From the Journal of a Disappointed Man Flashcards
Themes in Journal
-Masculinity
-Outsider
(1) ‘I discovered these men’
presents workmen as almost a new species
- unique/exotic
‘(1) ‘driving a new PILE into the PIER. There was all the PARAPHERNALIA….’
PLOSIVE ALLITERATION - harshness and intensity of the men’s work conveyed
(1) ‘Chains, pulleys, cranes, ropes and, as I said, a wooden pile’
SYNDETIC LISTING - reiterates practical, active nature of the work
(1) ‘paraphernalia’
CONTRAST between workmen and speaker
- speaker uses complex words
- workmen barely speak at all ‘ruminative’
(1+2) Swinging
over the water’
ENJAMBMENT - intends to capture movement of pile.
- reiterates difficulty
(2+8) ‘massive’
REPETITION - vastness and imposing nature of the men emphasised
(2) ‘even the men; very powerful men; very ruminative and silent men ignoring me’
REPETITION of men
- speaker separates himself from the workmen
What 2 types of masculinity are in the poem Journal
1 - workers - tough, strong, few words
2 - speaker - man of words
(3) ‘to the obscure movements’
Fascinated by the workmen but unable to understand them
(4) ‘Every one of the monsters
Was silent’
METAPHOR - intimidated by the workmen
- belong to another world for the speaker
(8) ‘to gaze down like a mystic’
SIMILE - people capable of deeper thought
(9) ‘trajectory’ ‘Bolus’ ‘slow descent’
Typical poetic langauge
- profound and meaningful
(10) ‘and with a heavy kind of majesty’
The lead workmen carries the ‘grace’ of authority as a solemn burden
(11) ‘That left
the pile still in mid-air, and me’
CAESURA - ends poem in ambiguous and uncertain state
- seperates himself from the workmen
