Dry Point, Myxomatosis and Spring

Question 1

‘____________- shadowed people’ (Spring)

Answer 1

Green

Question 2

‘children finger the ___________ grass’ (Spring)

Answer 2

awakened

Question 3

What technique is used here: ‘children finger the awakened grass’ (Spring)?

Answer 3

personification

Question 4

‘___________ a cloud stands, __________ a bird sings’ (Spring)

Answer 4

calmly

Question 5

‘____________ my pursed-up way across the park’ (Spring)

Answer 5

threading

Question 6

What does the word gratuitous mean, and in which poem is it used?

Answer 6

Gratuitous = free/giving. This is used in Spring to present the natural world as unrestricted and plentiful.

Question 7

What technique is used here: ‘Is fold of untaught flower, is race of water // Is earth’s most multiple, excited daughter (Spring)?

Answer 7

Anaphora. This presents the natural world as multiple and vast in its beauty.

Question 8

‘earth’s most multiple, excited ___________’ (Spring)

Answer 8

daughter

Question 9

Why does Larkin compare spring to ‘earth’s most multiple, excited daughter’? (Spring)

Answer 9

To present it as a time of new life, energy and vibrance.

Question 10

What does the word craven mean, and in which poem is it used?

Answer 10

craven = cowardly. This is used in Spring, as the narrator suggests that the path he has chosen, which is different to broader societal norms, is seen by some as odd and cowardly.

Question 11

Why does Larkin use an AB rhyme scheme in the first stanza of Spring?

Answer 11

The simple upbeat rhyme scheme is perhaps intended to represent the simple energy and joys of the spring season.

Question 12

What is the effect of the punctuation used in Spring? ‘…the balls that bounce, the dogs that bark, The branch-arrested mist of leaf, and me,’

Answer 12

The caesura ‘, and me,’ shows a clear divide between the speaker and the vibrant spring season being described. Although he admires the vibrance of nature, he also feels removed from it.

Question 13

In 1961, what was introduced in the UK that gave women greater independence?

Answer 13

The contraceptive pill

Question 14

What was the 1960s called by some - conveying how it was seen as a time of increased freedoms and liberation?

Answer 14

The ‘swinging 60s’

Question 15

‘__________ time-honoured irritant’ (Dry Point)

Answer 15

endlessly

Question 16

‘endleslly time-honoured ____________’ (Dry Point)

Answer 16

irritant

Question 17

What does the word ‘restively’ mean and in which poem does it appear?

Answer 17

restively = cannot be controlled. This appears in Dry Point - ‘a bubble is restively forming…’ - to describe the uncontrollable nature of sexual desire.

Question 18

‘______________, intent, real’ (Dry Point)

Answer 18

bestial

Question 19

What does the word bestial mean, and in which poem does it appear?

Answer 19

bestial = animal-like. This appears in Dry Point, suggesting how sexual desire makes us savage and primitive.

Question 20

What technique is used here, and why? ‘the bright blown walls collapse’ (Dry Point)

Answer 20

Plosive alliteration - this represents a moment of sexual release.

Question 21

‘What ______ hills, what salted, shrunken lakes’ (Dry Point)

Answer 21

ashen

Question 22

In Dry Point, why does the speaker, after gratifying his sexual desires, refer to ‘ashen hills’ and ‘shrunken lakes’?

Answer 22

The barren, hopeless landscapes metaphorically represent how, even after giving in to his sexual desires, he is left unfulfilled and empty.

Question 23

What is ‘Birmingham magic’ and why is is ‘discredited’? (Dry Point)

Answer 23

Birmingham magic refers to the city, which in the 1940s and 1950s was known for its jewelry and wedding rings. This becomes ‘discredited’, as sexual desire shows marriage to be a lie.

Question 24

What does the ‘padlocked cube of light’ symbolise in Dry Point?

Answer 24

The ‘cube of light’ symbolises a state of purity and innocence, free from the corrupting influence of sexual desire. However, the speaker suggests that this is a state he will never be able to achieve - it it ‘padlocked’ meaning he can ‘obtain no right of entry’.

Question 25

What is Myxomatosis?

Answer 25

A deadly disease that affects rabbits

Question 26

Caught in the centre of a ___________ field’ (Myxomatosis)

Answer 26

soundless

Question 27

What does the word inexplicable mean, and in which poem does it feature?

Answer 27

inexplicable = can’t be explained. This is used in Myxomatosis (‘hot inexplicable hours’) to show how the rabbit is left ignorant and powerless.

Question 28

What technique is used here? ‘Where were its teeth concealed?’ (Myxomatosis)

Answer 28

Personification. The myxomatosis virus is depicted as an external predator, showing the rabbit’s ignorance about the nature of death.

Question 29

‘You may have thought things would come right again/If you could only keep quite still and ____________’ (Myxomatosis)

Answer 29

wait

Question 30

What does the word ‘suppurate’ mean, and in which poem does it feature?

Answer 30

Suppurate = to rot/fester. This is used in Myxomatosis (‘in what jaws you were to suppurate’) to convey the brutal, inescapable fate of the rabbit.

Question 31

What is the significance of the form used in Myxomatosis here: ‘‘You seem to ask. // I make a sharp reply’

Answer 31

The line break symbolises how the speaker ends the rabbit’s life with his ‘sharp reply’. However, this is an act of compassion, relieving the rabbit of the pain caused by the Myxomatosis virus.