Letters From Yorkshire Revision Flashcards
‘Planting potatoes’
L= alliteration
Shows how he is a practical man who enjoys manual work and the outdoors where as she is usually indoors reflects as she is a Writer.C=This reflects how the poet is also a writer.
‘Lapwings return…to write to me’
L=Natural imageryD= reflects his desire for her to return to him and mate because C=lapwings always return to the same place to mate.
I= alternatively, it indicates their shared love of nature.
‘Knuckles singing’
L= personification
Positive- pleasant sensation of being alive doing manual labour. Suggests he’s vividly alive.
Pronoun changes from ‘they’ to ‘you’ -3rd person to 2nd person
Makes them feel emotionally close and bonded throughout a letter, even though they are very distant from each other.
‘Heartful of headlines’
L= alliterative metaphor
Shows she is very intrigued in her work and dedicated her heart and soul into it- it’s her life. Implies that writing is her passion.
‘Is your life more real?’ ‘Feeding’
L= rhetorical question
Perhaps her life is less meaningful and authentic compared to his as he’s more in touch with life. She is just ‘feeding’ words onto a blank screen which is a L=verb implying that she finds journalism a chore because it’s work rather than a pleasure like his job which he enjoys doing. She’s doubting the meaning of her job.
The linking of ‘word’ and ‘world’
L= By alliteration shows how their two worlds are connected by their words in letters to each other.
‘Pouring air and light into an envelope’
L= metaphor
Hearing from him is like a breath of fresh air, just like air is necessary for life and they lighten her mood.
I= alternatively, this could show that her own life feels suffocating without him.
Structure:LFY
Free verse with no regular metre- gives poem an informal, conversational style, showing their emotional bond and friendship.
2-Stanzaic break between stanza 2 and 3 implies that they are physically separated, not emotionally. It emphasises their physical distance from each other. However they are still emotionally connected through letters. ‘Seeing the seasons/ turning, me with my heartful of headlines’
3- end stopped line in the middle of the 3rd stanza emphasises just how difficult it can be sometimes for her to write ‘feeding words onto a blank screen’
