Absence by Elizabeth Jennings

Question 1

Context:

Answer 1

• Jennings was an English poet and devout Catholic, that had a deeply-felt sense and respect for the holiness of nature.
• She was part of a group called The Movement, which reacted to poetry that was verbose and difficult to understand; she wanted poetry to be accessible to all.
• She generally wrote in simple, direct language with regular poetic structures, clear in Absence, which has a classic iambic pentameter, and a steady rhyme scheme.
• “Absence” was featured in her collection, “A sense of the World”, which explored the feelings of loss and loneliness.
• Her poetry was often about the themes of love and death.

Question 2

Form:

Answer 2

• 3 quintets, lyrical poem, exemplifying the expression of personal feelings of loss.
• Interesting to note that the neat and steady shape of the poem contrasts with the speaker’s turbulent, unstable state of mind, shaken by the trauma of loss.
• The form hence seems to reflect the “well-tended” nature of the gardens, creating a more powerful sense of alienation in terms of the speaker’s despondent state of mind.

Question 3

Rhyme Scheme and Meter:

Answer 3

• Simple, alternating rhyme scheme and steady iambic pentameter
• Portrays the consistency and tranquility of the surroundings, contrasting even further with the speaker’s inner agony.
• “Nothing” uses a trochee, emphasising the speaker’s surprise and agitation at the fact that everything dares to stay normal despite everything changing for her
• The slant rhyme between “force” and “grass” exemplifies the power of the “earthquake tremor”, which breaks the simple rhymes, further reflecting how emotionally shaken the speaker is

Question 4

Structural point:

Answer 4

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker seems composed, whereas, by the end, she is captivated by emotions, portraying a rapid escalation into depression as well as her turbulent mental state.

Question 5

KEY QUOTE(s): Repetition of negatives highlights the fact that nothing had changed:

Answer 5

Repetition of “nothing” and “no”

Question 6

KEY QUOTE: The speaker declares that everything is the same in the place they visit, with images of order and stability; the adjectives “usual”, “steady”, and “well-tended” create a semantic field of calm continuity that juxtaposes the speaker’s painful, mourning state of mind:

Answer 6

“Nothing was changed, the gardens were well-tended, the fountains sprayed their usual steady jet”
- The caesura after “nothing was changed” creates a reflective pause, perhaps exemplifying the speaker’s surprise and agony at the fact that nothing has changed outside despite her entire world changing.

Question 7

KEY QUOTE: The speaker resents the birds’ joy and indifference; they are anthropomorphised, emphasising how the speaker almost channels her anger, stemming from her excruciating mental agony, towards the birds, who she finds insensitive and perhaps insulting - she is alienated from society due to the lack of change in her surroundings contrasting with her turbulent emotional state:

Answer 7

“The thoughtless birds […] singing an ecstasy I could not share”

Question 8

KEY QUOTE: Juxtaposition is used twice, between “pleasures” and “pain”, and “discord” and “level”; this reflects the speaker’s own emotional conflict and the contrast between her grief and the unchanged, pleasurable surroundings of nature:

Answer 8

“Surely in these pleasures there could not be a pain to bear or any discord shake the level breeze.”
- The enjambment reflects her overflowing emotion, exemplifying her inner agony at the fact that nothing has changed outside of herself.

Question 9

KEY QUOTE: The familiarity of the place and the unchanged nature of the speaker’s surroundings intensify her grief even further; the adjective “savage” exemplifies the painful torment she experiences - “force” suggests she has been overwhelmed by agony:

Answer 9

“It was because the place was just the same that made your absence seem a savage force”
- Sibilance creates a harsh, hissing sound, perhaps alluding to the speaker’s animosity towards the unchanged state of the place.

Question 10

KEY QUOTE: Juxtaposition is used again, as the “gentleness” of the surroundings is shattered by the speaker’s metaphorical emotional “earthquake tremor”, amplifying her shockwave of grief - this is perhaps the climactic point of the poem, where the speaker’s emotional torment is at its peak:

Answer 10

“under all the gentleness there came an earthquake tremor: fountain, birds and grass were shaken by my thinking of your name”
- The caesura creates a dramatic pause, intensifying the speaker’s agony; just the thought of the speaker’s loved one seems to have a powerful, radiating effect on the surroundings, exemplifying the extent of the grief she feels due to her loss.

Question 11

Summary:

Answer 11

This poem is a painful encapsulation of the traumatising, frustrating, and excruciating feelings of agony experienced by the speaker due to the loss of her loved one; the mystery surrounding this entity enables us to focus more on the speaker herself, intensifying her agony. The unchanged, steady nature of her surroundings causes her to feel resentment and insulted by the birds, while this alienation and contrast is furthered by the steady form, meter, and rhyme scheme of the poem. The speaker’s grief seems to escalate towards the end, creating an “earthquake tremor”, accentuating the extent of emotional torment and grief that she feels due to the sharp contrast between her shaken state and the steady nature of her surroundings.