Dry Point Flashcards
What can be inferred through the opening line ‘Endlessly, time-honoured irritant’?
Shows an inescapable constant nature of sexual desire as speaker is unable to find satisfaction. Caesura shows sexual desire is chaotic/cannot be ignored/disruptive/uncontrollable
What can be inferred through ‘Silently, it inflates till we’re enclosed’?
The colloquial language shows him grouping himself with society. Shows we are restricted/trapped/victim to our base desires
What devices are used in ‘start the struggle to get out: / Bestial, intent, real.’?
Enjambment - restriction
Asyndetic listing/tricolon - shows primitive, undignified and lack of intimacy
End stop - adds emphasis to sexual desire being an undeniable, raw truth that is a part of us whether we like it or not
What device is used in ‘the bright blown walls collapse’?
Plosive alliterative metaphor suggest the speaker finishing/aggressive release of desire. Destructive imagery - speaker feels unfulfilled/shame/exposed
What device is used in ‘sad scapes’?
Natural imagery - landscape is barren mirroring the speakers lack of fufilment/satisification - emptiness
What device is used in ‘What ashen hills! what salted, shrunken lakes!’?
Repeated exclamatives/ caesura present as disturbing/disrupting chaos of desire. Barren/hopeless landscapes metaphorically represent, even after giving into desire, he is still unfulfilled
What can be inferred through ‘Birmingham magic’?
Refers to the city, which was famous for manufacturing wedding rings, shows how speaker feels marriage is somewhat soiled by the impurity of sexual desire
What can be inferred through ‘And how remote that bare and sun scrubbed room’?
Use of place to present a sterile/clinical setting to mirror speakers state of mind - empty and unpleasant as he may be disconnected from himself
What can be inferred through ‘padlocked cube of light’?
Fufillment of desire is unobtainable/out of reach. Or the light symbolism could show a state of purity and innocence that is not possible due to the corrupting nature of sexual desire
What AO3 can be linked?
Theme of desire could perhaps be preumptive of swinging 60s and modernised attitudes towards sex - hedonism. ‘Only state of marriage I knew was bloody hell’. ‘Having sex is like asking someone else to blow your nose’ never feel fulfilled as others cannot fully realise your needs
What is the structure?
Repeated quanta’s suggestive of the consistent cycle of sexual desire. The lack of regular rhyme could perhaps suggest we have a lack of control over our base desires
