Links With All Poems Flashcards
Nature
Sounds of the Day -Natural world used to examine endings, intrusion
Memorial – surprising images of nature
Aunt Julia – crofting existence close to nature, a relic of the past – like the shark
Basking Shark – natural evolution
Visiting Hour – out of place, disconnected, fragility of patient
Assisi – imagery of dwarf and tourists, St Francis
Nature Imagery – Sounds of the Day, Territory –Basking Shark, Aunt Julia
Life death and suffering
Life Death and Suffering
Visiting Hour – imagery of dying is monstrous,
Assisi - dwarf has benefit of being alive – suffering
Memorial – walking elegy – poetic voice grieves for his wife
Sounds of the Day
Coping with death, loss, separation – Memorial, Sounds of the Day
Loss – Sounds of the Day, Memorial, Visiting Hour, Aunt Julia
symbols
Symbols
Basking Shark – monster, but reflecting on who the monster really is.
Assissi – dwarf is a ruined temple – a symbol of need and charity
Techniques connect all poems
- repetition to emphasise a point,
- alliteration to highlight certain word or sound
- assonance to highlight a vowel sound
- parallel sentence structure to draw attention to the contrast
- Onomatopoeia to recreate a sound, vivid memory or experience
- Enjambment to highlight the word at the end of the line, but to run on deliberately – can reflect speed of progress.
- Rhythm of lines to reflect action of the poems
- Unusual images to describe something that has been life changing or shocking
- Word choice that recreates a scene
- Clever use of Imagery – (similes, metaphors, personification)
- Rhyme to highlight sounds or words
Sympathy and empathy
Visiting Hour, Memorial, Aunt Julia, Assisi, Sounds of the Day
Fragility
Memorial, Contrasts with Aunt Julia
Monster
glass fang – Assisi, Basking Shark
Darkness, hopelessness, silence
Memorial, Aunt Julia, Sounds of the Day
numbness
Sound of the Day, Visiting Hour, Memorial
Prejudice
Basking Shark, Aunt Julia
Ideas – recreating a memory, nostalgia, celebrating a special moment, experience
– Memorial, Aunt Julia, Basking Shark, Sounds of the Day, Memorial
Survival
Aunt Julia, Memorial
inability to communicate
Visiting Hour, Aunt Julia
Nostalgia – looking back to past –
Basking Shark, Memorial, Sounds of the Day, Aunt Julia
distance
– Visiting Hour, Memorial, Sounds of the Day, Basking Shark, Aunt Julia
Visiting Hour Main Theme and Presentation of It
Facing up to mortality
- He is angry that he can do nothing in the face of death
- He feels isolated by death and feels profound loss
Image of decay
“A withered hand trembles on its stalk”
“wasted of colour”
“white cave of forgetfulness” – metaphor, suggests the isolation of the woman
Quote to show the character in visiting hour
I will not feel, I will not feel, until I have to.
Striking word choice in visiting hour
Striking words
“Guzzling”
means eat or drink (something) greedily.
fruitless fruits” – oxymoron, captures the poet’s despair
structure in visiting hour
Turning point
Ward 7
Free Verse – suits the subject matter as the poet is confused
tone in visiting hour
Despair
Bitterness
Aunt Julia Main Theme and ideas surrounding it
Regret
Anger –”that by the time he was able to speak any Gaelic his aunt was dead and the chance was gone
Nature-
“But I hear her still, welcoming me in a seagull’s voice across a hundred yards of peats apes and lazy beds”
Imagery in Aunt Julia
Decay
She lay silenced in the absolute black of a sandy grave
Nature
“winds pouring wetly round house ends” – the place is bleak
setting in aunt julia
Hers was the only house where I’ve lain at night in a box bed, listening to crickets
character in aunt julia
She was buckets .. She was winds … She was brown eggs
word choice Aunt Julia
Striking words
“flouncing”
go or move in an exaggeratedly impatient or angry manner.
“silenced” contrasts to “very loud and very fast”
TP in Aunt Julia
Turning Point
By the time I had learned a little she lay silenced
structure in Aunt Julia
Free Verse
Tone in Aunt Julia
Anger/Frustration
Affection
Theme and Ideas in Assisi
Hypocrisy
Anger – that the priests should have cared for the dwarf but more interested in the tourists
Contrast - the beggar (deformed, ugly) sits outside a magnificent church –he is isolated.
Imagery in assisi
Decay
Sat slumped like a half filled sack
Ruined temple - isolation
setting in assisi
Three tiers of churches built in honour of St Francis, brother of the poor
character in assisi
Grazie in a voice as sweet as a child’s when she speaks to her mother
structure in assisi
Turning Point
I understood the explanation and the cleverness
Line breaks and enjambment for emphasis
Tone in Assisi
Anger
Bitterness
Themes and Ideas in Memorial
Grief
Anger – that the death has created this intolerable distance between him and his sister
Sense of unending grief that is felt when a loved one dies
Imagery in Memorial
Decay
Black words
Focus on sound – “the silence of her dying sounds through the carousel of language”
setting in Memorial
Everywhere I go she dies
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
structure in memorial
Enjambment
Free Verse – Death of a loved one represents a formlessness, so the structure matches the content
Tone in memorial
Hopelessness
Despair
Basking shark Theme
Reflection – reflects on humanity’s relationship to the natural world
-Nature
character in basking shark
“decadent townee”
Structure in Baskin Shark
Infinitive Verbs start the first two lines; captures your attention
Rhyme Scheme
To try to imitate the rhythmic quality of the sea
The regularity of rhythm and rhyme matches the rhythmic quality of the sea itself, its rise and fall, and likewise the steady pulling of the oars.
tone in basking shark
Discomfort
Reflective
Focus on senses
Focus on sound – “the silence of her dying sounds through the carousel of language” “on a sea tin-tacked with rain” – focus on visual and sound
Focus on sound – “a clatter came”; “black drums rolled”
setting in sounds of the day
beside the quietest fire in the world”
significant word choice in sounds of the day
quietest
numb
Structure in sounds of the day
Turning Point
Stanza two – the closing door
Free verse – matches the poet’s feelings
Tone in sounds of the day
despair
Pain-filled
