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37 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Eat Me |
- dramatic monologue - body = sex & post colonialist - alliteration, assonance and repetition = sensuous excess - rhyme/half rhyme (aba) = increases claustrophobia |
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Chainsaw versus the Pampas Grass |
- physical description - personified - patterns of imagery = assigns genders - shift in last 2 stanzas (more lyrical) =broader struggle - conversational, informal & mixed length sentences/ stanza = relaxed - highly patterned = imagery, sound (rhyme), alliteration & assonance |
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Material |
- tightly rhymed - a single object = vanished-predecimal world (nostalgia) - vivid detail = childhood & relationship with mother - title = actual material & how we are shaped by our mothers & shape our kids - social constraints = 'step-together' - contemporary motherhood still hard to square with self-hood - abcdefe = formal era + constraints (& each line 8 syllables) |
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Inheritance |
- introverted quality -informal = irregular stanzas & relaxed sentences (thinking out loud) - personal vs. political/historical (prior to Married Women's property act, 1870) - closure = what connects women is love, worry & powerlessness whilst kid sick |
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A Leisure Centre is also a Temple of Learning |
- modern vs. ancient & secular vs. religious - witty - girl = both goddess & worshipper - language reminiscent of the Old testament's Song of Soloman - tonal shift = last 3 lines (chorus a single entity commenting on dramatic action) - 12 women = 12 Apostles (post Christian symbolism) - light vs. Dark humour |
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History |
- big events (planes) set against the present moment (child absorbed in play) - paying attention to world's transience & beauty might act as and antidote to the hatred - not judgmental tho acknowledges our very presence is a source of harm - ends with 'irredeemable' (religious link = Christ the Redeemer) - nothing can be saved but paying attention = deeper appreciation - first 22 lines fractured = catch sense impressions and details - 'knelt' = religious image - stanzas becoming intermittently more regular as observations turn to thought (trying to make sense out of 🌍) -opposing concepts but beach between land and sea (guilt/hope, freedom/captivity) |
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The War Correspondant - Gallipoli (WWI), the Dardanelles campaign. Allied forces (British, their empire & France) attempted to capture Constantinople (Istanbul) an almost half a million dead/wounded |
- narrator tries to capture impression of a place (chaotic) = densely packed lines & rich sensory death = overwhelming physicality - melting pot = ever present threat of war - human activity = buying and selling (= metaphorical empires) - last line acknowledges he's still at a loss to describe the place |
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The War Correspondent - 'Balaklava' (Crimean War) Charge of the Light Brigade. British Cavalry sent up valley strongly held on 3 sides by Russians. 250 men & 400 horses killed/wounded for no military purpose. This time Turkish & French fighting on same side |
- graphic detail of the graves - living vs. Dead (gorgeous uniform vs. Decay of bodies) - how quickly they'll be killed (scarlet trousers of French cavalry same colour as tatters of dead English counterpart) - dead plundered by living who'll soon be dead - flowers (= soldiers vs. How they destroy them) - landscape already been polluted by warfare -juxtaposes 2 wars 60 years apart and our addiction to it. Allies aligned themselves differently = pointlessness of prior wars |
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An Easy Passage |
- 'halfway' = position of girl literally and age 13 (transition age) - opposites = being on the cusp (sun/shade, girls/adult, half in ❤️) - present tense but astrology, older secretary and mother = what future might hold - narrator = unobtrusive (as if movie camera & zooms of her life) detached - conversational - longish enjambed lines (flow) |
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An Easy Passage |
- 'halfway' = position of girl literally and age 13 (transition age) - opposites = being on the cusp (sun/shade, girls/adult, half in ❤️) - present tense but astrology, older secretary and mother = what future might hold - narrator = unobtrusive (as if movie camera & zooms of her life) detached - conversational - longish enjambed lines (flow) |
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The Deliverer |
- stark language = infanticide - relationship between narrator, her mother, foster child and new USA parents = troubling psychological depths (question familial relationships) - short sequence form - shifts of perspectives, time & places - lack of figurative/descriptive language - single syllable verbs = emphasis on the physical - one outburst of emotion - does not lay blame - even the merciless women are trapped |
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The Map Woman |
- impossible premise with detailed realism (a metaphor made physical) - layers of imagery = women's different levels of self - cultural references - post war 50s and 60s - an English everytown - boundaries & pining = sense of constraint - prevalence of lists & anapaestic rhythm = galloping tempo - irregular/ half rhyme = barely contained energy - ends on an almost couplet ('bone' 'home') = closure |
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The Map Woman |
- impossible premise with detailed realism (a metaphor made physical) - layers of imagery = women's different levels of self - cultural references - post war 50s and 60s - an English everytown - boundaries & pining = sense of constraint - prevalence of lists & anapestic rhythm ( a foot of 3 syllables - 2 short 1 long) = galloping tempo - irregular/ half rhyme = barely contained energy - ends on an almost couplet ('bone' 'home') = closure |
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The Lammas Hireling |
- intentional ambiguity (& unreliable narrator?) - takes us back to a rural world 100 years ago (echoes Hardy) - in his affinity with cows he has an almost magical quality - ominous "Then one night" - watches the body turn into a hare (narrators luck ran out - guilty & cattle cursed) - reader = role of priest (confessions must be full bit his only partial) - explores transgression (real/supernatural, male/female, guilt/innocence) - shifts in mood (traces of light) - heavy purse in 1st stanza = guilt of confession in last - long 'I' (light) and dance between pronouns ('I' & 'him') = central relationship - alliteration |
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The Map Woman |
- impossible premise with detailed realism (a metaphor made physical) - layers of imagery = women's different levels of self - cultural references - post war 50s and 60s - an English everytown - boundaries & pining = sense of constraint - prevalence of lists & anapaestic rhythm = galloping tempo - irregular/ half rhyme = barely contained energy - ends on an almost couplet ('bone' 'home') = closure |
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The Lammas Hireling |
- intentional ambiguity (& unreliable narrator?) - takes us back to a rural world 100 years ago (echoes Hardy) - in his affinity with cows he has an almost magical quality - ominous "Then one night" - watches the body turn into a hare (narrators luck ran out - guilty & cattle cursed) - reader = role of priest (confessions must be full bit his only partial) - explores transgression (real/supernatural, male/female, guilt/innocence) - shifts in mood (traces of light) - heavy purse in 1st stanza = guilt of confession in last - long 'I' (light) and dance between pronouns ('I' & 'him') = central relationship - alliteration |
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To my Nine-Year-Old Self |
- Dialogue with childhood self (tho kid doesn't speak - only her physical presence makes an impression) - vitality & spontaneity (active verbs) vs. frailties - attitudinal change (eager/pessimistic) - scared will 'cloud' the girls morning - ends with image of absorption in world of body - shifting pronouns (you/i) culminates in last stanza ('I leave you') = impossible for 2 realities to co exist |
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A Minor Role |
- we speak truthfully in face of life's most difficult moments - metaphor of stage & her role = explore ideas of social pretence (in face of illness carry on acting - refusal of society too look death in the eye 'direct speech') - 'observed' = audience & distance (perspective) - false conversational exchange = keep 'monstrous fabric' of daily life in tact - ambivalence = not dismissive of "the background music of civility" - imperatives ("cancel/tidy things) = trying to keep a lid on emotions - '-ing' = endless awful processes of being ill ( no time to reflect) |
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A Minor Role |
- we speak truthfully in face of life's most difficult moments - metaphor of stage & her role = explore ideas of social pretence (in face of illness carry on acting - refusal of society too look death in the eye 'direct speech') - 'observed' = audience & distance (perspective) - false conversational exchange = keep 'monstrous fabric' of daily life in tact - ambivalence = not dismissive of "the background music of civility" - imperatives ("cancel/tidy things) = trying to keep a lid on emotions - '-ing' = endless awful processes of being ill ( no time to reflect) |
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The Gun |
- acknowledges thrill of connection between sex, death and life - 1st stanza dramatic (literal & metaphorical line crossed = safe haven of family) - atmosphere of violence sustained throughout = short lines, disruptive line breaks, hard consonantal sounds (embeds gun's explosive potential) - enjambment = shines spotlight on words at end/start of line (breaks enact violent encounter between human & animal) - breaks contemp liberal taboos of hunting & gender roles - primitive thrill & basic instincts - last stanza = ancient rights & pagan beliefs ('King of Death')
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A Minor Role |
- we speak truthfully in face of life's most difficult moments - metaphor of stage & her role = explore ideas of social pretence (in face of illness carry on acting - refusal of society too look death in the eye 'direct speech') - 'observed' = audience & distance (perspective) - false conversational exchange = keep 'monstrous fabric' of daily life in tact - ambivalence = not dismissive of "the background music of civility" - imperatives ("cancel/tidy things) = trying to keep a lid on emotions - '-ing' = endless awful processes of being ill ( no time to reflect) |
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The Gun |
- acknowledges thrill of connection between sex, death and life - 1st stanza dramatic (literal & metaphorical line crossed = safe haven of family) - atmosphere of violence sustained throughout = short lines, disruptive line breaks, hard consonantal sounds (embeds gun's explosive potential) - enjambment = shines spotlight on words at end/start of line (breaks enact violent encounter between human & animal) - breaks contemp liberal taboos of hunting & gender roles - primitive thrill & basic instincts - last stanza = ancient rights & pagan beliefs ('King of Death')
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The Furthest Distances I've Travelled |
- journeys (physical & emotional) - shift = freedom of student traveller to mature perspective (acknowledges our emotional geography as significant as our physical journeys) - sadness, nostalgia and loss of exhilaration - remote places = excitement and leaving people behind ('throwaway' 'souvenirs' 'valentines') - nature of freedom = rhyming couplet (but instead of full rhyme only half) - line lengths wildly differ & words split over two lines = kicking against its own constraints - final stanza = couplets settle into full rhyme and length
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Giuseppe |
- realism/ fairytale - contrast between what happens and tone described (Even 'butchered' lacks moral judgement as is literal fish) - figurative language almost absent (except golden & large) - and 1 simile (screamed like a women) = heart of poem - mermaid symbolic of outsider/enemy - Nazi racial superiority - poem undermines arguments (e.g. She's married) - collective guilt (can't look in eyes) and word 'God' |
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Out of the Bag |
- poem acts like a bag (contents slowly revealed by poet) - movement (different locations) = how far poet travelled in life (How important his start remained to his psyche) - class, faith gender - childhood mythology and Dr treated like God (each visit accompanied with time honoured rituals) - frightened by power over life and death - highly educated poet - then powerless again (nearly fainting as priests helper) - can poetry cure? - lastly a passive observer again = acknowledges female power and breaking taboos (female bodies and status) - her sweet colloquial voice at end = contrasts with Heaney's erudition (final dramatisation) |
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Effects |
- holds dead mum's hand - flood of memories & vein of recollection that recreates her life - poem's syntax = central to its impact ( only 2 sentences = unstoppable flow of feeling, & clauses & subclauses with tons of details triggering memories) - typical of conservative class and era (by contrast son is educated = distance between now painfully permanent) - only now she's dead be realised his antipathy towards her reflects lacking compassion - tightly but irregularly rhymed (some rhymes 14 lines apart = closeness and distance of relationship) - towards end rhyme denser and triplet at end = finality of her death |
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The Fox in the National Museum of Wales |
- fox = ambiguous guide to culture of museum - vivid, living, physical energy ('skedaddles' 'shimmies' 'trots) - symbolic fox = place in folklore - narrator calls to mind it's predatory cunning nature (a threat is clear 'the fox is in the flock' and blood on bristles) - narrator 'chases' it = travels through history & reminds a single nation never exists in isolation & is always connected - similar with range of disciplines shown (human endeavour) - fox = the future & something to follow but we can never catch up - dark conclusion = images of extinction (dodo and oil drum) - museum = both humanity's destruction / creative impulses |
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Genetics |
- villanelle = dance of separation & togetherness (2 repeated lines alternate at end of each stanza & circular so final couplet & start echoes a ring & marriage imagery) - parents relationship with child expressed by structure, form & meaning of poem becoming 1 - form also a bit different as genetics doesn't create a carbon copy (palms & hands = half rhyme) = new identity - parents no longer together so she's all that's left to show it - at end 'you' introduced = own partner, own future own fam = continuity and change together
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From the Journal of a Disappointed Man |
- contrast between narrator & workmen ( no interaction only observing) = doesn't comment on but dramatises the distance - physical strength vs. Passivity ( but they lack use of poetic language only functional simplicity) - recalling works of 18th/19th fiction = he is a literary man - little insight into narrators emotions or thoughts (only hinted at via metaphors and figurative language - ambivalent attitude) - juxtaposition at end = 2 types of masculinity yet neither has answer to 'secret problem' - final image (pile hanging) = symbolic of whole enterprise ( he too notices he's a square part) - piers don't go anywhere = little way forward |
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Look we have coming to Dover! |
- grammatically incorrect - Epigraph of Matthew Arnold's 'On Dover Beach' (society's growing anxiety about the modern secular world) = also acknowledges presence of a beloved but more enthusiastic '!' (And optimism) - hardship & poverty vs. 'Cushy' tourists - animal imprisonment - ends with reference to Arnold's mythical England (white chalk of the Dover cliffs) - dizzying array of sound effects = half rhyme, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and new words 'phlegmed'(& colloquial English) - incorporates derogatory language of those who see immigrants as a threat to nat identity - cheerful disregard to proper English =heart of poem questions what constitutes as national identity? |
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Fantasia on a Theme of James Wright |
- haunting industrial past - locates miners & the past they represent (now gritty stubborn ghosts refusing to believe 'history' is 'done') = become at one with bedrock - not a rose tinted attitude towards past = implied criticism of their determination & loyalty to class which it was proud of - last 2 stanzas = deep respect and kinship ('brothers') - biblical resonance = founding elements of stone & water - grandeur - free verse yet heavily patterned = formal quality & elegiac tone (pairs/ triplets alliterating strongly stressed word = power rhythm = physical heavy work of miners) - on other hand - collective energy may one day disturb future (past not entirely exhausted) |
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Please Hold |
- metaphor for modern day life - trapped in a world of binary response (deviation from script = incomprehension/delay) - maze of language - dead ends - language = banality/ meaningless -irony=when narrator surpasses system human is robotic too - funny with dark undertone - dominance of automation & failure of language - final three lines = 'hold''old''cold' (Life may pass as you wait for an answer)
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Please Hold |
- metaphor for modern day life - trapped in a world of binary response (deviation from script = incomprehension/delay) - maze of language - dead ends - language = banality/ meaningless -irony=when narrator surpasses system human is robotic too - funny with dark undertone - dominance of automation & failure of language - final three lines = 'hold''old''cold' (Life may pass as you wait for an answer)
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You, Shiva and My Mum |
- in process of asking q the story is told = q rhetorical - too embarrassed at start to tell? Or scared mum hypocrite? - some of these anxieties expressed in the shifting perspectives of the poem - one foot western & one foot Indian like mother - relationship with mother and 'you' - see-sawing = indented stanzas = shifting appearance on page (8/12 stanzas enjambed = disorientating) - but irregular, light touch rhymes/ Half rhymes bind it together (connection & disconnection) - reassuring fond laughter of 'you' = it's okay to be in both worlds - all religious weddings brought together by mother's role & the hardships she will go through
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Song |
- celebrates small actions which cumulatively make a difference - dedicated to S. African white liberal activist Helen Suzman (against the apartheid system) = honours collective power of protest - via heaviness/lightness (the feather that can 'tip/the balance' of a sinking ship & rep of 'weight' four times) - enjambed lines = eye & mind hang briefly - weaving of a repeated/ near repeated word = momentum - most important = nothing/something - fruition in final stanza when change takes place between 'till' & 'then' = transformation begun (alteration of one word = words the kind of small act poets champion) |
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On her blindness |
- sight normally dominant = unusual territory - detail from direct experience (mother dodgem like eating) - she has become the observed - largely plain & conversational w/ little figurative language - enjambment not just across lines but stanzas = disorientating & harder to negotiate the poem's meaning - "one shouldn't say it" = division of what can & can't say runs throughout (even when mother honest he can't reply w/ similar candour) - she maintains fiction (lies we tell ourselves in face of frailty) - adaption of John Milton's sonnet "On his blindness" ( how it limits us to serve God but stoicism = those who put up like a Roman to 'affliction' without complaint) |
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Ode to a Grayson Perry Urn |
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