monosyllables’ - their monosyllabic functional communication contrasts strongly with
the polysyllabic eloquent account given by the speaker.
- STANZA 4 - although these men appear to be incredibly physically strong, they are up against
something much bigger, metaphorical.
- ’For all their strength and experience these men were up against a great di culty… every
one of the monsters was silent on the subject’ - Exhaustion at tiring labour is never
discussed, noun ‘monsters’ illustrates the lack of connection, alluding as if the workmen
belong in primitive times.
- ‘Still saying nothing but crossing his strong arms over his chest’ - These men appear to
communicate in gesture, a contrast to the poetic voice's use on abstract metaphor's: 'the crack
of Doom'. Symbolically, the man's use to cover 'his chest', which holds the heart, with his
'strong arms', is perhaps a subtle comment on the toxic masculine trait to cover a vulnerability
or emotionality with a veneer of physical strength.
- ‘For all he cared the pile could go on swinging until the crack of Doom’ - biblical allusion
to the day of judgement and the end of the world. The men seem not to care about what
happens around them. There is a disparity between the attentiveness of the speaker and the
indi erence of the men.
- ‘Gradually slackened and nally ceased’ - men fail despite great physical strength, illustrates
that perhaps the pressure placed upon traditional masculinity is too much.
- ‘One massive man after another abandoned his position’ - Alliteration stresses the
physicality of the men, the lexis of war illustrates the pinnacle of masculinity and heroism.
- ‘To gaze down like a mystic into the water. No-one spoke, no-one said what they saw’ -
simile re ects how all they see is an inescapable, cyclical misery in their future. The men refuse
to express their hopes and dreams, conveying the pessimism of such a hopeless lifestyle.
Figurative language. The anaphoric repetition of 'no one' conveys a sense of a universal loss
for words among the men, but also that none of them are able to admit their failure. The use of
the semi-colon as a caesura also creates this silence within the line. In a class-based
analysis, one might suggest that this is a reference to the voiceless masses politically.
- ‘The foreman, and the most original thinker’ - The narrator seems to be sarcastically
mocking 'the foreman', through the juxtaposition of the religious and philosophical idea of
an 'original thinker' in contrast with manual labour.
- ‘With a heavy kind of majesty, he turned on his heel and walked away’ - the foremen sets
the expectations of the men, and maintains the silence in which they work. Men accept their
limitations in a digni ed way, undermines the narrators previous mockery of them.

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 - ‘Then altogether, the men followed’ - collective pack with mentality to stick together while the
narrator is alone.
- ‘That left the pile still in mid-air, and me of course’ - return to the opening symbol conveys
how inconclusive and unresolved the matter of gender stereotype is. The coordinating
conjunction "and" equates the speaker to the liminal and phallic symbol of the pile. Similar
to the pile, the speaker has no answers and therefore seems to have no real purpose now that
the work men have walked away. He is left in an isolated form where the work men are not
because they are solidi ed through their physical masculinity whereas the speaker is left
wondering in a rather existentialist manner. The "of course" colloquialism suggests an
expectation but perhaps also a self-victimisation.

LANGUAGE:
- The challenge of the wooden pile can be seen as a metaphor for the challenge of nding
meaning in, or the meaning of, life - Faced with bringing meaning to life, even strong men,
who seem to know what they are doing, fail to resolve the challenge, in spite of struggling
manfully. All the writer can do is look on helplessly, his words useful. He is left with a realisation,
perhaps, that all we can do is keep trying, or simply give up.
- Stanza 7 uses bathos - its aim, to distinguish these ordinary men and make them seem heroic
by acknowledging and stressing, that they continued to address the ba ing problem just as
their e ort does.
- The linguistic dexterity of the poet (words are tools) is juxtaposed against the monosyllables of
labourers who use their bodies as tools. Adding to distance between poet and subject.

STRUCTURE:
- Interesting use of persona - although poem is about workmen, its real focus is on the
observer. With the apparent lack of self awareness or re ection, he adopts a condescending
tone towards the workers, and seems keen to maintain the social distance between them and
himself.
- Free verse, regular line lengths
- Use of colloquialisms and the lack of poetic embellishment - matter of fact tone, gives a
sense of reading a factual account of the incident. Poet seems detached from the men who are
the subject of his observation and from the activity in front of him.
- Narrators diction - con rms the speaker is an educated intellectual, as well as someone who
is rather supercilious, it is polysyllabic and Latinate.
- Regular quatrains in tangent with consistent end-stopping - sense of how endlessly
repetitive this kind of masculine lifestyle is.
- Enjambment within stanzas re ects how disjointed situation it - the men share the same
misery yet refuse to voice their thoughts.
- Plosives - used to emphasise the masculine tones.
- Wide range of punctuation - emphasis the disconnect between the outward presentation of
masculinity and mens internal thoughts. While on the outside there may be the appearance of
confronting, this is not the same internally.
- Structure of poem appears solid on the page - re ects the solid traditional masculine men
and the pile they work with.
- Uneven number of stanzas - un nished like the pier
- Enjambment - the amalgamation of a rigid and sensually owing structure may symbolise how
the narrator is torn between the feminine world of creative literature and the masculine world of
strength and dominating power despite the purposelessness

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- ambiguous and subtle mixture of gendered identity that both condemns and condones the
stereotypes perpetuating society
- may also be Motion pointing out that the outward perceptions of masculinity do not match with
the inward reality of masculinity as it can take on several di erent forms as explored by this
poem

TONE:
- Contrast of language - "ruminative", "let go" - The di erence with the narrators complex
vocabulary and the workers monosyllabic words is signi cant because Tone are all men.
Portrayal of men in the media and the pressure on men. The tone is disappointed.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- The narrators rebellion, and his attempt to assert his own, reinventing order over a dull
scene, are feeble - he tries to assert himself, but he has nothing to assert. He cannot turn his
dull like into an interesting piece of architecture, as there is nothing striking or creative not it. He
is interested in a large block of wood because, in it, he unconsciously recognises a kindred
spirit.
- It starts with the "discovery" of these "men" & sees his fascination growing throughout the
poem, moving to these mens’ internal life. Before concluding with a sense of irresolution, the
"pile still in mid air, and me of course" emphasising the observer remains an outsider.
- A purposefully quiet poem – emphasising poet, like a scientist, recording observations.
- The final image of the pile hanging uselessly in mid-air seems symbolic of the whole enterprise,
the narrator tacitly acknowledging that he too is a 'spare part’. The poem shows how the men fail
despite their great strength. They were acting like a pack but they do not achieve. The pressure
on men is insurmountable.
- Religious references - There’s a real sense of existentialism in this particular part of the poem
because in reality, the actions of both the work men and the speaker are pointless, their form of
masculinity or purpose in life become meaningless to higher omnipotent forces
- LANGUAGE - becomes a strong form of identification and a way to convey the prejudicial views
of the men but also distance oneself from a culture that is hated. The speaker's narcissistic and
academic register contrasts the monstrous descriptions of the workmen which elevates him to a
status of prestige whilst they are suggested to be working-class and lesser
- MONOTONY - there's a strong sense that the individuals in the poem are not achieving anything
and the workmen in particular are quite happy to walk away from an incomplete job. Yet, the
speaker is left being unable to answer the same metaphorical question of masculinity and social
identity as the work men. Perhaps Motion leaves the reader and the speaker with no answers to
show how absurd prejudice, masculinity are through a feeling of pointlessness

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 A Minor Role - U A Fanthorpe
STORY OF THE POEM:
- The poem illustrates how often in life, one will have to deal with a di cult situation as well as
the way in which the person a ected reacts to this situation, at the core of this moving poem is
a concern about how we speak truthfully in the face of life’s most di cult moments.
- Exploration of the role of an individual in society, and how this is impacted by illness.
- dual perspective – not only is the narrator an actor but she is also a member of the audience
watching as the action unfolds. ‘Observed’ is a key word in the rst line, implying distance and
a sense of perspective, a stance the narrator retains up until the last line.

CONTEXT:
- The poem references the tragedy “Oedipus Rex” written by Sophocles, a playwright from
Ancient Athens.
- The main character Oedipus begs for his death after learning that as a result of him being
separated from his parents at birth, he had unknowingly killed his father and married his
mother.
- While the exact story of the play is not signi cant to the poem, the choice of this play is
interesting because it can be seen as showing that even in the worst situations an individual
should not wish for death or deem it better to die, with the following exclamation of “No it
wouldn’t!” highlighting this opinion.

THEMES:
- Social Pretence - At the core of this moving poem is a concern about how we speak truthfully
in the face of life’s most di cult moments. The metaphor of the stage and the narrator’s minor
role within a play is used to explore ideas of social pretence: in the face of serious illness, the
narrator carries on acting.
- Illness - The speaker helps others in hospitals, but also struggles with depression herself.
Fanthorpe outlines the mundane realities of illness; hospital waiting rooms; listening to
consultants; taking medicine; pretending to others that she is ‘getting on, getting better’. The
poem, through analysing the narrator’s reluctance to acknowledge her illness head on,
suggests a wider refusal in society to look dying and death in the eye. For much of the poem,
the narrator, and the people around her deal in euphemism and false cheerfulness.
- Identity - Allusions to the loss of identity, in particular the way in which the medical semantic
eld consumes the poem. There is also the changing way in which the narrator sees
themselves as they come to terms with illness.
- Ambivalence - There is an ambivalence in the poem which is not entirely dismissive of ‘the
background music of civility’ but, in the end, speaking personally and directly wins out in the
power of that nal line – set on its own to emphasise the importance and urgency of its
message.
- Illusion versus Reality - Fanthorpe suggests that we respond to illness and death by
desperately maintaining an illusion – to ourselves and others – that everything is ne. In e ect,
the speaker feels she is acting, performing the minor role of the title. The poem contains a
tension between the desire to maintain an illusion and the stark reality that the performance is
hiding.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- The title uses a pun which hints at the extended metaphor of acting: the speaker conceals and
ignores her own illness while playing a supporting role to help those with more ‘real’ (physical)
illness.
- ‘A minor role’ is a small part in a play, suggesting that the persona lives on the margins of the
life being lived by the main parts – the men and women who are una ected by her illness and
can live full lives. The title also suggests that she is playing a part in her real life, that she is
hiding the reality of her illness and how it a ects her.

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 KEY QUOTES:
- “I’m best observed on stage” - poetic rst-person voice highlights how often it is easy to be
misled about the emotional experience that su erers of illness. The extended metaphor of
stage and drama may hint at the minor role that the speaker plays in their own life, constantly
listen to others and pleasing others, when in actuality they are always on the verge of breaking.
- “Midget moments wrong, the monstrous fabric” - use of harsh alliteration re ects how the
speaker has become tired of pretence. The speaker may nd the social structure of society
oppressive, as ‘fabric’ has connotations of community and is accompanied here by a negative
adjective.
- “My heart’s in the unobtrusive” – may hint at the link between health and emotion, as the
speaker actively attempts to help others to deter focus from her own mental health.
- “Driving… parking… holding… asking… sustaining the background music of civility” –
asyndetic listing of present participles highlights how the speaker is continuously helping
others, and hints at the monotony of her work. The metaphor placed at the end of this list
communicates how she herself away from attention and focuses on others. Build-up of a
semantic eld of medicine throughout the poem illustrates how illness encompasses her
whole life.
- “A simpler illness, like a broken leg” – explicit comment on the di culty of mental illness.
Physical illness is visible and dramatic, whilst depression is hidden and therefore di cult to
accept.
- “I jettison… the terrible drone of the Chorus: Yet to my thinking this act was ill-advised. It
would have been better to die. * No it wouldn’t! I am here to make you believe in life” –
strong verb highlights the speaker’s opposition to idea of the hopelessness of life. Oedipus
Rex is referenced here, and even in this extreme example of a horri c situation, where Oedipus
gouges his eyes out upon realising his actions, hope in life must never be lost.
- “Midget Moments wrong, the monstrous fabric” – the use of alliteration and plosive
consonants like ‘g’, ‘t’ and ‘d’ create a harsh and abrupt sound and perhaps this re ects how
the speaker has become tired of this pretence.
- “Driving, parking, holding, checking, getting, sustaining, walking, thinking, yearnings,
enduring” – the plethora of present participles highlight how these tasks that the speaker
endures, are continuous and ongoing, which again suggests that the narrator is su ering from a
long-term illness.
- “My formula for well-meant intrusiveness” – reiterative response, as the speaker is
unwilling to discuss her illness with others and puts up an emotional shield.
- “Contrive meals for a hunger-striker” – ambiguity, as this may refer to herself or yet another
person she cares for at home. The use of imperatives highlights the certainty of performing
these repetitive actions amidst her own uncertainty surrounding her illness.
- “Whimsical soft-centred happy-all-the-way-through novels” – use of a tricolon on
compound adjectives allows for the speaker to seek comfort and distract herself from illness
for a short while.
- “Saying thank you for anything and everything” – complete lack of control of the situation as
the speaker becomes more dependent on others. Potential hinting at the end of life
- ‘Misery’, ‘Civility’ and ‘Yearnings’ – the second stanza consists almost entirely of an
asyndetic list, suggesting the dull monotony of hospital visits, reinforced by the repeated ‘-ing’
verbs. The metaphorical conjugation of ‘misery’ also results in an inevitable list. Towards the
end, the items in the list are separated not by a comma or semi-colon but by full stops. The
silences are becoming more nal, more keenly felt. It is as though the speaker is trying to
control or repress her real feelings about illness by resorting to ticking things o and gaining
some consolation from routines.

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 - “Formula”, “Consultant”, “Illness”, “Dosages” – semantic eld of medicine, which
continues the idea that the narrator is su ering from a form of illness. The poet has also used a
semantic eld of the stage and drama, such as “roles” and “stage” which often are directly
associated to the medical descriptions.
- “Yet to my thinking this act was ill-advised/It would have been better to die. No it
wouldn’t,/I am here to make you believe in life” – the end of the poem quotes from the
famous Greek Tragedy, Oedipus Rex. The play ends with the hero, Oedipus, gouging his eyes
out after discovering he was inadvertently slept with his mother and killed his father. The chorus
tell him it would be better for him to die than to endure the su ering he must now face. The
speaker’s emphatic rejection of the chorus’ advice to Oedipus, emphasised through the short
minor sentence and exclamation, asserts the sanctity of life and the stoic belief it is better to
carry on with life, even under great su ering. Moreover, the inclusion of the pronoun ‘you’ in the
nal line could refer to the reader of the poem to suggest how the speaker’s example serves as
a general life lesson to endure and keep going during hardship.

LANGUAGE:
- Caesura – re ects the pauses and interruptions in life, perhaps indicating how people’s actions
and thoughts may not be as ‘free’ as initially anticipated
- Enjambment – highlights how the tasks are mundane and monotonous

STRUCTURE:
- Six Stanzas, each followed by a single line. Each stanza focuses on a speci c theme, whilst
the nal line provides the reader with a resolved ending and a positive one.
- The dramatic monologue explores the issue of polite self-e acement, and how we tend to
avoid confronting the truth, and our embarrassing and uncomfortable feelings, about life, death,
and chronic illness.
- Frame narrative is employed, with a return to the extended metaphor of drama; the speaker
is nally more optimistic about the future, as she rejects her minor role and decides to take on
her illness. Fanthorpe highlights the change in mindset for the narrator – they are less
dismissive, and a sense of optimism is created at the end of the poem.
- Irregular line and stanza length re ect life’s irregularity and ability to throw surprises, aided by
disrupted rhythm.
- Use of caesuras is unnerving, especially in Stanza Five, as it suggests that the concealing of
illness is natural. The caesuras also re ect the pauses and interruptions in life, perhaps
indicating how people’s actions and thoughts may not be as ‘free’ as initially anticipated.
- Use of enjambment highlights how the tasks are mundane and monotonous.
- Separate nal line draws the reader’s attention, presenting a new idea which remains in the
reader’s mind.
- Erratic tone is employed as the speaker does not want to stop and re ect upon their situation.
TONE:
- The speaker is erratic, they are constantly changing from one task to the next, not wanting to
stop, pause and re ect upon their situation
- “midget” – creates a tone of hopelessness

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Carpe diem means ‘seize the day’ in Latin. Carpe diem poetry is a type of poetry which
realises the brevity of life and argues that we should enjoy ourselves while we can. It has been
argued that ‘A Minor Role’ is an example of a Carpe diem poem.
- The stoical and de ant but fatalistic mood here may have a speci cally theatrical context
– not Sophocles, but Shakespeare. Who else, apart from the narrator here, adopts a grim and
resolute cheerfulness in an ultimately hopeless situation (we are aware that it is hopeless,
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 because the cancelling and tidying acknowledge that death is coming). This is a link to
Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In Macbeth’s nal soliloquy, in Act 5 Scene 5, he says that we are all
merely actors on the stage of life, for our brief lifetime, our hour in the spotlight of our own
production. Fanthorpe’s narrator reveals, through her own dramatic monologue, that she is no
Macbeth; but, in a rming life over death, she is, nally, heroic for a while, in her own way.
- Some readers interpret the poem as being written from the perspective of somebody caring for
an ill partner, rather than someone su ering from the illness themselves.

Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass - Simon Armitage

STORY OF POEM:
- Analogy of a violently portrayed chainsaw used to cut down weaker pampas grass is used to
explore wider concerns about gender, warfare or class oppression.
- The poem begins by describing in detail how a chainsaw is prepared – it is taken from its hook,
oiled, and attached to a power chord. The speaker turns on the chainsaw, which comes
powerfully to life. The chainsaw destroys the pampas grass easily. The speaker then sets re to
what is left of the grass. Soon, however, the pampas grass grows back, and the chainsaw
remains on its hook below the stairs.
- The poem ends with the point that the chainsaw’s murderous dreams are “man-made”; they
are fuelled by, and originate in, the narrator, because he is alive, while the chainsaw is merely an
object personi ed. The narrator is desensitised to the environmental impact of his own
addiction to unjusti ed violence, but the natural world is not, and the natural world reasserts the
natural order – a concept which is present in Shakespearean tragedies.

CONTEXT:
- Simon Armitage is a poet whose poetry is often autobiographical and rooted in his personal life
– his boyhood, his family and the North of England where he grew up and still lives. Armitage
does write dramatic monologues, and it is possible that this is one.
- However, it seems more likely, with its domestic setting and its strongly realised detail of the
shed and the garden, that the speaker is the poet. In dramatic monologues, the focus is on the
persona of the speaker. Here, the focus is rmly on the instrument of destruction – the
chainsaw.
- “Corn in Egypt” is a quote from the Old Testament; having corn in Egypt is the key to surviving
hostile times of drought or con ict. It is a saying to suggest there is a lot of something.

THEMES:
- Power - a violent, brutal power is exhibited by the chainsaw throughout the poem. However,
the grass also shows a subtle power in its regrowth. The battle between the two forms of power
the core concern of the poem.
- Con ict: the battle between the chainsaw and the pampas grass may re ect the con ict
between humanity with the natural world; however, the poem may be interpreted as a warning
of the oppressive nature of the upper class and the monarchy – as much as the public attempts
to defeat them, they always return stronger.
- Gender: Masculine power is highlighted through imagery of gender in the poem. Whilst the
physicality of the chainsaw implies strength, the lack of femininity may cause of the chainsaw’s
ultimate powerlessness.
- Power Dynamic: This poem is a real tour de force of physical description, with both the
chainsaw and the pampas grass vividly personi ed. Patterns of imagery suggest a gender
dimension to the confrontation: the adjectives used to describe the chainsaw and the way it
operates are associated with traditional forms of male behaviour. By contrast, initially at least,
the pampas grass is seen as decorative and passive. By the end of the poem, it’s the seemingly
fragile pampas grass that continues to ourish; the chainsaw (and by inference the narrator) is
reduced to impotence. Moreover, the power dynamic between what is a manmade piece of

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 machinery and a natural, albeit cultivated, plant implies a broader struggle that reaches beyond
the borders of a suburban garden. This wider context is hinted at in the shift in language in the
last two stanzas which move beyond the earlier conversational swagger, tipping the balance
towards a more lyrical tone (‘daylight moon’) and wider historical/cultural considerations (‘corn
in Egypt’, ‘count back across time’).

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Inclusion of ‘versus’ foregrounds the theme of power, with the juxtaposition of objects of
completely di erent strength suggesting that the chainsaw will have greater strength. However,
this expectation is subverted as the pampas grass regrows at the end of the poem.

KEY QUOTES:
- “Grinding its teeth… knocked back a quarter-pint of engine oil and juices ran from its
joints and threads” – personi cation of the chainsaw as a formidably violent being, with
its fuelled anger coming to life emphasised in the use of sensory language to evoke ideas of
bloodlust.
- “Instant rage… perfect disregard… bloody desire… sweet tooth for the esh of face” –
the rst noun is an image of power, whilst the second uses oxymoron to emphasise how
overwhelmed the chainsaw is by desire for power. Its greed and addiction for violence is
illustrated in the last two phrases, with a sadistic bloodlust conveyed. The fricative alliteration
here hinds at a hidden, primal fury.
- “Ludicrous feathers… sunning itself, stealing the show… its twelve-foot spears” – the
presentation of the pampas grass could be interpreted as an ironic presentation of women, in
addition to a more critical evaluation of the upper classes. The sibilance in the second phrase
may indicate the potential for power in nature; the grass is able to regrow steadily despite all
the e ort to destroy it, suggesting that it has strength which should not be overlooked – this is
also hinted at in the metaphor or spears.
- “Sledgehammer taken to crack the nut” – metaphor emphasises the great power
di erence.
- “Overkill.” – the fragment, emphasised through use of caesura, illustrates how unfair this
opposition is.
- “Plant-juice spat from the pipes and tubes… ripped into pockets of dark secret warmth” –
verb illustrates disregard for nature, whilst reference to pipes and tubes evokes ideas of blood
and abuse, making this image more disturbing. The second phrase uses another shocking verb
to evoke ideas of sexual assault or rape.
- “Like cutting at water or air with a knife” – ironic simile shows how futile violence stems
from desire for power
- “New shoots like asparagus tips” – simile re ects determined regrowth from a weakened
state.
- “The chainsaw seethed… man-made dreams… the seamless urge to persist was as far
as it got” – the emotive verb highlights a burning passion for violence that the chainsaw has
come to possess. The reference to man-made dreams may hint at man’s destruction of nature.
The nal line makes explicit the futility of the repetitive battle, as the pampas grass always
regrows.
- “And felt..and felt” – anaphora in the third stanza emphasises the fear and awe which the
speaker feels for the chainsaw’s power.
-
- To suggest the speaker’s enthusiasm for the destruction, the clauses often begin with the
subject “I”, followed by an -ed verb, especially in the fth and sixth stanzas: “I touched”, “I
dabbed”, “I lifted”, “I ripped”, “I raked”.

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 - Personi cation of the chainsaw as “grinding its teeth”; it has a “bloody desire” and a
“sweet tooth/for the esh of the face”. A madman or a violent animal. In contrast, the
pampas grass is personi ed as lordly, calm, self-containing: “sunning itself” and “wearing a
new crown”.
- “Midday moon” – the oxymoron suggests that the destruction of the pampas grass, and its
need to be restored, is an aberration from the natural order of things, because the moon is
visible at midnight; or that, as the moon looks weak and pale by daylight, the narrator’s violence
is made impotent by the regrowth of the pampas grass.
- “The chainsaw seethed” - this is one of the most striking examples of personi cation and
comes in the nal stanza of the poem, with sibilance adding to the already emotive “seethed”
to show a burning passion and emotion that the chainsaw has come to possess. Readers may
feel intimidated and apprehensive of what the next year may bring when the chainsaw returns.
- “Plant juice spat from the pipes and tubes” - the use of “spat” demonstrates that the
chainsaw has no regard of nature at all, which although strange, could make a reader feel
sympathetic towards the pampas grass and therefore nature as a whole for it to be destroyed in
this violent way. The imagery of “plant juice” links strongly to blood, with this mental image
verging on being disturbing.
- “Sunning itself, stealing the show with its footstools” - despite the chainsaw being the key
negative image in the poem, there is still sibilance in this line describing the pampas grass,
which could indicate to a reader the power and danger which it also holds in opposition to
human machinery. As shown through the remainder of the poem, the grass is able to survive
despite all the e ort to destroy it, even with relative calm and ease as this line suggests.

LANGUAGE:
- The feminine natural grass, meanwhile, has “feathers/and plumes” (labelled interestingly, as
“ludicrous” by the speaker) and is described dismissively as having ‘footstools, cushions and
tufts’.
- The grass is also described in very feminine terms as having a “dark, secret/warmth” and is
able to resist by closing and mending behind the blade, “like cutting at water or air with a
knife”.
- The pampas grass, of course, ultimately wins the battle and the speaker is described in the
absurd, awkward position of looking on “from the upstairs window like the midday moon” –
suggesting how tentative and out-of-place he has become.
- Extended metaphor in the portrayal of the chainsaw as a male stereotype and the pampas
grass as a female. Much of the strength of the poem lies in this close dovetailing of the literal
and the gurative in the use of language and choice of imagery.
- Sibilance (repetition of ‘s’ sounds) and assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) create an
impression of hissing and seething (e.g. “The seamless urge to persist was as far as it got.”).
- Assonance when describing the pampas grass implies a lack of substance.
- Hard and plosive consonants create a sense of anger and aggression
- Powerful and dominant language is also used consistently, with the plosive sound on
“dismissed” helping to reinforce this idea, and link to masculine strength. This is not just with
the chainsaw description, but also of the pampas grass with lines such as “its twelve-foot
spears” indicating an overlooked ability of the grass, and by extension the natural world, to
defend itself.
- When read aloud, many of these ideas become more apparent, including the use of “felt”
“ esh” and “ are” across multiple lines at the end of the third stanza, which can sound like the
humming of an engine, further evoking ideas of power and human machinery.

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 STRUCTURE:
- As with many Armitage poems, how far the narrator is an invented persona is interesting to
consider. Stylistically, the poem is convincingly conversational with its mixture of short and long
sentences, its relaxed line and stanza lengths, and informal tone (‘knocked back’, ‘gunned
the trigger’, ‘I left it at that’). However, the poem is also a highly patterned and crafted piece
of writing which deploys rich imagery and an extensive use of sound, including rhyme,
alliteration, and assonance, to convey emotional and physical aspects of the narrative.
- The persona adopts the vibrant voice of someone we can consider to be separate from
Armitage himself. The speaker in the poem – drawn towards the power of the vividly described
chainsaw – relishes the destruction of the pampas grass but is made to look rather absurd as
the pampas grass simply grows back. The pride and relish of the speaker is shown to be
widely, and humorously, misplaced.
- The conversational tone can be seen through the frequent examples of colloquial idioms and
expressions, such as “ nish things o ”, “stealing the show” and “I left it a year”, which
often serve to amplify the speaker’s pride.
- Use of free verse to allow the narrative to be relayed e ectively and unrestricted. The poem’s
form con rms the excess and power that the poem describes, and so it matched closely to the
content. Like the chainsaw itself, the stanzas – with their “perfect disregard” for regularity and
frequent enjambment – are straining to break free. The rhythm comes from the choice of where
to break the line and from the use of techniques such as assonance, consonance, and
alliteration.
- The aural e ect of the choice of line breaks is best appreciated if the poem is read out load –
Armitage’s poetry, capturing, as it does, the cadences of speech, can best be appreciated by
recitation. The line breaks also enable Armitage to juxtapose surprising images to bring force
to his narrative. The momentary pause at the end of lines “sets up” the initial word of the next,
with dramatic e ect.
- The eight stanzas show great inconsistency in line and stanza length, which could be seen as
representing the destructive nature of the chainsaw’s unrestricted power, which damages the
structure of the poem, making it appear uneven and fragmented when printed.
- Regular use of dashes further breaks up the structure of the poem.
- There is a lack of enjambment between stanzas, with end-stopping employed by Armitage,
perhaps to illustrate the restrictions of power – despite the chainsaw’s violent rage, the pampas
grass always regrows.
- Conversational tone, with use of ellipsis, dashes and colloquial phrases contributing to this
e ect. This further emphasises the pauses and breaks in the natural rhythm of speech.
- Fricative alliteration creates a feeling of building anger.
- Use of caesura to emphasise the inequality in this battle.
TONE:
- There is an aggressive and violent tone throughout this poem as we are shown the ‘disregard’
men have for both nature and femininity. There is also war like imagery which adds to this tone
of violence as ‘plant juice spat from the pipes and tubes’ giving us the image of spitting blood
from the aggression men have exercised.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- The poem shares many characteristics of mock-heroic poetry, in which deliberately
mundane events are described in the elevated style of classical epic poetry. The e ects
are nearly always humorous and satirical. Perhaps the most famous example is ‘The Rape of
the Lock’ written by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), which concerns the theft of a lock of hair
from a young lady. Pope describes the incident as though it is comparable to an epic war.
-

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- The narrator methodically in stanza six clears the battleground of the garden of
casualties, and the poem uses the military language of gun re and swordplay. Armitage’s
poem shares the concept of the garden as a battle eld with Vernon Scannell’s ‘Nettles’, in
which the narrator, who feels guilty about his son’s nettle stings, scythes and burns the nettles,
only for them to grow back. The pampas grass grows back too, in de ance of the way it has
been felled, while defenceless. The point of Scannell’s poem is that, as parents, we want to
protect our children from harm, but we simply cannot and nor should we try to do so.

Eat Me - Patience Agbabi

STORY OF POEM:
- ‘Eat Me’ is an audacious dramatic monologue which examines an extreme kind of unhealthy
relationship. Agbabi uses the relationship between ‘feeder’ and ‘feedee’ to explore issues of
gender and power. Exploration of power in an unusual couple, where the male plays the part of
a feeder, whilst in reality it is his partner who has control over him.
- The speaker recounts the ways in which a man, presumably her partner, insists she eats a lot of
food because he likes ‘big girls’. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker weighs 30 stone.
She is so large that she cannot leave the house. The day she becomes 39 stone, after having
olive oil poured down her throat, the speaker rolls over on top of her partner – presumably
during sex. Her weight su ocates him, and he dies. Six hours later, the speaker is left
contemplating eating his body.
- The poem manages to be darkly comic and disturbing at the same time. It appears, on rst
reading, to be about the narrator’s birthdays, but a more accurate reading derives from the
repetition of the word “fat” six times in the seventh stanza.

CONTEXT:
- In some cultures, the idea of female beauty has been fat, because fatness can be associated in
some ways with fertility.
- However, currently there is a lot of pressure put on women in the media, particularly
surrounding their bodies and their weight and pressure to be the so-called size 0. Feminists
have long been concerned with the idea that women go to great lengths, and too far, to please
men.
- There is a recognised condition, sometimes referred to as ‘Feederism’ in which a person is
sexually aroused by their partner gaining excessive body fat. The title “Eat Me” alludes to Alice
in Wonderland, where Alice nds a cake with the words “eat me” inscribed on it. When she eats
the cake, she grows.

THEMES:
- Power - the real person in power is ambiguous in this poem – whilst the feeder fuels his
partner’s appetite to ful l his own fetishes, it is clear at the end of the poem that it is his partner
who has true control. With its echoes of a grisly fairy tale, this gleeful macabre poem is an
exploration of power – speci cally sexual power dynamics between men and women.
- Transgression - the feeder relationship is intertwined with sexual ideas. This grotesque
example explores ideas which are taboo in society.
- Gender - the initial focus is on the male’s power over his partner; however this is reversed by
the end of the poem. The imagery in the poem focuses solely on the female’s body.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Allusion to Lewis Carroll’s novel ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,’ establishes the speaker’s
weakness to temptation, whilst the imperative suggests ideas of control which are later
explored more fully. The inclusion of the rst-person pronoun hints that the speaker plays a role
in causing this relationship.

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 KEY QUOTES:
- “Watch my broad belly wobble, hips judder like a juggernaut” – the plosive alliteration and
onomatopoeia in the rst phrase is balanced with a simile in the second which implies that the
female is inhuman in appearance – the objecti cation of the woman and the implication of a
feedee vs encourager relationship hints that the male has power in this relationship.
- “The bigger the better… I like big girls, soft girls, girls I can burrow inside with multiple
chins, masses of cellulite” – use of listing and internal rhyme re ects the overwhelming
desire of the male to control his partner’s weight. This is an example of heteroglossia – speech
in the poem. Repetition of ‘girls’ implies childlike vulnerability.
- “I was his Jacuzzi… watch me swell like forbidden fruit” – metaphor of relaxation in this
power suggests mistreatment. The sinfulness of this relationship and its terrible desire is hinted
at in the reference to the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden.
- “His breadfruit. His desert island after shipwreck. Or a beached whale on a king-size bed
craving a wave. I was a tidal wave of esh… I drowned his dying sentence out” – the
tricolon of metaphors suggests a source of exotic pleasure and explores the vitality of the sin
of this relationship. The immense size of the woman is conveyed through the second metaphor,
whilst the nal one extends the semantic eld of water to hint at hidden power.
- swelling ‘like forbidden fruit’: the allusion to the Garden of Eden in this simile links their
relationship to a particularly illicit desire, and perhaps foreshadows the disastrous
consequences. Perhaps surprisingly, there is also a recurring pattern of gurative images
associated with the sea and the exotic. Note the remarkable sequence of metaphors in the
sixth stanza: ‘His breadfruit’, ‘His desert island’, ‘a beached whale’, ‘a tidal wave’. Her
body is her partner’s possession, and the traditional natural poetic images of female
objecti cation are – like much else in the poem – taken to extremes.
- The images also suggest both incapacity (‘beached whale’) and power (‘tidal wave’). The
partner’s fattening up of the woman ultimately destroys him. The nautical conceit is extended in
the metaphorical reference to ‘my globe of a cheek’ and in the image of drowning. Her
su ocation of him is described as a silencing of his language, his authority and, therefore, his
claim on her: ‘she drowned his dying sentence out’.
- “The icing was white but the letters were pink” – white has connotations of purity and
innocence, whilst pink alludes to stereotypical feminine innocence and dependence. The
speaker’s portrayal of herself as a victim is continued as she “did what she was told.”
- “Too fat to leave…” anaphora is used here, with the overwhelming repetition conveying her
sheer size.
- “My only pleasure the rush of fast food”- by emphasising the “rush”, it is clear that any
pleasure the woman receives is short lived, with all the focus being on the man and with her
needs not fully catered for. The alliteration of “fast food” helps to show the importance of this
line to the poem, and also shows how unhealthy this relationship is, both in terms of the
physical food being eaten and the mental appreciation between the two. Some may also
interpret the line as representing an unhealthy addiction, both to the food and to the
relationship.
- “The day I hit thirty-nine, I allowed him to stroke my globe of a cheek” – the volta uses a
verb to make explicit that the woman is in control in this relationship. The hyperbole of ‘globe’
alludes to how the woman is the pinnacle of her partner’s existence.
- “There was nothing else left in the house to eat” – ambiguity, with a horrifyingly sinister hint
of cannibalism. There is a strong sense of uncertainty, as the feeder has now made the ultimate
sacri ce of himself in order to feed the woman, most likely through the idea of consumption
rather than actual cannibalism. It also marks the point at which the woman now has to provide
for herself and raises questions for the reader such as whether she will now be able to have a
healthy relationship or lifestyle without being overfed.

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 LANGUAGE:
- Agbabi also deploys a remarkable array of sound e ects.
- For example, the alliteration in ‘judder like a juggernaut’ seems to make the line itself
wobble. Also note the sensuous fricatives and repetition in ‘His esh, my esh owed’ to
describe their sex together. Agbabi also uses simple repetition to chilling e ect as the male
partner says: ‘I like/ big girls, soft girls I can burrow inside’.
- There is also anaphora in the seventh stanza: ‘too fat to leave… too fat to use fat… too fat
to be called chubby’, which reinforces the excesses of her consumption as well as her
powerlessness.
- The nal stanza consists of three consecutive end-stopped lines. The pace therefore slows
as the poem leads towards its nal, shocking line, which acts almost as a gruesome punch-line
to the absurd situation described: ‘There was nothing else left in the house to eat.’ The end-
stopped lines might also indicate the speaker’s growing con dence and power.

STRUCTURE:
- In spite of the modernity of the subject matter, the poem is written in traditional form using
both rhythm and rhyme. Each stanza is a tercet and the rhythm is predominantly iambic
tetrameter, with four stressed beats to a line, which gives it a forward impetus.
- The regular rhythm is varied by extensive use of enjambment, which helps to create the ‘voice’
of the persona as she relates her story. Agbabi also makes subtle use of rhyme and half-rhyme
in her rst and third lines of each stanza, which give the poem a purposeful tone – this is not an
idle reminiscence, but a story which has a beginning, middle and end, being told by a victim
who gets her revenge.
- Form of a dramatic monologue, with an ironic gap between what she says and does. Due to
the poem being a dramatic monologue, we can expect it to reveal aspects of the narrator’s
psyche which she does not intend to divulge. We nd here a complex and dysfunctional
relationship in which her male partner encourages her to eat more and more, until she rolls on
top of him and he su ocates. This sudden end to their relationship appears not to be a source
of great sorrow to the narrator, but she does not seem to feel liberated either.
- Tercet stanzas re ect the relationship of him, her and the food.
- Internal half-rhyme in stanza four re ects the man’s overwhelming desire to explore his
fetishes.
- The breakdown of the rhyme structure in the penultimate stanza re ects the breakdown of their
relationship.
- End stopping in the nal stanza after the man’s murder re ects the woman taking control.
- Assonance and consonant patterns of c, d, t forms a rigid rhyme structure, like this strict
feeding regime.
- Perversion of a love poem to a grotesque relationship. with similarities to a modern myth.
- The tone shifts from a negative, melancholic/mournful tone in the rst few stanzas to a stronger,
more empowered tone as the narrator breaks free from her manipulative husband. The poem
ends on the moral that many dysfunctional relationships need to be brought to an end.

TONE:
- The tone throughout the poem seems quite melancholy and submissive. As if she could never
tell anyone how she truly felt bout her situation – this provoke great sympathy from the reader
as we see that she has been a ected not only physically but mentally.
- The personal pronouns in the nal few tercets highlight the change in tone as the woman gains
more control over the situation and gets her own back on the man who force fed her for his
own enjoyment.

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 CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Feminists have long been concerned with the idea that women go to great lengths to please
men, so that they are disempowered from choosing what to wear, how to look, or behave. Carol
Ann Du y’s poem “Thetis” addresses this issue powerfully and with air (The collection, ‘The
World’s Wife’).
- The phrase in stanza three “get up and walk round the bed” is an allusion to the Biblical
parable in St John’s Gospel, chapter 5, in the New Testament. There, Jesus cures a disabled
man who cannot reach the healing waters; he has been unable to walk for thirty-eight years.
Note that our narrator will “hit thirty-nine” in stanza eight. Jesus tells the man “Rise, take up thy
bed, and walk”, and the man experiences a miraculous cure. In the same way, this poem
presents a miraculous escape from in rmity for the narrator, who, we may suppose, is also
thirty-eight (precisely the same age as the man Jesus rescues and heals).

Effects - Alan Jenkins

STORY OF THE POEM:
- The poem explores the inner monologue that occurs after a loved one has died. The poet
mourns the loss of his mother and experiences overwhelming guilt over his treatment of her,
due to her old-fashioned attitudes which were not acceptable in modern society. It is being told
from the perspective of a son who speaks about his mother and family.
- The poem is carefully crafted to give the impression of immediacy. It describes the
overwhelming ow of memories and associations the speaker experiences as he holds the
hand of his mother who has just passed away.
- The poem can be seen as both an unravelling of the narrator’s thoughts, or as the unravelling of
his mother’s disease.

CONTEXT:
- The treatment of loss is a signi cant theme throughout his work and his later work has include
many elegies for friends and his parents. He is known for his confessional tone and sharp wit
which helps to shape the intense emotions he depicts in his poems.
- It is likely that this is an autobiographical poem, telling the story of Jenkin’s own family.

THEMES:
- Family - mother-and-son relationship is seen to deteriorate despite a ection remaining, deep-
rooted.
- Society - the poem is pessimistic about the possibility of dissolving class barriers.
- Past and Present - times have changed rapidly, and his mother’s attitudes are no longer
acceptable.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- “E ects” means ‘personal e ects’, the things the mother leaves behind when she dies; the
impact of the death on the son; the impact of the death of the husband and father on the
mother.
- Connections to a lost loved one – lasting emotions of regret, loss and grief hinted at. The poem
deals with the personal e ects of maternal relationships and his mother’s impact on Jenkins.

KEY QUOTES:
- “I held her hand, that was always scarred” – rst line uses imagery of scarred hands to
illustrate the sacri ces a mother makes for her family. The placement of this line at the start of
the poem is signi cant as it implies that Jenkins truly does love his mother despite their
di erences. The poem overall delicately reveals the di culty in maintaining relationships to
those who may be di erent to us, and so the establishment of this unconditional love leaves the
reader in no doubt of the speaker’s regret.

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 - “But lately had never been without [her rings], as if she wanted everyone to know she
was his wife only now that he was dead. And here watch?” – internal, spaced-out rhymes
highlight sparse connection. These two symbols represent stages of her life where she was
truly in here element – now, she is permanently grieving.
- “Funny foreign stu ” – trivialises the multiculturalism of modern-day Britain, with fricatives
hinting at con ict
- “On the hand I held, a blotched and crinkled hand whose ngers couldn’t clasp mine
anymore” – echoing of the opening phrase. His mother’s state of fragility emphasises how she
is unable to show physical a ection. The futile gesture of holding her hand represents the
unhealed rift between them, a rift he himself imposed.
- “Please don’t leave. But of course I left” – molossus (three stressed syllables) used to
strongly emphasise her devastating distress at his absence. Upon re ection, he feels absolute
shame at his abandonment of her, and he regrets this as there is no way to regain that
connection.
- “A nurse bring the little bag of her e ects to me” – metaphor re ects how only small
physical reminders remain as a legacy of his mother. This nal line reminds the reader of their
lack of reconciliation.
- The poem begins with the declarative sentence “I held her hand” – the alliteration of the
letter “h” represents the connection that the narrator has with “her”, and we will nd that this is
anaphorically referenced later in the poem. The narrator continues to speak of “her” and all of
“her” qualities.
- The hand-holding in line 1 acquires new resonance and meaning when we reach line 44, and
then again at the close of the poem, which ends at the same time as her life has ended. The
subtle shift in the phrasing – “I held her hand” to “the hand I held” – mirrors the narrator’s
feelings of guilt, and his sense, now, that he has been too self-centred and has neglected her.
He has, belatedly, developed a new perspective, which is more understanding of her needs, but
it is took late now. It is only by her dying that he has addressed his inadequacies as a son.
- “Giving love the only way she knew” – implication of a lack of emotional connection.
- “I’d disdain and not when my turn came to cook for her” – slight embarrassment at her old-
fashioned attitudes, with an implied sense of indi erence.
- “Familiar avours” and “funny foreign” – alliteration highlights the tastes of a particular
generation, probably born in the 1920s.
- “Blinked and poured drink after drink, and gulped and stared” – verbs and repetition suggest
detachment.
- “The scotch that, when he was alive, she wouldn’t touch” – the fact that alcohol was o -
limits emphasises the impacts of grief on an individual, perhaps indicating a similar reaction for
the speaker by the end of the poem. The sensory verb shows a very personal connection, and
links back to the imagery of hands.
- “Learnt contempt” – Snobbish of his mother’s attitudes, suggesting pessimism about
dissolving class barriers.

LANGUAGE:
- The narrator’s mother is again sitting in front of the television now, in the poem, but she is
alone, implying that the grieving stages of her husband’s death are being described. In the
following lines, Jenkins has used diacopes to represent the tiresome and dreary atmosphere
that now swamps the television room. For instance, ‘Night after night’ and ‘Drink after drink’.
The abstract noun ‘night’ has negative connotations, and represents darkness, so the
darkness that she must be feeling because her husband died is multiplied with the use of the
diacope. The subsequent use of ‘drink’ could be seen as both a verb and a noun. If it were a

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 verb, she would be ‘drinking and drinking’, but if it were a noun, there is no implication that
she was ‘drinking’ at all, but there are just ‘drinks’.
- Despite the minimal hope that the ‘drink’ was not for the narrator’s mother, Jenkins uses
dynamic verbs to represent that they were for her. For example, ‘heaved’; ‘blinked’; ‘poured’;
‘gulped’; and ‘stared’. The use of dynamic verbs implies that she is becoming unmotivated to
do anything but drink, as all of these verbs have a connection to alcohol.
- The semantic eld of memories and the past creates one of the ‘e ects’ that the poem is
about. To the narrator, it is di cult to deduce whether he is feeling upset or cynical about his
past, with the verbs ‘faded’ and ‘long-forgotten’ having an ambiguous tone. Jenkins may
have been suggesting that the relationship between the narrator and ‘she’ has ‘faded’ since
their ‘holiday’, and is also ‘long-forgotten’. However, this contradicts all of the preceding
description as the narrator was clearly thinking about her, therefore it is not ‘long-forgotten’.

TONE:
- There is a sad and accepting tone throughout the poem, as the speaker owns up to the fact
that he was not there for his parents when they needed him. Even though his mother pleaded
him not to leave, ‘of course […he…] left’.

STRUCTURE:
- The poem is continuous, and it consists of just two sentences, the rst of which ends in line 15,
while the second runs to the end of the poem.
- The poem is a dramatic monologue, a stream of consciousness, voiced at the key moment
where the narrator comes back to see his mother, only to nd that she has died. It also serves
as a memorial or biography of her, especially her more recent times, in which she had become
increasingly vulnerable, dependent and sad.
- Listing – of words as well as clauses – is also a distinctive feature of the poem’s syntax. The
listing in the rst eight lines reinforces his mother’s resilience and the ongoing physical
di culties of her domestic chores. However, towards the end of the poem, the syndetic listing
of verbs suggests the poignant emptiness of his mother’s existence in old age: “blinked and
poured Drink after drink, and gulped and stared”.
- The poem’s form works to reinforce the sense of the unstoppable ow of emotions and
memories that the speaker is experiencing. With its single long stanza, it looks like a poem in
which a dam has burst – it is incessantly refusing to pause, to accept silence. Alongside this,
the poem has a regular form – many lines are in iambic pentameter (or close variations),
such as ‘The knuckles reddened, rough from scrubbing hard.’. ‘E ects’ is a clear example of
form (order and control) being in dynamic contrast with the content (freewheeling thought-
associations and memories). The speaker is trying to make sense of – and impose a structure
on – this powerfully overwhelming experience and its attendant guilt. Jenkins also crafts his
rhyme interestingly; some rhymes are distant (‘raw’ and ‘drawer’, for example, are seven
lines apart); some rhymes are couplets (‘knew’ and ‘stew’). The speaker admits to an
ambivalence regarding how close he was to his mother – this ebb and ow of rhyme seems to
say something about the nature of their relationship. The rhymes come closer together as the
poem ends.
- Free verse suggests memory, with enjambment highlighting the overwhelming sense of
regret.
- Three sentences re ect the stages of lift.
- Stream of consciousness reveals the impact of emotion.
- The nal section is desperate and has a sense of inevitability of death. The rhyming couplet
and triplet at the end highlight the speaker’s guilt for not supporting his mother as remorse
overwhelms him.
- After the rhyming couplet at lines 26-27, the rhyme scheme collapses, as she loses all
direction and sense of purpose in her life. Interestingly, regularity, in the form of rhyme, returns
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 as soon as she goes into the rigid, regimented hospital in line 33. The rhymes from there to the
end of the poem are tight and biting, the pattern being ABCDCEBED, and the rhymes are
dreamt/contempt; before/swore; blared/stared and nurses/curses.
- Use of repetition and diacope is e ective in communicating the mother’s weakened state and
conveys the speaker’s guilt at ignoring her
- First person narration creates an emotive poem.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- The progressive episodes of decline in his mother’s life are also part of the entity of a
single, continuous lifetime, in which structure and purpose existed when she was
imposed when she became a psychiatric patient. Her growing incomprehension is realised
through the action of her eyes – stared unseeing/blinked/stared/blinked unseeing. From line 26
onwards – for exactly half of the poem – she is unable to process visual clues, and a rapid
physical and mental decline follows her isolation. Her hand can grip at the start of the poem,
but not from line 42 onwards.
- It is authentic to say that at some point quite late in our lives we start to relate our
experience to our past rather than to our future. Memories of the past occupy the space we
used to reserve for our hopes and plans for the future. This poem is a remarkably crafted and
poignant illustration of that truth.

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 Giuseppe - Roderick Ford
STORY OF THE POEM:
- ‘Giuseppe’ explores how di erence is both marginalised and exploited, and how its intrinsic
‘value’ is made subservient to the needs of the mass, who are seen as the ‘norm’. There are
many examples from history of how this mind-set leads to the sacri ce of individuals and to
genocide, and it is di cult to conceive of this poem not being a reference to the attempted
extermination of the Jews, and other minorities, during the Second World War. There is criticism
of the Catholic Church’s response to this genocide, which could be described as “equivocal”, in
the priest’s arguments for killing the mermaid. There is also a strong suggestion that it refers to
Christ’s sacri ce for Man, perhaps in contrast.
- The speaker’s Uncle Giuseppe tells of a time during war where a mermaid, describes as a
humane character, is horri cally slaughtered and used to feed troops, who feign ignorance as to
the reality of murder in war.
- The poem presents us with a view that it is easy for women to be treated as inferior human
beings, when men are starved. The mermaid’s killers are all men. The mermaid has been kept in
captivity, and it is only the starvation which motivates the murder itself and the excuses for it. In
a culture of violence, women will be particular victims of domestic violence, and they are
powerless to avoid it.
- The poem puts a personal conscience under the poetic microscope.

CONTEXT:
- There were many reports that emerged after the second world war of cannibalism as a result of
extreme starvation. People resorted to eating the dead out of pure desperation.
- The poem recalls the arguments that have been set forth throughout history such as by the
Nazi regime to deny certain groups or types of people any humanity, bent on establishing racial
superiority. Just as the Nazi’s dehumanised the Jews, the villagers dehumanise the mermaid.
- Sicily is an island o the coast of Italy much associated with mermaid legends. In particular,
Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ recounts the tale of Acis and Galatea. Galatea was a sea-nymph – one
of the 50 Nereids of Roman mythology – who fell in love with the mortal Acis. The cyclops
Polyphemus kills Acis with a boulder in a jealous rage. Galatea turns Acis into the Sicilian river
Acis so that she and he can join together eternally as he enters the sea. The Allied forces
(Britain, America) invaded Sicily in ‘Operation Husky’ in 1943 as part of the campaign to take
Italy, at the time a fascist regime allied to Germany, out of the war. In occupied territories
elsewhere in Europe, civilians su ering food shortages took to eating zoo animals, a practice to
which the poem refers.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Use of a name creates a personal link to a member of the group who did nothing to prevent the
atrocity creates a strong sense of guilt. The name also makes the poem seem like a
confessional, enabling the reader to fully appreciate the horror of his actions.

THEMES:
- Guilt - Ford is interested primarily in the way that communities and individuals lie to themselves
and others in an attempt to justify actions and assuage guilt. The villagers try (and fail) to justify
the slaughter of the mermaid by dehumanising her. The tension between their self-justifying lies
and their tacit acknowledgement of her humanity is perhaps one of the most interesting
aspects of this poem
- Christianity - The act of apparent priestly kindness and compassion is made hypocritical by
the juxtaposed violence. The priest’s hypocrisy is con rmed as he subsequently justi es the
slaughter.
- Society - So, it is not that the community is presented as intrinsically evil. Indeed, in many
ways their instinct is a compassionate one. But collectively (note the range of people involved
from di erent self-interested levels of society: the aquarium keeper, doctor, shmonger, priest)
they are shown to be able to (just about) convince themselves that their actions are justi able.

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 The poem is trying to understand the ways in which ordinary communities can carry out
horrible crimes.
- Power - slaughter of vulnerable female character by male assailants may be symbolic of
traditional patriarchal power, imparting guilt and disgrace onto them.
- Transgression - horri c nature of the murder of the mermaid transgresses normal human
boundaries of morality, which is weakly justi ed by war and starvation.
- Con ict - criticism of the brutality of warfare, which enables utterly inhumane acts of violence
and terror.

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘The only captive mermaid in the world was butchered on the dry and dusty ground’ –
extended metaphor of the mermaid re ects the persecution of vulnerable groups during
con ict. The harsh plosive sound of the shockingly violent verb ‘butchered’ horri es the
reader and establishes the dark tone.
- “The priest held one of her hands while her throat was cut” – shocking image conveys the
total lack of remorse, irony of a spiritual gure involved in brutality of war.
- ‘She screamed like a woman in terrible fear’ – horrifying simile vividly conveys the human
su ering experienced, and contradicts any idea that her murder was justi ed.
- “Ripe golden roe… this was just proof she was just a sh… but refused when some was
o ered to him” – symbol of the egg emphasises fertility of the creature. The hypocrisy of the
dehumanising statement that the mermaid was not human is emphasises through the use of
the personal pronoun ‘she.’ Furthermore, this hypocrisy is evident in the doctor’s inability to eat
the egg.
- “Put her head and her hands in a box for burial” – plosive alliteration re ects the outward
disconnect from this murder while hinting at repressed guilt. The removal of human parts
recognises the mermaid’s human identity.
- “Someone tried to take her wedding ring, but others stopped him” – understanding of
human emotions and customs but unwilling to accept the reality of the mermaid’s ability to feel
pain.
- “Sicily in World War Two” – established context evokes ideas of the Holocaust and the
horri c, unjusti ed persecution and murder of millions of Jews and other ‘undesirable,’
vulnerable groups. This re ects the apathy and mob mentality of Nazi Germany.
- “She, it, had never learnt to speak” – sudden, unmaintained switch in pronoun illustrates
futility of convincing themselves of the mermaid’s inhumanity. Ideas about sexism suggested –
the mermaid is murdered by assailant males. A feminist reader may argue that the mermaid
therefore symbolises women, persecuted by men.
- “They said a large sh had been found on the beach” – equivocation illustrates propaganda
hiding terrible truth.
- “Starvation forgives men many things… but couldn’t look me in the eye, for which I thank
God” – people are ashamed of inaction as the guilt which had been hinted at is made explicit.
This euphemism highlights the lasting e ect of atrocity on a community; since no-one
intervened, they are all implicated. The mention of God implies a criticism of religious war.
- “Was butchered on the dry and dusty ground” - the idea of the mermaid woman being
“butchered” dehumanises the character even further, but also relegates her from being human-
like to something consumable and less signi cant; not be tting of “the only captive mermaid
in the world”. In addition, the death on “dry” ground could be likened to how aquatic animals
may die if washed up, in much more su ering than if they had been caught at sea, which helps
create more sympathy.
- “She screamed like a woman in terrible fear” - Being the only simile in the entire poem
helps to place lots of emphasis on this one line, which is made more noticeable by the fact that
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 if references the mermaid with “she” with direct comparison to a human, rather than as a sh
or mermaid. “Fear” without any further description would already be highly emotive, but with
the addition of “terrible” it makes it the most extreme fear possible, encouraging a reader to
subconsciously try to relate to this level of fear. The line also highlights the inconsistency of the
story, helping a reader understand the darker truth of the killing and indicates an atrocity.
- “For which I thank God” - The reintroduction of religion emphasises the inhuman acts that
have been described by the narrator but could also be a criticism of religious wars and violence
inspired by religious interpretation and how this has claimed so many lives, often in brutal ways,
over the centuries. By ending on this idea, Ford could be seen as suggesting that wars, con ict,
and human atrocity are likely to continue into the future.
- The poem ends with a noteworthy word, as the nephew thanks God for his uncle’s apparent
remorse (he refuses to look at his nephew in the eye). This reference to God serves as a
reminder of how far-removed Giuseppe and the villagers are from God’s ideal. But the nephew
is thanking God – perhaps for his forgiveness. The nephew, who we can assume never had to
experience the horrors of the Second World War, is also judging his uncle’s actions. But the
poem itself is more sophisticated than a simple condemnation; it strives to understand human
responses to extreme experiences. And it is easy to judge if you have never been starving.

LANGUAGE:
- The language is deliberately at and factual, concentrating on actions without comment.
Even a word like ‘butchered’, which we might expect to carry a moral judgement, is revealed
as being an accurate description of the mermaid’s dismemberment. Figurative language is
almost entirely absent: there are only two adjectives (‘golden’ and ‘large’) and one simile
(‘But she screamed like a woman in terrible fear’).
- The poem’s diction certainly adds to its powerful and shocking e ects. It is stripped down,
unembellished, almost anti-lyrical. For an illustrative example, look at the stark phrasing here:
‘Then they put her head and her hands/In a box”.
- There are no adjectives, there is no gurative language: just a plain, monosyllabic frankness
reinforced by the alliteration, especially of the solemn ‘b’ sound in the second line. The brutality
of the villagers’ actions is allowed to speak for itself. The simple diction also lends the poem the
qualities of a fable or fairy tale. Equally, the verb ‘butchered’ in the rst stanza is not gurative
hyperbole – it is literally signifying what the villagers are doing. But there is one interesting use
of gurative language in this powerful end-stopped line: ‘But she screamed like a woman in
terrible fear.’ The simile is enormously shocking. It cleverly and compassionately embodies
the issues about humanity that lie at the centre of the poem. It removes her humanity (she
screams like a woman - she is not a woman screaming) but her pitiful fear is a human one. And,
of course, it tells us that the mermaid is still conscious as they continue to butcher her.

STRUCTURE:
- Free verse creates a confessional tone, sometimes following iambic pentameter.
Conversational tone trivialises the brutal murder of the mermaid.
- Circular frame narrative structure hints at the perpetuality of con ict, but also how guilt is
permanent. Ford uses a framing narrative – the speaker is recounting a story told to him by his
uncle. This opens up a dual perspective on the events. Giuseppe’s rst-hand account is
wrapped in his nephew’s judgemental point of view. It also allows Ford to reveal dramatically at
the very end of the poem that Giuseppe was the aquarium keeper, and therefore was probably
responsible for her capture and captivity, and so he must have been acquiescent in her
slaughter. This might explain how Giuseppe’s biased account is coloured by his self-justi cation
– especially when privileging the arguments of the so-called experts (the priest and the doctor)
to con rm that the mermaid is ‘just a sh’.

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 - The irregular lengths of the stanzas are designed to re ect the uncertainty of things in
wartime, and to point up each part of the action, so that we have to face it squarely and not
evade it.
- Caesura used to illustrate the speaker’s reluctance to reveal details of the murder.
- Enjambment builds suspense to emphasise horri c nature of murder.
- Fifth stanza is only two lines long, each with end stops. The contained half-truth hides the
reality of the murder from the population, while the monosyllabic words illustrate the
oversimpli cation of the event, and how its description entirely dehumanises the mermaid.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Giuseppe’ has much in common with magical realism – a literary genre in which magical and
fantastical elements of fairy tales are mingled with the determinedly realistic (sometimes
political). Often, these magical elements are simply accepted as part of the realistic world.
- Ford has said that his original inspiration came from a joke he had read in the introduction to a
book of fantasy stories – the people of Sicily were so hungry during the Second World War that
they ate all of the sh in the aquarium, including a mermaid.
- Sicily is also the home of the Ma a, a culture of gang violence. The poem presents starvation
and casual savagery which is extended to the mermaid as it would be to anyone else in armed
combat. Sicily has been a battleground with its exploitation and “protection” of people, and its
overt reverence for women. The Church is a respected and prominent – even authoritative –
institution in the life of its people and is an accessory to murder.

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Genetics - Sinéad Morrissey
STORY OF THE POEM:
- The speaker looks at her hand and re ects that she is a combination of the DNA of her mother
and her father. Her parents have separated but they are still ‘together’ in her. The end of the
poem is addressed to a lover as the poet thinks about the future, and the possibility of starting
a family of her own.
- Morrissey’s poem dwells on the nature of our genetic inheritance, the ties that bind us to our
parents even if they are physically absent. It has a tone of wistful regret, as she dwells on the
absent father and her feelings of abandonment, her genetic inheritance bringing some kind of
solace.
- The premise behind this poem is a relatively straightforward one; we are each a living
embodiment of our parents’ union, and we inherit a unique combination of our parents in our
own body. The achievement of the poem lies in its skilful use of form

CONTEXT:
- Morrisey’s own parents were divorced so it is possible that this is an autobiographical poem.
- Central to this poem is the childhood nger rhyme, of which a number of versions exist.

THEMES:
- Family - relationships within the family are clearly an important consideration in ‘Genetics’ as
this is what the majority of the poem is based around. It is interesting though to see Morrissey
looking at aspects of family life that are typically avoided or glossed over, perhaps recognising
that such important events should be acknowledged.
- Identity - child gets her physical and cultural identity from her parents. The narrator uses the
experience of family and their parents as a basis to consider their own identity, and how it
relates to their parents. This is most notable in lines such as “My body is their marriage
register.”
- Society and Culture - as mentioned for the family theme, the poem could be seen as
considering the way in which society and culture as a whole has been changing over time and
how separation of parents is more common today than before, but presented with more
positive tones than may be expected.
- Childhood - comments on the impact of separation, which is more common in modern day
society.
- Past and Present - strong appreciation of the past as her parents’ marriage has deteriorated,
with a description of the signi cance of family to identity.
- Christianity - The fact that the parents are no longer together makes their presence in the
narrator’s body all the more, literally, touching. The Christian marriage ceremony speaks of the
couple becoming ‘one esh’: now the narrator’s hands are all that’s left of that commitment to
each other.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Double meaning may refer both to the combination of her parents’ genes in her DNA, but also
metaphorically the eternal legacy they leave behind – despite the breakdown of relationships,
children are a permanent reminder of what used to be.

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘My father’s in my ngers, but my mother’s in my palms’ – complex intertwinement of her
parents in her hands is an eternal union of their marriage, despite their separation.
- ‘I know my parents made me by their hands’ – repetition emphasises that her parents are
her creators, both biologically and socially. They will leave a permanent impact on her. This
unique identity gives her a sense of pride in her background.
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 - “In me they touch where ngers link to palms” – she provides an eternal link even though
her parents are separated. She does not want to lose their love.
- “I shape a chapel where a steeple stands… I reenact their wedding with my hands” –
imagery of marriage created through a description of a childhood game This childlike
behaviour evokes sympathy, as it hints at the loss she experiences and the deep impacts it has
on her.
- “Take up the skin’s demands for mirroring in bodies of the future” – genes, and identity,
must be passed on.
- “We know our parents make us by our hands” – repeated imagery of hands creates a
circular form, as the imagery of image is echoed.
- “Repelled to separate lands” – ambiguity about how far their resentment has spread, hinted
at due to the negative connotations of the verb repelled. The idea of being “repelled” can be
seen as having negative connotations, both through the idea of backing away and retreating,
and the actual actions which would encourage an individual to do so. Interestingly, the word is
often used for di erent circumstances, such as war, or something physically rather than
emotionally based. Also referring to locations as “lands” indicates extreme distance,
demonstrating the extent to the breakdown of the relationship. These multiple layers of this line
make it one of the more interesting examples of language in the poem, and overall, very notable
for the reader.
- “Who quarry for their image” - using “quarry” may initially seem a strange description but
can be interpreted as sounding similar to ‘quarrel’ which can in turn be understood as
referencing the impact of the relationship breakdown on other people, such as their friends. The
idea of arguing over, or even searching and trying to discover “their image” shows how these
people are perhaps searching for something that was once present, as in the relationship,
which can no longer be found or agreed upon.
- “I’ll bequeath my ngers, if you bequeath your palms” – verb has strong connotations of
legacy and inheritance, as creating children has eternal consequences. The shift back to the
present tense looks to the future and the speaker’s own children, as she yearns for a physical
legacy for her own marriage.
- “I shape a chapel where a steeple stands” - an important part of ‘Genetics’ is the relation to
ideas of the church and marriage, including this description of the narrator making a shape of a
steeple using their hands, which originates from the ‘Here is the church’ nursery rhyme and
actions. This childlike behaviour would perhaps create more sympathy for the narrator from a
reader, as it shows that separation can impact on an individual no matter their age and can
have a lasting impact.

LANGUAGE:
- The speaker is all that is left of her parents’ commitment to one another; they have been
‘repelled’ from one another and may ‘sleep with other lovers’. The metaphor of her body
being their religiously sancti ed ‘marriage register’ is therefore an appropriate one. Alongside
other religious vocabulary, the metaphor is extended as the speaker imitates the child-like
game of making a chapel with her hands (‘here’s a church, here’s a steeple’ and so on).
Although their marriage is ended, it also continues in her, where her parents are forever uni ed
‘Where ngers link to palms’.
- The pronoun ‘my’ features fourteen times; ‘me’ three times; ‘they/them’ ve times. Suddenly,
the pronoun ‘you’ appears in the penultimate line, and ‘our’ and ‘us’ both come into the nal
line of the poem. Until now, the poem has seemed to be a soliloquy but now we nd it is
addressed to someone to whom the narrator wants to “bequeath”, or leave to the next
generation, the same kind of genetic handprint, or ngerprint. In this way, the poem becomes
about three generations: the narrator’s parents, herself, and her future children.
- The e ect of language, with its emphasis on our identity being linked so closely to the biology
of our family, and the role of the church in recognising marriage down the generations, is to
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 convey the idea that our identity remains intact even when our family does not; relationships are
temporary but genetic identity is permanent and cannot be severed. The maternal instinct is
stronger than the sense of disappointment when the family you grew up in disintegrates.
- Verbs are used regularly in the poem, with examples such as “lift” “made” and “take”. These
are e ective in their simplicity because they add a feeling of continuation and movement to the
subject matter of the poem, which could be quite e ective for a reader at showing the
continuation of this connection and relationship. This technique also demonstrates how this
connection can be seen as ‘everlasting’.
- The inference of the last stanza, taken with the use of the words “wedding” and “marriage” is
that the poem is really a marriage proposal from the narrator to her partner. In this way, the
genetics, the DNA, will be replicated for the next generation.

STRUCTURE:
- The poem is structured in villanelles form, meaning it is made up of nineteen lines, with only
two rhymes throughout, and some lines repeated. Villanelles are poems, which usually highlight
themes of love, loss and challenge as seen through this poem.
- The poem consists of tercets and at the end a quatrain. The tercet is a symbol of the three
beings which make up the speakers family (herself, her mother and father), the poem ends with
4 lines to maybe symbolise the addition of her own child to the family.
- There is a half rhyme scheme running throughout the poem, which could be a representation
of the fact that the speaker is half her father, and half her mother.
- There is also enjambment used which could represent the physical separation of her parents,
but the fact that they are still connected through their child, like the split up sentence is still one
thing.
- Half-rhyme patterns and repeated refrains are altered slightly – this may re ect how no
children are exact carbon copies of their parents, rather they are a unique combination. The
half-rhyme creates a tightly woven poem, just as the strands of our DNA are structured around
the double-helix.
- Use of end-stopping may be re ective of the division in families caused by divorce.
- Frequent repetition of possessive pronouns re ects how her identity, inherited from her
parents, is her own to control, shape and make last forever.

TONE:
- Con dent tone masks an underlying sense of vulnerability.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- A very famous example of a villanelle is Dylan Thomas’ ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’.
The poem is also written by a child about a parent.
- The repetition of palms and hands throughout the poem may be an allusion to the rst meeting
of Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare’s tragedy – the iconic image of everlasting Romantic love.
- The poem is about the concept that, even when a marriage ends in divorce, here is a residual
permanent genetical connection; the narrator detects a physical resemblance to each of her
parents in the shape of her own hands. Stanza three contains the language of marriage and
stanzas four and ve locate a wedding scene in a church. While stanzas four and ve “re-enact
their wedding with my hands” – if you put your ngers together in a praying gesture, the shape
of your hands as they touch is like a church steeple.

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 Material - Ros Barber
STORY OF THE POEM:
- The speaker reminisces her mother, who has recently passed away; she describes her
emotional parenting style, using the central extended metaphor of the handkerchief to
represent these ideas about her past. As times have changed rapidly, the speaker has a more
cold, detached reality.
- ‘Material’ begins with a re ection on the cloth handkerchiefs used by the poet’s mother. Barber
associates these handkerchiefs initially with her own childhood, before changing focus to a
wider consideration of a vanished way of life associated with her mother’s generation. The poet
then contrasts the way she brings up her own children with the way her mother raised her. The
poem concludes with Barber acknowledging that the modern way of living and parenting is her
own ‘material’ to work with as best she can.

CONTEXT:
- The collection ‘Material’ and the poem itself were her response to the death of her mother in
2002. Barber began writing about Material in order to approach writing about her mother and to
help come to terms with her death.
- Ros barber has said that ‘Material’ was originally intended to be poem about her mother’s
death, but she ended up writing a poem about handkerchiefs instead. This is perhaps because
she wanted to avoid a painfully direct examination of her loss.

THEMES:
- Changing world - Barber correlates the disappearance of the handkerchief with a vanished
world of department stores and headscarves. All are lost because ‘those who used to buy
them died’. Barber especially evokes this disappeared world in the concise character sketches
in the fth octave. These suggest a familiar, close-knit, and supportive community of friends,
family, and neighbours.
- Motherly relationship/Parenting - The handkerchief is also closely associated with the poet’s
mother. The clear and direct opening line immediately establishes this as she is guratively
described as the ‘hanky queen’. Barber presents her as loving and attentive; she would have a
handkerchief, ‘always up her sleeve’ to scrub against her face, or ‘smudge the rouge’.
- Identity - core principals of the mother are now slowly being appreciated by her daughter at a
time it is too late.
- Childhood - whilst the speaker had a pleasant childhood, with fond memories of her mother
and a closer community, in the modern-day society has become overwhelmed by consumerism
and digitalisation.
- Past and Present - strong appreciation of the past in the face of an uncertain future with a
more detached society. The poem is interestingly ambivalent about the lost world as
symbolised by the hanky. The narrator recognises her own nostalgia for an era when
community ties were stronger, and mothers were stay-at-home homemakers with time for
ironing and baking. But even back then, the poem implies, she was impatient with the
formalities represented by the hankies, ‘the na est Christmas gift you’d get’, and the social
constraints of the period. It was a world with no room for individual creative expression where
people, especially women and girls, had to ‘step-together, step-together’. However,
contemporary motherhood is still hard to square with self-hood, requiring the compromise of
television and shop-bought biscuits to get the time to write.
- Death - a theme that continues to be shown throughout the poem is death. Not only death of
the past but all that was a part of it, from ‘Greengrocer George’ to the ‘annual talent show’.
The death of a generation brought about the death of tastes and preferences.

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RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- References the central extended metaphor used in the poem, with this use of symbolism
allowing the reader to associate their own experiences with the poem.
- The title suggests these multiple thematic concerns. ‘Material’ is both the fabric out of which
the handkerchiefs are made, that are the trigger point for the poem, and the stu of the poem
itself – the memories and reminiscences about the life she shared with her mother and the life
she now shares with her children. If something is ‘material’ it also matters, is important.

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘My mother was the hanky queen, when hanky meant a thing of cloth’ – metaphor of the
handkerchief established in the rst line, with strength and integrity of material re ecting the
depth of emotional attachment.
- ‘As if she had a farm up there where dried-up hankies fell in love and mated, raising little
squares’ – simile, with metaphysical suggestion that the handkerchiefs are as alive as her
mother’s bond with her. The image of cleansing and purity suggests endless support.
- “It was hankies that closed department stores… you’ll never nd today in malls” –
hyperbole emphasises that tradition and close parenting style is dying out. There is an implicit
criticism of consumerism of the generations who grow up with disposables.
- “Stumbling, out of tune piano… every mother, fencing tears, would whip a hanky from
their sleeve and smudge the rouge from little dears” – sense of community lost in the
modern-day world, with fewer personal relationships. The auditory loss of imperfect yet
precious music lessons re ect the absence of creative expression. The imperfections of the
past seem almost sterilised. This nostalgic exploration of memory questions the purpose of
families, as the speaker reminds the reader of the weaker emotional relationships.
- “Innocence… was killed in TV’s lassitude” – metaphor for the dead of older society due to
rapid digitalisation, with a sense of lethargy evident.
- “There’s never a hanky up my sleeve. I raise neglected-looking kids… awkwardness in
me forbids me” – guilt of working mothers is conveyed poignantly here. She has less
availability and connection with her children as she must provide for them.
- “Died not leaving handkerchiefs but tissues and uncertainty… this is your material to do
with, daughter, what you will” – the speaker leaves her mother who gives her permission to
live the inevitable modern lifestyle.
- “Nostalgia only makes me old” – volta is emphatic of the fact that she cannot combat this
shift in lifestyle. Being one of the shortest lines of the poem helps contrast this idea against the
long, almost rambling sentences of the previous stanza in a relatively abrupt way. It makes a
reader question why the narrator has been nostalgic up to this point, which in turn indicates
that the narrator feels old in relation to the huge changes in societal attitudes since their
childhood. Readers could also interpret that the narrator doesn’t want their children to grow up
to a similar situation, as supported by the following lines in the seventh stanza.
- “I miss material handkerchiefs, their soft and hidden history” – sibilance and soft
alliteration re ect the weakness of current relationships where the focus is on social media and
entertainment; the loss of tradition feels insigni cant to many in modern society.
- “Tissues and uncertainty” - It becomes apparent in the nal stanza of ‘Material’ that the ideas
of consumerism that are present throughout the poem are just the surface level of emotions
that the narrator has, shown through the sadness in relation to the death of their mother. Noting
how she too no longer used handkerchiefs, the idea of “uncertainty” is discussed, and that
the most important thing was to make the best of whatever situation pragmatically.

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 LANGUAGE:
- The narrator shows how personal and signi cant her past was to her through the proper nouns
used (‘Greengrocer George’ and ‘Mrs White’) to highlight how much of an impact these
acquaintances made in her life. It’s the little things that she remembers.
- There is a use of sibilance through the line ‘spittled and scrubbed’ to imitate the sound of the
mothers spitting into the handkerchiefs to then be used to clean their children. Something that
children feel quite embraced about.

TONE:
- Essentially the poem is all about the changing role of a mother and how important that strong,
durable (hanky) role of a mother is. There is a lot of nostalgia around this poem about the
narrators childhood, also regret that she couldn’t give her kids the same love her mother gave
her. But at the end there is a tone of acceptance as she comes to term with the fact that times
change and there is no use in mourning the loss of ‘material’ things. Her mothers voice at the
end tells her to stop crying about the past and take action and responsibility for her and her
children's future.

STRUCTURE:
- The poem is written in eight-line stanzas (octaves) of iambic tetrameter with a rhyming
pattern of abcb which is sustained throughout, using both full and half-rhymes and assonance.
This gives the poem a fairly tight structure – the reminiscences have purpose and a forward
momentum; there is a certain de ance in her memories of her childhood and her mother, as if
she is insisting on the need to let go of the past and move on in the present.
- Stanzas appear as little squares on the page, almost like handkerchiefs, with each stanza
compromised of eight lines, each with eight beats. This visual representation of the metaphor is
re ective of its crucial role in the poem • Single example of enjambment between fourth and
fth stanzas upsets the ow of the poem but marks a tonal shift to a more nostalgic feeling.
- End-stopping allows for re ection and thought, but also re ects the traditional structure of
society – the single example of enjambment may symbolise the abrupt shift from emotion to
detachment.
- Reference to ‘daughter’ at the end of the poem leaves a sentimental note, re ecting the
speaker’s loss.
- Rhyming connects words together – there are rhymes in this poem which draw attention to a
contrast, such as ‘wool’ and ‘malls’ or, perhaps, ‘brood’ and ‘lassitude’. They might connect
in other ways, such as ‘puri ed’ and ‘died’, or the particularly noteworthy nal rhyme –
‘disposable’, ‘material’ and ‘will’ – three words which could be said to sum up the key ideas
in the poem. Rhyme also underscores the often-humorous tone: ‘not’ and ‘snot’ being a
particularly bathetic example.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- The author symbolises the handkerchief as the past and the tissue as the future. She ruminates
upon the past with fond memories as seen in the rst three stanzas wherein the tone of
fondness and joy is vibrant, and the readers can immediately spot the poet’s happiness.
- However, from stanza four onwards the readers can notice the shift is the poem as well as the
tone when the poet introduces the image of tissues and links it with an object of dominance
which radiates with ‘uncertainty’. This explains to the readers how the poet is uncertain of the
future now that it is very much di erent than what she was used to. Thereby, explaining why the
poet is so uncertain and reluctant of accepting the future the way it is, because she is still
attached to the past.

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 On Her Blindness - Adam Thorpe
STORY OF THE POEM:
- The poem describes how the speaker’s mother – and her family – respond to her blindness.
She confesses that she nds it very di cult indeed. She pretends to ignore her illness, or she
laughs it o , by visiting art exhibitions or driving the ‘Old Lancaster’ (a make of car). Even the
speaker, just before his mother dies, forgets her blindness as he describes beautiful autumn
colours.
- The poet concludes that her death makes her ‘no more sightless, but now she can’t/pretend.’
The poet regrets his unwillingness to discuss her issue with her and feels guilt since it is too
late, since she has now passed away.

CONTEXT:
- The title is an adaptation of a famous Milton sonnet ‘On His Blindness’ after the poet’s loss of
sight became complete. In it, Milton initially chafes at his condition and how it limits his ability
to serve God, but the poem ends with resolve to bear his loss patiently for “They also only
stand and wait” – Thorpe’s poem is partly a rebu of Milton’s stoicism, of those who ‘like a
Roman’ put up with a iction without complaint. The references to places highlight that this
poem is autobiographical.

THEMES:
- Family - a very personal poem which deals with common experiences of life, su ering and
death.
- Illness - sympathy created for the mother who su ers greatly due to her blindness.
- Identity - inability to see decreases the mother’s ability to have self-identity.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Title alludes to Milton’s ‘On His Blindness,’ which considers life, health, and di culty. Therefore,
parallels are immediately suggested, with the third person perspective in communicating
emotive response to blindness.

KEY QUOTES:
- “One should hide the fact that catastrophic handicaps are hell… bear it like a Roman” –
repetition emphasises the pretence of dealing with illness: his mother is unable to speak
honestly about her blindness with her son. The adjective used is emphatic of the di culty
imposed by the condition, and the simile taken from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar suggests
emotional restraint.
- “She kept her dignity, even when bumping into walls like a dodgem” – his mother’s refusal
to give in is emphasised in this simile, illustrating her ability to regroup and continue.
- “She pretended to ignore the void… a vision as blank as stone” – the mother must be
emotionally restrained for the sake of her family, ignoring her own pain and loss. The simile
reminds the reader of how di cult this must be. Her inability to face her blindness and be
controlled by it is conveyed in the triplet of activities she attempts to do.
- “Dying has made her no more sightless, but now she can’t pretend… it was up to us to
believe she was watching, somewhere, in the end” – metaphor shows honesty once it is
too late, as the family reconciles with her illness. The use of the word ‘believe’ suggests
continued regret and guilt; the nal line wishes for something more for her.
- “Could not bear to be blind, to be honest” – alliteration helps emphasise di culty of
blindness. Inclusion of second phrase is ironic as it contradicts the pretence which Thorpe
created while his mother was alive.

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 - “Try it in a pitch-black room” – direct address challenges the reader to imagine terrifying
reality of perpetual darkness which his mother was forced to experience – black has strong
connotations of fear and misery.
- “It’s living hell, to be honest. If I gave up hope of a cure, I’d bump myself o ” – direct
repetition shows the lasting e ects of her words on Thorpe. His mother uses dark humour as a
form of self-protection whilst opening up about her illness, and uses colloquialism to reveal the
reality of blindness, yet this attempt at conversation is shot down.
- “Inadequate: the locked-in son” – caesura emphasises Thorpe’s emotional paralysis, as he
dismisses the talk.
- “Her last week alive was golden weather, of course, the autumn trees… ablaze with
colour, the ground royal with leaf colour” – irony of beauty at the end of her life, with gold
having connotations of hope and excellence and the rich verb ‘ablaze’ emphasising how much
she misses out on. However, autumn has connotations of decline.
- “Forgetting…’it’s lovely out there’” – repetition emphasises that the family is so in denial that
they forget her blindness. She still pretends to see, as she misses the sheer beauty of nature.

LANGUAGE:
- Elements of ‘dark humour’ and bathos are also present within the poem, with phrases such as
“bumping into walls like a dodgem” and “I’d bump myself o ”. This is likely to be highly
e ective for a reader because it infers a sense of inevitability for a further worsening in the
mother’s condition by having to nd happiness and positivity within the current situation.
- This interpretation would be particularly prevalent for readers who focus on the line where the
narrator’s mother talks about “hope of a cure” as these humorous descriptions could be seen
as a coping method, for both the mother and the narrator.

STRCUTURE:
- The poem is written predominantly in ‘blank verse’ – un-rhyming couplets of iambic
pentametre (potentially homage to Milton). Blank verse, until Milton, was associated solely
with drama, as in Shakespeare. Unrhymed verse in poetry was unusual, as was playing around
with the positioning of the caesura and the use of enjambment to link ideas across successive
lines, varying the stress. Thorpe’s poem is notable for the use of all these techniques, creating a
con ding, conversational tone, juxtaposing ideas in surprising ways as he re ects on his
mother’s a iction, her reaction to it and his own, painful, response to her incapacity and
eventual death.
- Couplet stanzas with irregular rhythm and a lack of rhyme highlights the disconnect
between truth and reality. This structure is unusual as it breaks up the poem and disrupts ow
considerably.
- Final single-line stanza highlights a di erent perspective where Thorpe wishes for something
more for this mother.
- Lack of end-stops convey a sense of owing, continuous memory.
- Enjambment in places illustrate the damaging e ect of not accepting the mother’s blindness.
- Many caesuras towards the end disrupt thought process and truth as Thorpe conveys his loss.
- ‘On Her Blindness’ returns to dialogue – the spoken word – throughout. This is signi cant
because the poem is about what we say and don’t say when dealing with illness and death.
This idea is announced in the rst couplet (‘One shouldn’t say it’) and in hearing publicly of
those heroes ‘who bare it like a Roman’. On the single occasion where the truth is brutally
presented (‘its living hell, to be honest’) the son does not have an adequate response. The
mother returns poignantly, to the ction at the end (maybe to save her son’s embarrassment out
of compassion): ‘It’s lovely out there’.

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 - With the single-line exception at the end, the poem consists of unrhymed couplets. This form
often suggests the rapid progression of one idea to the next alongside a lack of re ection or
contemplation. There is also a lot of white space in this poem (the lines themselves – mostly the
tetrameter – are relatively short as well). This space might recall the mother’s blindness - and
perhaps the truth that the family do not want to acknowledge. Alongside the frequent
enjambment, it is a silence which surrounds the words and lends the lines a vulnerability, a
sense of things being touched upon lightly before moving quickly on. This is especially true in
the tentative nal line, where the inde nite pronoun ‘somewhere’ adds to the fragility of the
illusion that his mother is now watching over them. Even in death, the ction continues.

TONE:
- The tone shifts between pragmatism, tenderness pain, grief and acceptance.
- Regretful tone is evident, as Thorpe feels guilt for his inability to face his mother’s blindness

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- The poem is not entirely literal. After the colloquially a ectionate ‘like a dodgem’ and the
unblemished simile ‘as blank as stone’, Thorpe becomes much more lyrical towards the end
of the poem. As his blind mother is dying at a hospital, he describes the weather metaphorically
as ‘golden’ and the ground is ‘royal/ with leaf-fall’ – connotations of wealth, richness, and
texture. The trees are guratively ‘ablaze’ with colour. These are all intensely visual images,
adding to the poignancy that his mother is unable to see and enjoy the scene being described.

The Deliverer - Tishani Doshi

STORY OF THE POEM:
- This Short poem sequence tells the story of an Indian newborn baby girl who is abandoned
because she is not a boy. The baby is then cared for in a convent in the state of Kerala in India.
The narrator’s mother, the deliverer of the poem’s title, is a temporary foster mother who
arranges for the baby to be adopted by an American couple. The second poem in the sequence
describes the foster mother’s arrival in America with the baby. She hands the baby over to the
adopting parents. In the third and nal poem in the sequence, the girl has grown up. The poem
goes back to the day of her birth and subsequent abandonment.
- The poem uncompromisingly documents the fate of female babies born to poorer sections of
Indian society, where infanticide is still practiced.

CONTEXT:
- Female infanticide in India has a history spanning centuries. Although it has been criminalised
in India, it skill occurs (mostly in rural communities) and remains highly under-reported.
- Kerala is a state in the southwest of India. It has a very high proportion of female to male
residents; education, jobs and skills for women are higher there than in any other part of India.
It is therefore a region in which baby girls are not rejected as inferior to boys.
- Statistics reveal that in India, in the 20 years leading up to the publication of ‘The Deliverer’, as
many as 10 million girls were killed by their parents either before or immediately after birth. Very
often, they are killed for nancial reasons – men are usually the main source of income, or they
are considered to be able to do more agricultural work. In rural India, many parents depend
upon their children to look after them in their old age: when daughters marry, they usually move
away to live with the husband’s family. Many commentators therefore point to the tragic
consequences of a patriarchal society which prioritises and values men over women.

THEMES:
- Motherhood - This shocking poem sequence has at its heart the abandonment of the
daughter, but it also engages with wider ideas about motherhood. For such a short poem, there
is a network of di erent parent/child relationships in the poem, each, in some way, disrupting
conventional views of family: the baby’s biological mother who tosses her onto a pile of other
babies; the nun who looks after the abandoned babies; the deliverer who, for a short while,
e ectively fosters the baby as she takes her to America, and is also the poet’s own mother; and
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 the adoptive American parents. The situation in the poem is not unique or made up: because of
a preference for having boys in the family, some parents in India kill or abandon baby girls.
Also, Doshi’s own mother did indeed bring an abandoned child over form India to an adoptive
American couple.
- Power - implicit criticism of colonialism, as the Western world may have no right to take
children from their countries of origin in order to ‘save’ them when instead they could help
resolve the social situation itself.
- Transgression - horri c nature of the infanticide situation, and just how many reasons exist for
abandonment, transgresses normal human boundaries of acceptability.
- Gender - criticism of patriarchy, with negative tone associated with men and sympathy for
situation of women.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Strong sense of ambiguity, as the ‘Deliverer’ may be the biological mother, or indeed the
speaker’s mother who takes the child to America. A word which usually has connotations of
bringing new life is used ironically as the newborn is handed to foreigners who have no right to
take the children.
- The title has a number of connotations. A mother delivers a baby; the mother in the poem
delivers the child to a third part; a ‘delivery’ is something which loses identity whilst it is in
transit; the Lord’s Prayer asks God to ‘deliver us from Evil’, meaning ‘save us’. In doing so, it
explores the nature of motherhood and the role of women in society

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘Our Lady of the Light Convent, Kerala’ – Doshi uses irony in the reference to the Virgin Mary,
and the purity and love associated with this gure, with ‘light’ having connotations of hope, to
highlight the hopelessness of the situation described
- “Crippled or dark or girls” – triplet uses a polysyndeton to re ect just how many groups are
vulnerable, with the increased scope suggested with each word highlighting the stigma of so
many groups.
- “Desolate…. where mothers go to squeeze out life, watch body slither out from body” –
use of strong adjective and highly unexpected verbs illustrate the terrible situation. The
monosyllabic words show the lack of emotion which is present in India.
- “Trudge home to lie down for their men again” – inescapable cycle of su ering, with numb
language employed.
- “Found naked in the streets, covered in garbage, stu ed in bags, abandoned at their
doorstep” – asyndetic listing emphasises how appalling the situation is. The emotive verb
‘abandoned’ is illustrative of the lack of sympathy for the children from society. Clinical,
detached language creates a bleak overview, but notably with a lack of judgement of the
women who are forced to give up their children.
- “They are American so they know… about doing things right” – implicit criticism of
colonialist attitude of rescuing the East. The Americans may not be doing the right thing by
taking these children due to their lack of understanding of the child’s culture or heritage.
- “They haven’t seen or touched her yet… but they are crying” – sensory verbs reiterate the
American’s limited understanding. By contrast, they are a orded the self-righteous luxury of
emotion, and this irony is highlighted by the use of a simple sentence.
- “Feel for penis or no penis, toss the baby to the heap of others” – sterile language
trivialises this homogenous group of abandoned infants.

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 LANGUAGE:
- The lack of gurative or descriptive language contributes to a atness of tone, expressive of the
bleakness of the situation. Single syllable verbs thud through the lines with a brutal emphasis
on the physical. The potential of new life is reduced to something less than a body: to wood,
bone, garbage. The one outburst of emotion – ‘We couldn’t stop crying’ – takes place in
America. Back in India, the women who ‘Feel for penis or no penis’ cannot a ord to confront
their experience – the language returns to a kind of numbness as they go through the terrible
motions of sex and birth.
- The verbs are foregrounded syntactically by being placed at the beginning of the clause
(and the line of poetry as well). The list itself implies the ongoing and pervasive nature of the
events being described. The pitiless, apparently unfeeling process of the birth is conveyed in
part by the short verbs Doshi uses towards the end of the poem: the slithering of the babies as
they leave their mothers’ bodies has unpleasant associations; and the mothers throw the baby
onto a pile of other discarded infants. Doshi also uses a macabre pun as life is described as
being squeezed out – a pun which semantically contains both birth and death.

STRUCTURE:
- The poem is set out as if it is a newspaper or television report, with the location of the two
linked events prefacing each section. The rst section is set in a convent in Kerala, India, the
second begins in the USA but recalls India at the end. The short lines give a terse, unemotional
tone to the whole, like a report, at odds with the subject matter. The story is told by the
daughter of the mother “delivers” the abandoned baby to adoptive parents in the USA. Her
tone, although short of being critical of her mother, does suggest a coolness towards her
mother’s role as “postman”, one that is perhaps less emotional and more rational.
- The diction and the form complement each other. The lines are short and frequently end-
stopped. The tercets are terse and inty, and the sentences are short and stripped-down.
The overall structure of the poem sequence is circular, indicating the events described are
ongoing and not unique. Perhaps for heightened emotional impact, it ends at the beginning,
with the moment of the girl’s birth. However, the brutality of the birth is tempered by the
reader’s awareness that the girl did survive, due to the combination of the care and compassion
of the nun, the deliverer, and her adoptive parents.
- Doshi attempts to criticise the situation alone and blames no individual, rather it is social
pressure which must be tackled to break this cycle of despair, aided by the detached, clinical
tone.
- Short sequences explore many di erent perspectives of this issue. The use of the short
sequence form enables the poet to explore this situation from di erent perspectives. It perhaps
also suggests – in its shifts of time and place – both the invisible global connections which link
West and East, the developed and developing world, and the fracturing of family relationships.
- Splitting of the poem into two sections using subheadings to identity two locations.
- The airport is used to symbolise globalisation, whilst the convent is an example of an Eastern
location in uenced by Catholic, Western religion.
- Continuous use of end stopping could re ect the continuous cycle of the situation.
- Short line and stanza lengths allow for the desperate situation to be bluntly explained but may
also re ect the tragically short lives of children lost to infanticide.

TONE:
- Ambiguity – “The sister is telling my mother how she came to collect children” – the use of
ambiguity and double meanings creates a sense of confusion and upheaval (something which
would relate to the children’s start in life)
- The women who display such cruelty towards their girl babies are seen, in the nal part to be at
the mercy of a society which privileges boys. The male babies are victims too for even the men
they “lie down for”, the poem hints, are trapped – by cultural and economic pressures
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 CRITICAL IDEAS:
- A feminist reading will see the poem as a statement about the lack of self-determination which
women experience, in at least some parts of the world, even today. This would make the choice
of Kerala especially provocative, as it is the part of India where the experience of women is the
most unlike what the poem describes.

To My Nine Year Old Self - Helen Dunmore

STORY OF POEM:
- A woman is speaking to a younger version of herself, telling of how times have changed the
speaker; now, her childhood, lled with warmth and purity, is but a distant memory. Instead,
she has aged with scars and bodily damage, as well as emotional deterioration, shaping an
acutely pessimistic perception of the world.
- The poem is addressed to the younger self. The speaker re ects upon the nine-year-old’s fun
and energetic life, and contrasts this with caution and care of the older speaker. The poem ends
with the speaker leaving her younger self as she slowly peels a scab from her knee and puts it
on her tongue. ‘To My Nine-year-Old Self’ is at once a celebration of childhood and an
anguished lamentation over its loss. Dunmore crafts the poem carefully to draw attention to the
di erences between youth and adulthood, and the erosions brought about by time alone.
- Recollections of childhood are interspersed with comments on the e ects of aging and the
whole is tinged with a rueful, apologetic tone as the poet acknowledges the damage that she
has done to her once youthful body, the awareness of the future and the challenges that await
the child, and the older woman’s inability to do anything about it. There is a strong evocation of
a particular time and place. Dunmore was born in the 1950s and she pinpoints iconic images of
those post-war years. These memories suggest that, in spite of the real or imagined danger of
the “men in cars”, childhood then was a time of innocence, when they were left to roam free,
away from parental eyes, in a way that is unimaginable to many children today. Memory is
made manifest through the “re-incarnation” of her former self by Dunmore.

CONTEXT:
- In "To My Nine-Year-Old Self," the speaker is physically transported to her childhood and
immersed in the world of the past, which is depicted with pastoral and natural imagery. Much of
this natural world is, however, like her childhood, lost to time. For Dunmore, the current
structure of human society is inextricably tied to loss and destruction, of both childhood
innocence and joy, as well as the natural beauty of the world.

THEMES:
- Identity - time has clearly changed the speaker to such an extent that she is unrecognisable to
her younger self.
- Childhood - youth brought the speaker such joy and vitality, with dreams and creativity, which
has faded over time with degeneration of the body and loss of hopefulness. On the one hand,
then, the poem suggests that with growing up comes a loss of the enthusiasm, curiosity, and
fearlessness that so often de ne childhood. At the same time, however, the poem seems to
suggest that acknowledging this reality can provide one with a sense of acceptance and allow
one to move on from the past—that is, to grow up without any bitterness. Throughout the poem
the speaker observes how her younger self embodies qualities of innocence, enthusiasm, and
curiosity. For example, this younger self fearlessly uses her physical body, “balancing on [her]
hands or on the tightrope.” Unlike the speaker, this younger girl doesn't worry about the
physical pain of falling. Indeed, she would “rather run than walk, rather climb than run / rather
leap from a height than anything.” This younger self wants to enthusiastically engage with the
physical world around her without fearing the consequences, and as such seems to embody
the power of living in the moment. Perhaps all this youthful movement is what ultimately led to
the adult speaker's aches and pains, but the speaker harbours no resentment; she doesn't
want to "cloud" her younger self with the burdens of the future. Childhood is something
precious, the poem implies, and something that mustn’t be tainted by the painful realities of

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 adulthood. Nevertheless, the speaker moves on in a state of acceptance rather than bitterness.
At the end of the poem, she states that she will “leave [her past self],” not wanting to dampen
the younger girl's "ecstasy" with her own, more world-weary adult perspective. The poem thus
ends on a poignant note, as growing up is associated with a loss of joyful innocence. However,
the poem also suggests that people can nd peace in simply appreciating one’s younger self
and, ultimately, in letting that self go.
- Past and Present - the speaker has transformed over time, causing her to dissociate wholly
from her young self.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- The use of ‘my’ emphasises the personal nature of this poem and establishes its nostalgic
tone, which is developed throughout at the speaker remembers the joy of youth.
- The title encapsulates the ideas in the poem brilliantly. It, of course, immediately establishes
who the poem is addresses to. Also, ‘myself’ is, literally, split by the ‘Nine –Year-Old’. The poem
therefore immediately calls into question the idea that our identity is unchanging; Dunmore
instead suggests that we have multiple identities throughout our lives, and that we have very
little in common with our childhood self.

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘Surprised, perplexed, eager… You would rather run than walk, rather climb than run,
rather leap from a height than anything’ – following a triplet of almost hyperbolically emotive
adjectives, this triplet of active verbs emphasises youthful agility and energy, contrasting the
frailty of her older self.
- ‘The dream we had, no doubt it’s as fresh in your mind as the white paper to write it on’ –
the use of rst-person plural re ects that they both once had this dream, but the use of the
perfect tense emphasises that it has been lost in time. The simile, referring to a symbol of
creativity and expression, hints at the joy of youth.
- “We made a start… a bag of sherbet lemons – and besides, that summer of ambition
created an ice lolly-factory” – use of listing in this passage of idyllic summer imagery
highlights how, in childhood, everything is new, magical, and exciting. The enjambment
illustrates the lack of clarity due to owing memories.
- “I shan’t cloud your morning. God knows I have fears enough for us both” – metaphor
suggests a refusal to taint childhood optimism with the adult pessimism. Clouds have
connotations of cynicism and weariness.
- “I leave you in an ecstasy of concentration slowly peeling a ripe scab from your knee to
taste it on your tongue” – allusion to scarring later on in life emphasises the long-lasting
e ects of memory but also the process of healing. The simplicity of youth prevents the child
from understanding the reality of the future.
- “You must forgive me.” – this caesura is placed at the very opening of the poem, suggesting
regret due to immediate disruption of rhythm. The use of the second person creates the idea
that the older Dunmore is a di erent person entirely.
- “I have spoiled this body we once shared… look at the scars… do you remember we’d
jump straight out of the ground oor window into the summer morning?” – the longer
sounds of ‘spoiled’ and ‘scars’ illustrates the damage of time and adult experience. The
eventual recognition that they are indeed the same person is ironic as it is within a question,
which itself suggests they are di erent people.
- “I’d like to say that we could be friends but the truth is we have nothing in common
beyond a few shared years” – change beyond recognition; nothing of her childhood optimism
remains.

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 IMAGERY:
- • Scars: Scars are marks left on the skin after an injury has healed. Scars can also be
metaphorical in nature, such as mental scars from emotional trauma. In "To My NineYear-Old
Self," scars symbolise the adult speaker's physical and emotional deterioration, as well as the
younger self's resilience and physical tness. In the second stanza, the speaker uses imagery
to show her younger self the "scars" on her body.
- These scars are proof of the way the speaker has "spoiled" or ruined her body. These scars,
therefore, are an example of the vast di erence between the adult speaker and her younger
self, whose body is limber and t. The speaker now moves "carefully" because of the way her
body has deteriorated.
- The speaker is timid and more fearful than she was when she was younger, suggesting she has
been "scar[red]" by her experiences. In the last line, the speaker leaves her younger self
joyously "peeling a ripe scab from [her] knee / to taste it on [her] tongue." Scabs frequently
leave scars behind. However, her younger self is unafraid of the pain "peeling [this] ripe scab"
may cause. Instead, her younger self is lled with curiosity about the resilience of the body and
fully embraces the moment of physical exploration. For her younger self, the scab does not
cause her to move more "careful[ly]" and cautiously, but rather to live more fully in the
moment.
- White Paper: In stanza 3, the speaker, using a simile, compares the "fresh[ness]" of a dream
in her younger self's mind to "the white paper to write it on." This "white paper" symbolises
innocence, youth, and potential. Readers can think of "white paper" as a kind of blank slate,
something full of potential and promise because it does not have any marks on it yet. This
blank slate may also be associated with youth and innocence, as a blank slate has not yet been
tainted by anything; it remains pure, untouched. The speaker associates this innocence, youth,
and hope with her nine-year-old self. Both are essentially blank slates, full of potential,
unmarked by the trials of time. This contrasts with the speaker's adult self, which has been
scarred and "spoiled."
- The Rope Swing: The rope swing mentioned in lines 25-27 represents the joy and exuberance
of the speaker's past, while the "housing" above it symbolises the inevitable passage of time.
The fact that the swing and tree it was once attached to have "long" been "buried in housing"
in the present day thus represents how time—and, thus, growing up—eventually buries the
freedom and wonder of childhood. The use of the word "buried" is particularly interesting. The
line might mean that the tree has been cut down and its wood used to build a house, or that a
house now stands where the tree once did. Either way, the word implies that these remnants of
the speaker's childhood are dead. That is, the speaker's childhood is over and done with, and
can never come back.
- Summer: Summer is a season of growth, warmth, and sunlight. Summer, therefore, is lled with
positive emotional associations. As such, in "To My Nine-Year-Old Self," summer symbolizes
the speaker's happy, idyllic childhood. In stanza 2, the speaker asks if her younger self
remembers "how, three minutes after waking / [they'd] jump straight out of the ground
oor window." The physical act of jumping out a window after waking up suggests a fearless,
enthusiastic, energetic, and playful attitude. However, rather than jumping out onto the grass
outside, the speaker's younger self jumps "into the summer morning." The "jump," therefore,
transforms from a physical act to a metaphorical one. This jump re ects the younger self
embracing and living fully in the moment of this "summer morning." As summer is a time of
warmth and happiness, the younger self is embracing this joy. In stanza 3, the speaker refers to
a "summer of ambition" she once experienced. Although that particular summer distracted
her from her "dream," the speaker "created an ice-lolly factory, a wasp trap / and a den by
the cesspit" during that summer. Thus, that summer was still productive and fun. The
speaker's various creations represent her inventiveness, free-spirit, fearlessness, and curiosity.
The summer, therefore, symbolises a period of creativity and free time during the speaker's
childhood and, consequently, evokes a sense of nostalgia in the adult speaker.

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LANGUAGE:
- Anaphora - Year-Old Self" in stanzas 1 and 4. In both cases, Dunmore uses anaphora in
order to provide structure to a list, draw attention to certain phrases, and emphasize the
importance of particular ideas. In the rst stanza, the speaker observes that her younger self
would "rather run than walk, rather climb than run / rather leap from a height than
anything." The repetition of "rather" at the beginning of each clause clearly structures the
speaker's observations and allows them to build up in intensity. Anaphora adds a sense of
rhythm to lines 4-5 that resonates with the rhythm of running, walking, and climbing—thereby
making the lines all the more vivid for the reader. By bringing repeated attention to the younger
self's physical activities, the anaphora also rmly establishes her physical tness, playfulness,
and fearlessness. In stanza 4, the speaker decides to leave her younger self to her own devices
and advises her younger self to go o and play. The speaker suggests that it is "[t]ime to pick
rosehips for tuppence a pound, / time to hide down scared lanes / from men in cars after
girl-children." The repetition of "time" in the beginning of lines 22 and 23 is another example
of anaphora. As with the previous instance of anaphora, this use of anaphora provides structure
to the speaker's various suggestions. The repetition draws attention to each particular activity,
highlighting wide range of emotions and experiences in the younger self's dynamic world.
- Alliteration - Alliteration occurs frequently in "To My Nine-Year-Old Self." Dunmore uses
alliteration, sometimes in conjunction with imagery, to enhance the musicality of the lines
and emphasise particular phrases and ideas. In the second stanza, the speaker shows her
younger self the ways in which her body has physically deteriorated. She displays her various
scars and "the way [she] move[s], / careful of a bad back or a bruised foot." The speaker,
therefore, must move more slowly and cautiously due to her physical aches and pains. The
alliteration of plodding /b/ sounds in "bad," "back," and "bruised" slow down the reading of
the poem, re ecting the adult speaker's own slow and cautious pace navigating the world. The
thudding /b/ sounds also mirror the heavy, thudding footsteps of someone with a "bad back or
a bruised foot" who can no longer move as nimbly as they used to. Another striking moment
of alliteration comes in the poem's nal stanza, with the mix of sibilant /s/ sounds and bright /t/
sound. The /s/ sounds of "slowly" and "scab" are like a whisper, re ecting the intensity of the
younger self's concentration in this moment. The nal /t/ sounds of "to taste" and "tongue"
then end the poem on a moment of sharpness and brightness re ecting the intensity of the
younger self's joy and wonder.
- Consonance – Consonance appears abundantly throughout every stanza of "To My Nine-Year-
Old Self." Dunmore uses consonance to draw out the beauty of the language, draw
attention to certain words and phrases, and mirror the speaker's experience in the poem.
In the fourth stanza, for example, the speaker decides to leave her younger self to her own
devices. The speaker suggests it is "[t]ime to pick rosehips for tuppence a pound," among
other activities. The act of "pick[ing] rosehips" is a playful, physical, and youthful act. The
consonance of sharp /t/ and /p/ sounds in "[t]ime," "pick," "rosehips," "tuppence," and
"pound" trip on the tongue, mirroring the energetic physicality of the speaker's younger self.
Later, in the last stanza, the speaker decides to stop bothering her younger self and leave her
younger self to her own devices. As the speaker departs, she observes her younger self in "an
ecstasy of concentration / slowly peeling ripe scab from [her] knee." In lines 30 and 31, the
consonance of soft /s/ sounds in "ecstasy," "concentration," "slowly," and "scab" slow
down the reading of the lines and emphasise the details of the scene. The consonance,
therefore, enhances the focus of the scene, mirroring the younger self's own intense
concentration in her act.
- Assonance - Like consonance and alliteration, assonance also occurs frequently in "To My
Nine-Year-Old Self." Dunmore uses assonance in order to enhance the sonic quality of the
lines and highlight particular phrases and ideas. In the second stanza, the speaker shows
her younger self the ways her body has physically deteriorated. She shows her "scars" on the
body and the "careful" way she moves due to a "bad back of a bruised foot." The assonance
of long, sighing /a/ sounds in "bad back" slow down the reading of the line, mirroring the slow,
careful movements of the speaker. The sighing /a/ assonance also evokes the groans the
speaker might make while moving due to the pain of her "bad back" or "bruised foot." In the

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 fourth stanza, the speaker decides to leave her younger self alone and return to the present.
The speaker suggests that her younger self go back to her own activities, such as "pick[ing]
rosehips for tuppence a pound." The assonance of clipped, lively /i/ sounds in "pick" and
"rosehips" resonate with the playful and energetic act of picking rose hips. In the last stanza,
the speaker nally departs as her younger self is completely immersed in the act of "slowly
peeling a ripe scab from [her] knee." The assonance of long /e/ sounds in "slowly,"
"peeling," and "knee" draws out the beauty of the language and calls attention to the younger
self's act of "concentration." Moreover, the assonance also resonates with the younger self's
immersion in her act as it slows down the reading of the line.
- Simile - Simile appears once in "To My Nine-Year-Old Self" in lines 12-13. Dunmore uses
simile in order to deepen the symbolic and gurative meaning of the poem as well as
enhance the vividness of the imagery. In the third stanza, the speaker refers to a "dream"
that she and her nine-year-old self had. The speaker observes that it is likely "as fresh in [her
younger self's] mind / as the white paper to write it on." The dream is fresher in the younger
self's mind, of course, because for her it is more recent than it is for the adult speaker. This
speci c simile here is particularly telling, though, as the speaker compares the "fresh[ness]" of
the dream in her younger self's mind to a piece of "white paper" that her younger self might
use to write that dream down. A dream and a "white paper," a kind of blank slate, both
connote hope and potential. The "white paper" is unmarked, and thus also symbolises
innocence and youth. Therefore, it is a tting image to associate with the speaker's younger
self, who embodies this innocence and youthfulness. This younger self is still unmarred by the
world, still full of potential for the future.

STRUCTURE:
- Dialogue with younger self in the form of free verse, with irregular stanza and line length
re ects the idea that time has changed the speaker, and allowing for exploration of transition.
- The poem begins with a short, four-word sentence ostensibly a conversational ller. This
establishes a sense of spoken voice (the poem is a dramatic monologue as the poet
addresses her nine-year-old self). The phrase is also formal and oddly tentative, and perhaps
belongs to the circumlocutory world of adulthood, which would be alien to the child. But this
conversational opening is also an entreaty. Sadly, the speaker is begging her younger self for
forgiveness: for her decline and for all the things she has lost or ruined from her childhood.
- The caesura at the beginning of the poem cracks the line in the centre and intimates the
distance between the speaker and the nine-yea-old, especially bearing in mind what
immediately follows: she instructs her younger self to not be shocked by her presence or be so
keen to leave her. There is a briskness here, perhaps a note of irritation. This is not going to be
a happy reunion. The impatience and energy of the child also emerges and is con rmed in the
subsequent lines in the stanza. Note the energetic parallelism which concludes this stanza,
creating a succession of active verbs. She is fully inhabiting her own body, and her joy and
energy are barely contained. The image of the girl jumping from a height also operates on a
symbolic level. This is all from childhood to adulthood.
- Dunmore contrasts the rst two stanzas. The young liveliness of the rst stanza is contrasted
with an adult caution in the second. This contrast is con rmed in the simply direct end-stopped
rst line of the sestet. This is followed by words from the semantic eld of ill health as she
re ects on the fears and ailments which have a icted her in adulthood. Even the shared body –
one of the few things the two have in common – ultimately signi es the unbridgeable
di erences between her childhood and her adult self.
- Commas act as pauses to allow re ection. The end stops evolve into dashes and commas
towards the end of the poem as emotive clarity degrades and memory consumes the speaker.
- Use of pronouns underlines contrast, with rst person plural referring to the shared joy of the
past. The sharp contrast of the use of second and rst person highlights the division between
the two forms of herself.

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 - The nostalgic tone signi es the importance of memory. The rose-tinted view which the speaker
has of her childhood creates a sense of wonder, joy and healing.
- Harsh tone used to describe the painful reality of growing old.
- Rhetorical technique such as questions and imagery allows the speaker to reminisce.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- It is worth noting the actions and experiences associated with childhood in the poem. With the
poem’s frequent lists, childhood is presented as one long, vivid morning in the summer - the
discovery of small animals, eating sweets, making dens, rope-swings. It is a kind of earthly
paradise, like the innocent Adam and Eve before the fall of experience and adulthood. The
poem ends with a totemic image of childhood, as the younger self is left to peel and eat a scab
from her knee.
- This is a rich and memorable image with a direct appeal to the senses. The child is self-
absorbed, living immediately in the world (rather than engaged in abstract re ections like the
older self) and thankfully nonplussed by the worried-looking adult. But, like the rather sinister
males mentioned, shadows lurk at the edges of this childhood. The poem ends with a rather
awkward farewell, and we are reminded that, despite childhood’s joy, time is limited – the
morning will soon be clouded over. After all, the speaker is e ectively a ghost not from the past
but the future – a sombre warning of what the years to come have in store.

An Easy Passage - Julia Corpus

STORY OF POEM:
- Description of the cusp of childhood and womanhood; on a sunny day, a 13-year-old girl has
just met her friend and is climbing through the window back into her house. The focus then
shifts outwards to the hustle of the urban area, before zooming into a secretary across the road,
who observes the girl gracefully climbing into her bedroom window.
- The poem marks the ‘passage’ between childhood and adulthood of a young girl, using her
clandestine escapade to the beach with a girl-friend as a metaphor for the transition.
- While the narrator remains unobtrusive for most of the poem, her point of view is important. The
scene is viewed through her eyes as if through a movie camera, zooming in for close-ups on
di erent characters and allowing us brief glimpses into their lives.

CONTEXT:
- Copus believes in something we might call the revolving door theory; that what we become,
and the course of our lives, is determined by apparently accidental or random choices we
make. If that theory applies here, the girl is returning to the keyless and mistrustful “family’s
house”, may be allowing her desire for freedom and adventure to be reined in, at least for the
time being.

THEMES:
- Identity (Transition into adulthood) - The rite of passage from adolescence to womanhood is
the key period of taking on a personal identity through growth and self-development, due to
transforming physicality, sexuality and relationships. The child has ventured into the adult world
through a window, illicitly, defying parental control.
- Women - In the rst line of this delicate poem, Copus uses the word ‘halfway’ to describe the
position of a girl as she prepares to surreptitiously climb back inside her own house while her
friend waits in the driveway below. This one word is suggestive of the poem’s central concern,
its exploration of that eeting period between girlhood and womanhood. The woman is
characterised as being one of those whom Copus has exclaimed that the world admits “less
and less”. She is trapped in a dull job, living in a dream-world where she imagines herself
taking evening classes, or taking “a trip of a lifetime”, to gain admittance to a wider world,

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 but, instead, looks to the horoscopes in a magazine to passively read about her future, rather
than living it.
- Society - Consideration of the cultural ideas of growing up, with broad criticism of the dull
working lives of adults, with plans which never actually take place. This idea can be extended
so suggest that women still struggle to ourish in a male-dominated society.
- Childhood and Youth - Youth brings freedom and joy, and ultimately the passage of diminishes
this as adults become stuck in the cyclical pressure of work and society with false hope of
ful lling dreams. Her youth is further evident in her being “half in love” with the friend waiting
to be let into the house below and on whom she focuses to steady herself for the nal part of
her journey back.
- Opposites - This is a poem of balance and poise with the girl’s physical situation – between up
and down, indoors and outdoors – symbolising her stage in life. Throughout the poem, Copus
uses opposites to create a sense of things being on the cusp: sun is contrasted with shade, the
freedom of the young girls with the adult world of work, while the girl is described as being ‘half
in love’ with her friend.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Whilst the title suggests that the rite of passage is easy and inevitable, Copus uses the
structure of the poem to critique this notion, particularly at the central rhetorical question.
- The ‘Easy’ of the title is ironic – the girl makes her return home look ‘easy’, but it is potentially
hard and dangerous, just as adolescence can be.

KEY QUOTES:
- ‘Trembling... The sharp drop of the stairwell’ – may be symbolic of the abrupt transition into
adulthood which brings so much responsibility and challenge. The adjective used may also
hint at the potential pain which could be caused due to this complete, rapid change.
- ‘The stirring omens of the astrology column’ – hope of a better future is unrealised and
perhaps fundamentally unrealistic, as the woman does nothing to take control of her own
situation and strive for her goals.
- ‘Silver anklet... shimmering oyster-painted toenails’ – silver has connotations of privilege
and luxury, highlighting her vitality and youth. The girl is currently sparkling with strength and
self-con dence at this cusp.
- “Catch the sunlight brie y like the ash of armaments before dropping gracefully into the
shade of the house” – the juxtaposition of an symbol of excitement with a simile using
imagery of warfare emphasises the suddenness of this change in life; language of con ict may
allude to the con ict within herself as she builds her identity, or the con ict she faces against a
restrictive society who no longer allows her to be her true self; the courage she must build now
is vital for further development in life. The nal phrase hints at the looming darkness of
adulthood.
- “What can she know of the way the world admits us less and less the more we grow?” –
the volta is a rhetorical question, with a double caesura used to interrupt the ow of the
poem. The internal rhyme is emphatic of the restriction of adults, especially women in a
patriarchal society. The use of rst-person plural emphasises this collective experience.
- “Far too, most far... head full of the evening class she plans to take, or the trip of a
lifetime” – scheduled freedom, with all enjoyment postponed due to the dullness of everyday
life. The use of diacope to distance this character from the girl emphasises how far detached
this defeat is from the vitality of the adolescent.
- Semantic eld of the body is signi cant as a physical representation of change. The humanising
descriptions of the surroundings encourage the idea of onlookers to the scene.
- “Like the ash of armaments” – a simile which could suggest that the girls are destructive or
harmful, or that they are unpredictable.

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IMAGERY:
- The apparent simplicity of this poem – in which, e ectively, only on event takes place –
disguises an impressive range of complex methods and ideas. The passage of the girl from the
sunny outside to the shady darkness of the house could be read as an allegory of the
progression from childhood to adulthood. The image of the girl, who is for most of the poem
poised between inside and outside, embodies the concept of liminality which lies at the centre
of the poem – that is, the girl is at a threshold of two states, but occupying neither.
- The poem is like a photograph – it captures a moment when a girl climbs through an upstairs
window into her home.
- In the imagery of the house as childhood and the outside world as adulthood, there is
perhaps another signi cance in the girl down below waiting to be let in through the now opened
door. The protagonist admits to being “half in love” with her, unsure, yet aware, of her feelings.
The girl below could be considered as a rst intrusion of the adult world into the girl’s
childhood, heralding the imminent transition between the two, through a trans guring sexual
experience.
- The childhood which the girls seem about to leave behind is associated closely with light and
colour. Light seems to emanate from within the girls themselves. This internal light might
suggest something about the inherent innocence and freedom. The girl on the roof is also
wearing gold earrings and anklet made of silver – the jewellery, associate them with adulthood.
The anklet and nail polish seem to catch the light in the same way and some help to suggest
the delicate, possible vulnerable, qualities of the girls and of childhood in general.
- The “Anklet” is a modern item of jewellery that has lost its connotations with slavery, from
which is originated, and is now rendered light and harmless. However, Copus has chosen it to
underpin her views on women’s role in society and the limited opportunities, of which this girl is
as yet unaware. The toenail varnish is similarly harmless; it is not, perhaps, the brave, bright,
red worn by a full-grown woman, but an almost apologetic, neutral “oyster”.

LANGUAGE:
- The use of tenses also informs the poem’s structure: it’s written in the present tense, but the
reference to astrology and the presence of the older secretary, as well as the mention of the
girl’s mother, are reminders of what the future might hold in store. The sense of balance is
further informed by the single question which comes almost exactly halfway through the poem
in which the narrator, for the only time, comments directly on the action.
- The house is used as an extended metaphor for childhood and the outside world as the
domain of adults. For now, she can move between them, through an open window, although
not through the door. She is still controlled by her mother. She has to nd a way to open that
door for herself.
- The use of “crouched” and “trembling”, images of fear, suggest that, if this adventure is
frightening, then the girl is not ready for the far greater, and more frightening, adventure that is
adult life. The most fearful part of this journey back into the safety of the house – symbolic of
her retreat back into childhood – is the ‘narrow windowsill’ which she has navigated to
escape, but now appears more challenging on her return. The window, however, is “open” –
not yet beyond her grasp – and the side of the house, against which she will have to press as
she reaches for the window-sill, is personi ed as a “warm ank”, comforting, like the body of
her mother.
- The reference to “petri ed beach” is to the asphalt with which the roof is covered, a type
which embeds small pebbles in the bitumen. It is an echo of the beach where these two friends
have been for their adventure, but also a pun. The word “petri ed” literally means “turned to
stone” which is what the roof-covering is. However, we take the word to mean “frightened”,
so it is also being used as a transferred epithet, or Hypallage, for the feelings of the girl.

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 STRUCTURE:
- The single stanza re ects the themes of time and freedom; ideas of a stream of consciousness
are emphasised by the extended use of enjambment. Life is continuous and has no structure.
- The poem is book-ended by two very long sentences in present tense, each slowing down
what little action there is.
- The poem is in free verse with no regular rhythm or rhyme scheme and comprises only
four sentences, the last being twenty-one lines long. It is the choice of line break that gives
the poem its structure, each line containing either a single picture or idea, with forward
momentum created by the enjambment.
- The poem’s narrative contains many moments of hesitation, or stillness, followed by movement,
and Copus uses the line breaks to mimic the movements of the poem’s protagonists and their
relationships in both space and time.
- The Volta is placed at the middle of the poem with two other simple sentences, enveloped by
two extended sentences. This interlude with much caesura emphasises the turbulence and
abruptness of the transition from youth to adulthood.
- The enjambment between “narrow windowsill, the sharp/drop of the stairwell”, to show the
contrast between her stillness on the porch roof as she steadies herself for the nal move and
the danger she faces once she does.
- Wide range of punctuation at the start to re ect the variety of life in childhood and adolescence
- Loosely similar line length of ten syllables causes a steady rhythm, which means that the
caesura- lled Volta is emphasised strongly .
- Very little rhyme, with some internal rhyme in the Volta.

TONE:
- The tone is conversational, and the poem is told by an unobtrusive narrator, who is an older
voice with understanding and sympathy for the situations of all the women described in the
poem. Moreover, the longish, enjambed lines providing a naturally easy ow – there are subtle
patterns of imagery which help bind the poem together. In particular, references to light and
colour in describing the girls help to convey both their delicate physical presence and the
fragility of this particular moment in time

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- The poem suggests that the world becomes less accommodating, more di cult and
uncomfortable – physically and perhaps also psychologically – the older we get. This more
distant viewpoint is then continued until the description of the secretary. It is from her
perspective that the friend is described – the secretary looks up to see the girl and perhaps her
own childhood. The perspective and structure of the poem therefore chimes with the poem’s
central concerns – it moves from the brightly-lit girl to the world-weary viewpoint of the adult.
This concept links to Jean- Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy that man was born innocent, but
society corrupts him as he enters into adulthood.
- There is a link with Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The girl is thirteen years old, the
same age as Juliet. Wearing a silver anklet may be associated with warding o evil spirits; the
girl’s mother will not let her have a key (much like Juliet’s mother); she looks down from the
porch roof at the friend “with whom she is half in love”. Moreover, the references to astrology
and to “omens”, remind us that the fare of the star-crossed Romeo and Juliet is written in the
stars. Romeo and Juliet die just as they are starting to grow towards adulthood, and at the core
of this poem, there is a similar uncertainty about the girl’s future course in life.

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 Look We Have Coming To Dover! - Daljit Nagra

STORY OF POEM:
- The poem describes the experiences of illegal immigrants as they arrive in Britain.
- Nagra has said this poem is part of his interest in the English language as a migrant language,
of how it has been exported globally during Empire, and imported back through the movement
and immigration of people.
- Despite (or indeed, because of) its linguistic e ervescence and playfulness, ‘Look We Have
Coming to Dover!’ is a profoundly political poem, with debates over national identity at its
centre.

CONTEXT:
- The poem’s epigraph reminds us of the powerful literary heritage of Dover. Matthew Arnold’s
poem is a famous poem written in 1851 which expresses society’s growing anxiety about the
modern secular world.
- Dover, one of the key entry points into the UK for immigrants, legal and illegal. It is famous for
its white cli s.
- “Blair’d” could be referencing the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who controversially
decided not to use available restrictions to prevent large scale immigration from the EU.
- “Swarm” – a few years after the poem was written, David Cameron described migrants
crossing the Mediterranean as a “swarm”. In the 1960s/70s when racism was rife in the UK,
immigrants were spat at or even urinated on.

THEMES:
- Identity - British identity is explored through various symbols used, but the idea of identity
being a combination of cultures is explored.
- Immigration - some commentaries on this poem suggest that the language in which it is
written is the Punglish of the Immigrants whose arrival in England is the subject of the poem.
- Society - critique of widespread fears regarding immigration and foreign cultures. The language
of the poem is a melting pot of ideas and cultures, re ecting the poem’s message of celebration
of culture.
- Con ict - potential for con ict between di erent cultures and ideas is addressed.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- The grammar of the title is deliberately incorrect, re ecting the context of people learning
English for the rst time. Dover is a typical English symbol and the rst sight of Britain for many
immigrants from Europe.
- The poem’s title is written in ‘Punglish’ and it, and the dedication, references the 19th century
poet Matthew Arnold’s poem ‘Dover Beach’ and probably WH Auden’s ‘Look, Stranger’. It also
alludes to the 1967 lm abot inter- racial relationships, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, in
which a daughter brings home her black, physician ancé to meet her white, liberal parents,
with surprising results. Furthermore, he uses words and ideas from the poem inscribed on the
Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, the iconic beacon of hope seen by immigrants arriving in
the New World. These allusions add a layer of irony to the poem, as well as adding layers of
meaning, similar to the poems of Du y, Turnbull and Heaney.

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 KEY QUOTES:
- “Surf phlegmed by the come and go” – imagery of bodily uids illustrates the di culties of
immigration and integration. Coinage re ects an immigrant’s weaker grasp of grammar.
- “Thunder unbladders yobbish rain and wind on our escape hutched in a Bedford van” –
personi cation and use of pathetic fallacy conveys the di culty facing immigrants upon
arrival. Rain evokes ideas of misery and toil which they must face in the coming years.
- “Seasons or years we rap inland, unclocked by the national eye” – use of metaphor or
harvest and personi cation of society suggests that, hidden in the suburbs, the immigrants
work hard at achieving a better life.
- “Swarms of us... banking on the miracle of sun – span its rainbow, passport us to life” –
dehumanising metaphor likens immigrants to pests. This phrase critiques the idea that
immigration threatens national identity. The imagery of light here contrasts to the misery earlier
– over time, they have found happiness, and the metaphor of ‘passport’ symbolises how a
permit of residence is what causes acceptance by society in the end.
- “Babbling our lingoes, ecked by the chalk of Britannia” – light-hearted onomatopoeia
re ects a pride in the cultural and linguistic diversity of British society whilst the nal symbol of
Dover, strongly associated with British success, is a hint at the di culty they faced in reaching
where they are.
- “Stowed in the sea to invade the alfresco lash of a diesel-breeze” – juxtaposition of
‘invade,’ with negative connotations of hostility, and ‘stowed,’ implying being hidden away, is a
criticism of those who are see immigration as hugely detrimental or even dangerous. The use of
Italian may be unnoticeable as words are continuously incorporated into English. ‘Diesel-
breeze’ is a critique of ignorant attitudes towards the environment.
- “Blair’d in cash” – allusion to Tony Blair, Prime Minister who allowed many European
immigrants into the country, and promoted the idea that society could be transformed by
money.
- The rhymes of “parks” and “sparks”, and the repetition of pylon, suggest a pattern of power
and dynamism which spreads (like the national grid for transmitting electricity) and sparks into
heat and light all over the country.

LANGUAGE:
- The use of non-English words is an intriguing way in which Nagra can be seen to be critical of
anti-immigration ideas and sentiments, demonstrating how English has naturally evolved to
incorporate words from other languages. There are many examples, such as “alfresco” (Italian)
and “camou age” (French) within the rst two stanzas, and reference to champagne through
“charged glasses” in the nal stanza. This would be very e ective for readers who notice the
inclusion of such words but don’t immediately see them as ‘foreign’ because it would
demonstrate how language has evolved, and how little it has been realised by modern society.
- Written in the voice of an immigrant for whom English is an additional language (the title
immediately announces this), the dismantling and vibrant reclaiming of English language from
its narrow, rather moribund, ‘standard’ grammar is playing out the wider impact of immigration
on English national identity. The language sometimes used by the media to describe
immigrants, such as ‘invade’, ‘teemed’ and ‘swarms’ is reclaimed with new, rather joyful
connotations.

STRUCTURE:
- Lyrical free-verse structure used to explore the diversity of modern Britain.
- Five quintets used, perhaps alluding to natural cycles of migration throughout history.

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 - Each stanza is packed with a dizzying array of sound e ects, created through use of
techniques such as alliteration, assonance, rhyme and half-rhyme; this is re ective of the
energy that immigrants bring, bursting through the poem in sound. This relentless style forces
the reader to appreciate this enthusiasm and desire to integrate.
- The tidal appearance of stanzas on the page due to increasing line length within each stanza
may illustrate the waves of immigration.
- Frequent use of commas and hyphens throughout the poem, illustrating diversity and change
in social structure. Since this punctuation joins sentences and words together, it could be seen
that this is demonstrating how diversity brings society closer together.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Celebration of immigration - The fth stanza is a celebration of success and of the
assimilation of the materialistic values of Tony Blair’s Britain of the 1990s. It has stopped
raining, nor is it too hot; so the immigrant family can enjoy its champagne and its heritage as
well as it hardened commercial success. There is grammatical and linguistic awkwardness here,
which shows that one hurdle still applies, however much the immigrant wants to be assimilated;
the most di cult thing is not adapting to new customs and a new way of life, but tuning in to
the nuances of grammar.

Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn - Tim Turnbull

STORY OF POEM:
- This poem is an example of ekphrasis – a description of a work of art as a rhetorical exercise.
The description is of the behaviour of youth and the response this gets from middle-class
neighbours.
- The poem is a conversation with the past – with both Keats’ poem and the Grecian urn – and it
asks a question about art and poetry: can (or should) young working-class people and their
culture be a subject for artistic expression?
- Both ‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’ and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ are examples of ekphrastic
poetry. Ekphrastic poem is a detailed recreation in words of a work of art.

CONTEXT:
- This poem takes its inspiration directly from John Keats’ ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, both in terms
of its subject matter and its verse form. This relationship with an earlier model sets up many
di erent resonances. Keats’ Ode was inspired by his contemplation of a Greek vase dating
from classical times, depicting scenes from ancient life including lovers, gods, musical
celebrations and religious rites. Grayson Perry is an eccentric ceramic artist, who comments on
social injustices and hypocrisies through his art. He has a tendency to cross-dress and shows
his subjects at odds with their attractive appearances.

THEMES:
- Identity - the exploration of identity of di erent groups helps the reader feel more connected to
the poem, having more empathy and also more likely to consider the ideas being proposed
such as how future generations may look back on the present.
- Beauty - One of the main themes of this poem is beauty and how ‘beauty [is] in the gift of the
beholder’. As generations continue and advance, their perception of beauty changes, we
romanticise the past.
- Materialism - The poem uses brand names such as ‘Burberry’ and ‘Calvin’s’ to emphasise
how materialistic our generation is. We value material possessions rather than memories and
company like people in the past did.
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 - Society - consideration of modern society, and how this may be perceived di erently and
potentially more positively in the future than it is today. Turnbull also explores social divisions
such as class di erences or generational gaps.
- Past and Present - allusion to ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is a consideration of the past in
comparison to the present, with the poem looking at the idea of society across time and its
presentation in art.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Reference to Keats’ ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn,’ with the same structure and exploration of beauty.
‘Ode’ is a Classical Greek form of song, whilst Perry is an artist who won the Turner prize for
modern depictions using classical art forms.

KEY QUOTES:
- “Throaty turbo road” – zoomorphic onomatopoeia is used to suggest distaste towards youth
activity.
- “They will stay out late forever, pumped on youth and ecstasy, on allow, bass and
arrogance, and speed on the back lanes” – enjambment illustrates how their energy will
never die down. Use of listing reimagines sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, reminding the reader of
how youths have always been primal, rebellious and experimental. Striking adjective compares
youth to a relentless machine whilst word-play of drugs and activity hints at the
experimentation young people indulge in.
- “Given head in crude games of chlamydia roulette” – crude word-play commenting on the
transmission of STIs and the party culture during teenage years.
- “Lives so free and beautiful” – irony of the negative perception of youth and the restriction
imposed on them in the current day.
- “How happy were those creatures then, who knew that truth was all negotiable and
beauty in the gift of the beholder” – liberal view of youth without judgement, stating that they
should be given freedom to enjoy and express themselves, living as they wish to.
- “Hello! What’s all this here” – unusual opening greeting, which seems very middle-class,
introduces the semantic eld of inclusivity.
- “Gaudy evocation can, somehow, conjure the scene, without inducing fright as would a
Daily Express expose” – juxtaposition of words relating to modern urban life, to traditional,
somewhat outdated language to emphasise transition.
- “House imported from the continent” - refers to the electronic music which has in uenced
styles such as UK garage, illustrating how globalisation and migration is increasing diversity in
culture.
- “Pumped on youth and ecstasy” - The informal adjective “pumped” helps to emphasise the
semantic eld of the poem and further link to the youthful aspects being described. The use of
“ecstasy” is interesting because it acts as a ‘gateway’ between the old words and language
and modern language, switching between meaning happiness or a type of recreational drug.
- “Pensioners and parents telephone the cops to plead for quiet, sue for peace” –
repetition and alliteration criticises adult views of youth and addresses the inter-generational
gap: these adults once indulged in the arrogance of youth and so should not be judgemental
when younger generations do the same.
- “All context is lost” – focus shifts back to art and how future generations may interpret and it,
linking to what modern classicists and artists believe ancient art is communicating. Turnbull
may be suggesting that the negative behaviour in the poem will one day be looked on
positively.

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 LANGUAGE:
- The semantic eld of the poem is very much based around words related to stereotypical inner
city and urban culture, with examples such as “estates” Daily Express” “children”
“motorways” and even references to “Calvins” and “donut Os” – but this is juxtaposed
against more traditional words (such as “louts” “gaudy evocation” and “kitschy”) that aren’t
commonly used among younger generations, which creates a sense of transition.
- Some readers may interpret this as a satirical view on a lack of understanding between
generations, such as the words that they use and the activities they do, which in turn could be
seen as recognising the way in which society has shifted and changed since ‘Ode on a Grecian
Urn’ was written.
- Similarly, the contrast of the ideas present in the semantic eld against ideas of “pensioners
and parents” can be seen as creating a sense of inter-generational and inter-class contrast,
emphasising the transition between these di erent elements of society. This can be interpreted
as generating a consideration for perspective, which is an idea that is explored further in the
nal stanza of the poem as a more considerate tone is developed.

STRUCTURE:
- An ode is a lyric poem with its origins in Ancient Greece, where is was set to music. It is
addressed in praise of an object, or person, which is then expanded to re ect on an abstract
concept – the nature of truth and beauty. Keats famously wrote his Odes in iambic pentameter
and Turnbull keeps to the same structure as Keats – ve stanzas of ten lines with a rhyming
scheme. The triplet may vary between dce/ced. Turnbull also keeps to the same ordering of
his argument as Keats over the ve stanzas.
- For a modern poem, not only is the form deliberately “traditional”, but the use of poetic
techniques – alliteration, assonance, enjambment and caesura – are as much features of
Turnbull’s poems as of Keats’.
- Free-verse with ve stanzas, each of which are ten lines in length, may be seen as
e ectively juxtaposing old and new ideas, as a traditional structure deals with contemporary
content.
- All stanzas start with ABAB rhyme: the rst three stanzas end with CDEDCE, whilst the last
two end with CDECDE. This complex rhyme scheme could illustrate the diverse society of
today.
- The structure, form and rhyme is the same as Keates’ Grecian Urn, re ecting how at a basic
level, youth will always be experimental.
- Mix of enjambment and end-stopping adds inconsistency, re ecting the unpredictability of
youth, and helps make the poem process faster: this fast pace may re ect the faster pace of
modern life.

TONE:
- At the beginning of the poem there is a sense of sarcasm as the speaker refers to the urn as
‘kitschy’ (art of poor taste), however as we progress down the poem there is a little sense of
jealousy over the fact that these ‘children’ are frozen in time as therefore ‘never having need to
race back home, for work next day’ and they will never be in any ‘harm’, these people are safe
and protected in this frozen urn.
- The speaker also creates a chatty tone right at the start through ‘Hello! What’s all this here?’

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Despite the di culties faced in the ‘real’ life of these young people (poverty, drugs, STDs, car
crashes, encounters with cops, social injustice), Grayson Perry con rms the inherent value of
their lives and their culture. Perhaps future poems will admire their freedom and happiness, in
the same way that Keats admires the young men and women depicted on the Grecian urn.
And, who knows, future readers might say the same about Turnbull’s poem.

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 The Furthest Distance Ive Travelled - Leontia Flynn
STORY OF POEM:
- Flynn reminisces about her own travels and dreams while she was a student who lives life
unknowingly, but then near to the end, when unemployment, eviction and rejection regularly
forms her everyday life, we her mature realisation that it is not where you travel that makes you
who you are, but the people you meet.
- The poem is written in four, long, loosely structured sentences that trace a woman’s realisation
about how Growing up and Time has changed her perception of the lived life. The poem is
rmly set at a particular time in the poet’s life – in this case, the mid 1990s, when Flynn would
have been in her early 20s. The opening lines recall her young adult years, and her rst,
independent travels. Many of the lines are broken and the rhymes awkward, as if to suggest the
freedom of her youthful adventures. Towards the end of the poem, the rhymes become more
regular and the lines more even in length, as the poet reaches a rueful, if unsettled, maturity.

CONTEXT:
- Many young people choose to travel during the early years of their adulthood as they generally
have fewer responsibilities at that age.

THEMES:
- Identity - Throughout the poem, the identity of the narrator becomes clearer through not only
the descriptions of the travels but also in the realisations that she has come to about how to
live and about the importance of her relationships with others. It becomes clear that all these
experiences have shaped the narrator in some way .
- Honesty - Part of the poem’s appeal lies in its honesty: the narrator’s younger self thinks she
has the answer, stating ‘This is how/to live.’ At the end of the poem she is still on the move,
though this time the distances travelled are through the lives of others. The narrator o ers no
conclusion about the best way to live: life remains provisional, unsettled. While once this lack of
stability represented freedom and adventure, now there is a sadness that things do constantly
change, as well as nostalgia for the lost exhilaration of life on the open road. The names of
remote places conjure up this lost excitement but now moving on means leaving people
behind. These memories might be ‘throwaway’ but they are also ‘souvenirs’ and ‘valentines’.
- Freedom - The poem’s exploration of the nature of freedom is re ected in Flynn’s use of the
rhyming couplet. However, instead of full rhyme, she often uses half rhyme. The line lengths
also di er wildly; in the most extreme example a word is split over two lines to clinch the rhyme.
It’s as if the poem is kicking against its own constraints, and this is partly what gives the poem
its sense of freewheeling energy. The tone only shifts in the nal stanza when the couplets
nally settle into full rhyme with lines of similar length.
- Society - Universal idea of the biggest journeys and distances being between people through
the continuous reference to other cultures.
- Time - the relentless passage of her emotional journey brings eventual stability to her life – after
travelling to areas in Nepal, America and Eastern Europe, time has brought her to a situation of
perpetual eviction and rejection.

RELEVANCE OF TITLE:
- Use of rst person indicates personal experience – how travel and transition has impacted
upon the speaker. Use of the superlative ‘furthest’ emphasises just how much change the
speaker has gone through.

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 KEY QUOTES:
- ‘Curved under it like a meridian’ – geographical reference to lines of longitude and latitude.
This imagery helps to reinforce the idea of travel and change early on, but also the idea of
di erent parts, indicating a change of situation and thoughts later in the poem.
- ‘Siberian white cells of scattered airports’ – the adjective “Siberian” has connotations of
isolation and extremity, showing the di erences of experiences away from home. The “white
cells” uses natural imagery to suggest that the desire to travel is a natural instinct. The
juxtaposition of this natural imagery and man-made “airports” shows how the advent of
technology has made global travel so much more accessible.
- ‘The furthest distances I have travelled have been those between people’ - by the end of
the poem the narrator has realised that relationships and emotional journeys are of just as
much importance as the physical journeys, with this metaphor conveying this explicitly. It also
highlights the distance there can be between individuals in relationships, and how di cult it can
be to bring people together.
- ‘Crushed valentines ́ - dramatic adjective, highlighting the impact of failed relationships on
the narrator.
- The penultimate quatrain contains a syndetic list of four ‘souvenirs’ left over from ‘holidaying’
in people’s lives: ‘alien plants, cinema stubs, the throwaway//comment – on a post-it note
– or a tiny stowaway// pressed ower’. The melancholy listing here suggests the apparently
trivial and unembellished quality of these items. Given the context, however, this list also
suggests a sadness regarding the developing distances between people. Each ordinary item is
probably imbued with a very personal memory of a past relationship.

LANGUAGE:
- Continuous technique of referencing locations, to reinforce the signi cance of travel and
experiencing other people and cultures. The idea of separation is conveyed in the distance
between locations: ‘the Sherpa pass, between Krakow / and Zagreb’ and ‘from Madison to
Milwaukee’ are examples of the distances the speaker has travelled between vastly di erent
physical places, one renowned for its extremity and another for its festivals, and how she learns
about herself through these experiences.
- The poem uses a range of gurative imagery which connects cohesively with its core idea of
journeys: ‘like a meridian’, ‘as over a tannoy’, ‘the Siberian white [of] airports’. Interestingly,
metaphors of journeys continue into the more domestic second section of the poem:
‘souvenirs’ and ‘stowaway’ describe – with added poignancy – the objects left behind at the
end of a relationship. Also ‘holidaying brie y in their lives’ is a memorable nal metaphor
which con ates beautifully the two central concepts in the poem – journeys and relationship. It
is a sad note on which to end – acknowledging the fragile, transient quality of our relationships
with others.
- Language of travel even in present time (‘stowaway,’ ‘holidaying,’ souvenirs’) show
in uence of travel, but also emphasise how important the people she has met are to her.

STRUCTURE:
- The poem has a clear, two-part structure.
- Free-verse in quatrains allows the speaker to e ectively communicate her experience whilst
the restrictive nature of regular life is re ected in the quatrains.
- Mostly, lines are often short, such as only having the one word “however” in the sixth stanza.
Since the nal two stanzas have signi cantly longer line lengths, this may indicate a transition in
thought due to the speaker’s realisation about relationships.

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 - The irregular line length causes disrupted rhythm, with the single-word lines breaking the
ow of the poem, which is re ective of the volatility of life. The splitting of ‘anonymity’
across two lines to create forced enjambment may indicate that the narrator’s vast range of
experience may cause confusion in hindsight.
- Hyphens create caesura to further convey a sense of re ection on the speaker’s emotional
journey.
- In the rst few stanzas, the rhyme is inconsistent with use of half-rhyme. However, as the
poem progresses the rhyme gains increasing clarity with AABB structure. This could represent
the freedom experienced by the narrator when discussing their travels in the beginning of the
poem, with the gradual introduction of a strict rhyme scheme showing monotony and
restrictions of everyday life. It could also be interpreted as representing the greater clarity and
focus as the narrator has gained as they have aged.
- The use of punctuation is also intriguing in some places, with frequent hyphens acting as
caesura to further impact on the rhythm of the poem. They also act as a break to the typically
listing ow of ideas being communicated, so as to focus on speci c imagery to further include
the reader in the sense of travel and experience, such as with the backpack in the rst stanza.
This helps to make a reader feel more connected with the narrator, almost as if they have
shared the experiences due to the strong imagery, and therefore more e ective at creating
empathy .
- The ‘voice’ of ‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’ remains personal throughout, due to the
persistent use of “I” in the poem. In addition, by often accompanying the word with a verb,
such as “I discover” in the sixth stanza, it further shows the independence of the narrator that
they have been doing all these actions and having these experiences on their own. This gives
them more perceived authority and experience to be able to talk about these ideas, which
makes the reader more focussed on what is being communicated.

TONE:
- The tone is optimistic at rst, but the high spirits evaporate, as the dream of wandering the
world collapses. Half way through the poem, at the start of stanza ve, we nd that the narrator
is in the UK, at a post o ce, alternatively unemployed (a giro) or in a chronic debt (a handful of
bills); having to take her “overdue laundry” to a launderette, and being evicted from one
temporary home after another.

CRITICAL IDEAS:
- Sherpa pass: Sherpa pass is an ethnic minority group from Nepal. Some members of the
Sherpa population are renowned for their mountaineering skills. A pass is a route between two
mountain peaks.
- Meridian: a line of longitude, drawn on maps and globes, between the north and south poles.
The curve Flynn is describing the curve of the earth as it widens at the equator.
- Giro: before the use of electronic bank transfers, the fortnightly ‘giro’ payment was the normal
way the government distributed bene t payment.
- Siberian: a large region in Russian, associated with snowy wilderness.
Zagreb: the capital of Croatia. Krakow: an old city in Poland. Greyhound: an inter-city bus
service in the USA.
- Larium: a drug used to prevent malaria (a tropical disease). Some people who take Larium
su er from serious psychiatric or nerve problems.

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