History - John Burnside

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

focuses on one moment in time and the effects on the future

Question 2

‘September 2001’

Answer 2

reference to the events of 9/11

Question 3

‘sand’

Answer 3

grains and remains - connotates obliteration

Question 4

‘beach’

Answer 4

beaches sit between the land (solid) and the sea (fluid) - providing a bridge between them.

Question 5

‘with the news in my mind, and the muffled dread of what may come -‘

Answer 5

• concrete vs abstract, the speaker is uncertain of what may come
• pessimistic views of human nature

Question 6

‘i knelt down in the sand’

Answer 6

• allusion to prayer
• needs to ground himself - longing for the tangible (sand)

Question 7

‘finding evidence of life in all this’

Answer 7

• extended metaphor - searching for humanity
• finds comfort in tangible things - the world remains unchanged

Question 8

‘snail shells; shreds of razorfish;’

Answer 8

• primitive lifeforms - connotates aftermath of war
• harsh and abrasive language

Question 9

‘at times i think what makes us who we are
is neither kinship nor our given states
but something lost between the world we own
and what we dream about behind the names’

Answer 9

• quatrain - stanza is more structured - the speaker has collected thoughts
• Marxist desire for statelessness
• speaker feels there is nothing concrete that defines a person
• actions are not explained by logic - speaker trying to understand terrorism

Question 10

‘what tethers us to gravity and light’

Answer 10

• fundamental ideas emphasise a common humanity
• ‘light’ - positive connotations
• voice becomes momentarily composed - shifts to steadier iambic pentameter

Question 11

‘child’s first nakedness’

Answer 11

ignorance and vulnerability and purity
- questioning how much innocent human nature can be corrupted

Question 12

‘we trade so much to know the virtual
we scarcely register the drift and tug
of other bodies’

Answer 12

• ‘trade’ - capitalism or allusion to Twin Towers
• ‘virtual’ - intangible
• ‘drift and tug’ - tangible

Question 13

‘of ornamental carp in public parks’

Answer 13

• the facade of preserving life
• trapping of natural things - criticism of humanities disregard for life

Question 14

‘kite plugged into the sky’

Answer 14

• a reference to the beginning of the poem
• ‘kite’ - a symbol of hope - the same sky that is used for ‘war planes’ areas used for innocent enjoyment
  ‘plugged into’ - technology-obsessed consumerist society

Question 15

‘attentive to the irredeemable’

Answer 15

• biblical - no chance of salvation
• society often places more focus on horrendous acts

Question 16

Overall messages

Answer 16

• live in the present and be observant, than worry about things that can’t be changed or retrieved
• a wider idea about humanity and could be pivotal as to whether it is hopeful or pessimistic
• The world’s transient and beauty might act as an anecdote to the hatred that create motivated violence

Question 17

Structure

Answer 17

• irregular and disjoined
• conveys the confusion and strong changes in emotion - a visual representation of a confused society
• sense of falling - security or towers collapsing
• use of indentation, blank space and varied lengths make visual the speaker’s difficulty in creating order out of the dispersed ‘drift work’