Border Country Flashcards
How is Sheers proving his Welsh heritage in this poem?
It makes an allusion to the Welsh novel of the same name by Raymond Williams. The novel is about a Welsh academic in London returning home when his father suffers a stroke.
What does ‘border’ represent in this poem?
A moment of transition into something new. Childhood - adulthood.
Describe the imagery in ‘the hummock of a grave, a headstone of trees’.
The trees are like gravestones. The cars buried underneath represent childhood.
How does Sheers’ compare nature and industry in an ‘elephants graveyard of cars’?
Because elephants are known for seeking a quiet place of solitude, away from the pack, when they are about to die, Sheers gives an otherworldly sense that the cars have gone to this quiet quarry of their own volition.
What is ‘The commas and apostrophes / of minnows’ the first example of?
Birds being compared to typography in this collection – this motif will be picked up later in Swallows – ‘the swallows are italic again’. We may also link this with the ‘ink dot cows’ at the end of the poem.
How does this poem link to Mametz Wood?
When Sheers describes his friend’s passed father as ‘a poppy sown in the unripe corn’.
What gives the impression that war is an unshakeable image for Sheers?
- The clear semantic links between poppies and the First World War, along with the car-names being described as the ‘names of the dead’.
- It also heightens the tension between man and nature as being almost warlike – the ongoing battle between the two is a key theme here.
What is the loss of innocence caused by?
Sheers’ early encounter with mortality.
Why could Sheers no longer play with the cars?
The vastness of death has overshadowed his ability to engage in innocent play and he can now only see the cars as further corpses.
What does ‘home’ represent in Border Country?
The innocence once felt by the poet as a child – he is ‘trying once more to find his way’ towards the feeling of uncompromised, innocent enjoyment he was once able to feel among the wrecked cars, whereas all he is now able to think of is mortality.
