Effects Flashcards
1
Q
Structure/form
A
- stream of conciousnesss caused by the single stanza; unfiltered outpouring of emotion
- cyclical structure: poem begins and ends in the hospital room showing that the biggest and last effect his mum had was her death. It may, coupled with the single passage show the cycular motion of life
- free verse agrees with the singular sternaza in its reflection of the unfiltered and personal stream of consciousness as an outpouring of grief
2
Q
Opening line
A
- lexis scarred indicates her life as conforming to the bygone tradition of living in the domestic sphere and working as the sole caregiver to a family as a woman
- very static imagery as she is the one held is a complete juxtaposition to the lines that discuss her working life
-the personal link between the lexis i and her linked by ‘held’ suggests a loving and caring intreched values between the two
3
Q
From chopping, slicing, from the knives that lay in wait
In bowls of washing-up, that was raw,
The knuckles reddened, rough from scrubbing hard
At saucepan,
A
- loads of phrases in the gerund (present continuous) form show an attempt to be grounded in the present/ distracted from the real present loss of his mother
- they underscore her continuous productive nature and thus how her life revolved around being a caregiver to her chikdren- creates pathos for family members
- these lines are emphatically enjambed which perhaps mimics the seemingly endless nature of her domestic tasks and how hard she had to work to provide
- further the use of asyndeton makes her toils seem endless and profound
- the hard consonants in the asyndetic list represents her manual and often painful work
4
Q
His mothers cultural/ class difference to him
A
- ‘soaps and game shows id disdain’ shows how her child isn’t conforming to the working class stereotype of enjoying bugetable television and thus they can’t relate to eachtoehr
- ‘funny foreign stuff’ frickative alliteration shows a twinge of disdain and mocking for his mothers ideology. Quoting shows mocking and even exposure of her casual xenophobia as they are not truly understanding of each other
5
Q
She cooked, and we ate
A
- caesura creates a barrier between the parents
- underscores how mothers were bound to domesticity but weren’t relatable to their children
- her bland and iconically British cooking is representative of a bygone age of people
6
Q
Asyndetic listing
A
- happens twice w caesura
- underscores the tedium of her last days at the care home and at her own home in comparison to the active gerund verbs of her domestic life as a mother
7
Q
Smudged black ink was all she wore
A
- syntax reveals she is rendered of secondary importance to the objects of which she wears
- she has no individuality anymore
- lexis ‘smudged’ implies a personal lack of individuality or loss of such in contrast to the list of objects she owned prior
8
Q
The last words she said were please don’t leave
But of course I left;
A
- ironic are last words are meant to be honoured and thus he may not truly have respect or connection to his mother
- the lexis of course implies that perhaps this is predictable of their relationship as they are not really connected to each other
- emphatically placed colon creates caesura on the line and thus gives space to understand the weight of their fractured relationship
- in some respects metaphorically he had already left their relationship in his adulthood
9
Q
‘Little bag of her effects to me’
A
- the lexis little is interesting as it shows that she didn’t really effect his life despite her domestic efforts due to their cultural divide
- little also represents the small amount of goods she has ownership of and thus how fleeting life is
