Mean Time

Question 1

Who is the speaker and what perspective is the poem from?

Answer 1

The speaker reflects on the destruction of love, irreversability of time and loss of control over her life and relationship. From first person

Question 2

What themes are in the poem?

Answer 2

Time, memory, destruction, control, mistakes, relationships

Question 3

Describe what happens in the poem.

Answer 3

First stanza- Time controls and is a thief of happiness and life, memory is seen as harmful as the speaker runs through it again
Second stanza- Mistakes are unmendable, shown through pathetic fallacy, feeling deep intense aggression and pain
Third stanza- Regret of words said, thinking about past conversations
Fourth stanza- Speaker does not have control over life/time, binary opposition used through ‘shortened days and endless nights’ to show confusion of time, inability to create seperation of past and present

Question 4

What structure is the poem?

Answer 4

Quintrain, no rhythm or rhyme- constricting structure of time which cannot be changed

Question 5

What techniques are used in the poem?

Answer 5

Binary opposition
Polysemy (multiple meanings of Mean Time)
Zoomorphism (heart gnaw)
Pathetic fallacy