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AQA English Language and Literature A Level > Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy > Flashcards

Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy Flashcards

1
Q

How would the current life of the poetic voice in the The Captain best be described?

A
  • Disappointing (Contemptuous reference to wife and children, “my thick kids/my stale wife”
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2
Q

What is the form of The Captain?

A

Dramatic monologue

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3
Q

Why is the poetic voice of The Captain unusual?

A

Male poetic voice written by a female poet

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4
Q

Why does Duffy use a masculine poetic voice in The Captain?

A

Explore:

  • Masculinity
  • Masculine preoccupation w/ power & glory
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5
Q

What is the narrative of The Captain?

A

Middle aged-man reliving his schooldays in the 60s

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6
Q

What are the key ideas of stanza one of The Captain?

A

Set scene of 60s -> hope and cultural/economic resurgence after post-war austerity (Popular allusion -> pop songs of the time)
Poetic voice’s sexual awakening

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7
Q

How is an upbeat tone created in stanza one of The Captain?

A
  1. Musical onomatopoeia “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”
  2. Sexual focus “Oh Pretty Woman”, “Baby Love”
  3. Asyndetic list creates sense of
    energy
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8
Q

How does the poetic voice in The Captain prove to the listener their breadth of knowledge?

A

“the Beatles were everywhere else”, “the B-side of the Supremes one”
Range of different musical genres that the poetic voice references -> breadth of knowledge.
“B-side” -> lesser-known song, emphasises the boastful nature of the persona

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9
Q

How is the poetic voice juxtaposed in stanza one of The Captain?

A

“Hang on. Come See About Me?”

Minor sentence shows hesitation, juxtaposes from previous arrogance; interrogative further reinforces lack of confidence.

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10
Q

How is the eventual downfall, as perceived by the poetic voice, foreshadowed in stanza one of The Captain?

A

“Gargling with Vimto.”

Minor sentence -> metaphor of life gone flat, juxtaposed with “fizzing hope”, reinforces energy of past, contrasted with falter in interrogative

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11
Q

How is the arrogance of the poetic voice fully asserted in stanza one of The Captain?

A

“clever smell of my satchel”

  • Hyperbolic sensory imagery -> abundant knowledge - Personification of smell -> sense of imagination & lively youthful nature.
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12
Q

How is the poetic voice further established as a man of the the 1960s in stanza one of The Captain?

A

“Convent girls.”
Minor sentence -> feeling of superiority the poetic voice experienced
Power -> Catholic girls break their vow of
celibacy
Reinforcing hierarchy of sexes in 60s

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13
Q

How is the sexual awakening of the poetic voice reinforced in stanza one of The Captain?

A

“my lips numb as a two hour snog.”
Simile reinforces sexual
imagery of “convent girls.”

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14
Q

What are the main ideas of stanzas two and three of The Captain?

A
  • Time in classroom as quiz team captain

- Childhood’s potential and energy, young boy optimistic & confident

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15
Q

How is an ambiguous phrase used to describe the hyperbolic description of the poetic voice’s childhood in The Captain?

A

“No snags.”

  • Minor sentence
  • Problems w/ hair (pulled hair forward with steel comb)
  • Problems in general?
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16
Q

How is a series of declarative minor sentences used to demonstrate the poetic voice’s depth of knowledge in The Captain?

A

“The Nile rises in April. Blue and white.”

- Depth of knowledge expanded quickly due to short sentence length increasing the pace of reading/speaking

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17
Q

How is symbolism used to reinforce the poetic voice’s sexual awakening in The Captain?

A

“beat so fast they blur in flight”

  • Sexual symbolism of heartbeat during romantic encounters with the convent girls
  • Symbolic of academic prowess w/ ideas blurring mentally due to speed of recall1
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18
Q

How is asyndetic listing used to reinforce the poetic voice’s breadth of knowledge in The Captain?

A

“the capitals, the Kings and Queens, the dates.”

- Cumulative effect of different topics (geography/history) creates sense of overwhelming quantity of knowledge

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19
Q

How is hyperbolic repetition used to reinforce the poetic voice’s feelings of superiority in The Captain?

A

“saluted again and again.”

- Demands respect from teacher, military links, foregrounds interpretation of road names

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20
Q

How are discourse features used in The Captain?

A

“Sir!…Correct.”

- Adjacency pair of free indirect speech, preferred response

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21
Q

How is a fronted adverbial used in The Captain to convey the superiority of the poetic voice?

A

“Later, I whooped…”

  • Fronted adverbial, demonstrates how the poetic voice excelled inside and outside of school
  • Juxtaposition of self-discipline in school and reckless abandon outside of school
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22
Q

How is popular allusion used to convey a sense of heroism in The Captain?

A

“a cowboy”

  • Popular allusion to popular game Cowboys and Indians
  • Popular allusion to popularity of western films featuring cowboys during the 60s
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23
Q

How is hyperbole used to convey a sense of superiority in The Captain?

A

“mounted it running in one jump”

  • Potential sexual connotation of material verb “mounted” could suggest both the hyperbolic nature of the description of the poetic voice’s athleticism, but also his sexual performance
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24
Q

How are Latin declensions used in The Captain to convey a sense of the anachronistic nature of the poetic voice’s knowledge?

A

“Dominus domine dominum”

  • Latin is obsolete
  • Perspective of self as “Lord” -> translation of Latin noun-verb
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25
Q

How is ellipsis used in The Captain to convey the poetic voice?

A

“Dave Dee Dozy…”

- Ellipsis demonstrates poetic voice’s forgetfulness, popular allusion to pop group of the 60s

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26
Q

How are possessive pronouns used in The Captain to show ownership and relationships?

A

"”my mother kept my / mascot Gonk / on the TV set for a year”

  • Repetition of possessive pronouns -> ownership & superiority -> blames mother for enhanced arrogance
  • Popular allusion to furry toys of the 60s
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27
Q

How is popular allusion used in The Captain to make the poetic voice feel real?

A 
"Dave Dee Dozy"
- Music group of the 60s
"my mascot Gonk"
- Furry toys of the 60s 
"a cowboy"
- Game "Cowboys and Indians"
- Popularity of western films featuring cowboys during the 60s
"Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Baby Love..."
- Pop songs of the 60s
"A Hard Day's Night"
- Beatles song
"I smiled as wide as a child who went missing on the way home from school"
- Moors Murders of 60s
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28
Q

How is prepositional repetition used in The Captain?

A

“up Churchill Way, up Nelson Drive, over pink pavements…”

- Arrogance suggested in “over” military leaders reference

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29
Q

How is irony used in The Captain?

A

“Stamped the pawprints of badgers and skunks in the mud”

- Irony of abuse of power coupled with popular allusion to the animal print soles of children’s shoes of the 1960s

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30
Q

How are possessive pronouns used in The Captain?

A

“My country.”

- Hyperbolic sense of arrogance, emphasised by orthographic sentence

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31
Q

How is pathos created in text receivers of The Captain?

A

“I want it back. The one with all the answers.”

-Declarative sentence function -> desperation

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32
Q

Where is the volta in The Captain?

A

“My name was in red on Lucille Green’s jotter.”

  • Sudden shift to past tense
  • Reality into focus, potential allusion to imaginary nature of relationship (red -> anger/love/lust)
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33
Q

How is popular allusion used in The Captain to make the poem feel intimate?

A

“I smiled as wide as a child who went missing on the way home from school.”

  • Allusion to Moors Murders -> nationwide shock -> Poetic voice’s shock at time’s progression, mirrors the mindset of text receivers -> intimacy
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34
Q

How are premodifiers used in The Captain to build relationships?

A

“my stale wife”
- Pre-modifier -> disgust and passionless relationship from the poetic voice’s perspective
“my thick kids wince”
- Pre-modifier -> disgust and hate-filled relationship -> glottal stop creates a harsh sound

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35
Q

How are minor sentences used in The Captain to make the poetic voice seem real?

A

“Nobody.”

Reflects poetic voice’s desperation to find those who share his interest in general knowledge, lack of interest of others.

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36
Q

How is the poetic voice’s desperation communicated and developed in The Captain?

A

“How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
- Rhetorical question -> hopelessness
- Interrogative -> desperate search for answers and certainty
“Name the Prime Minister of Rhodesia.”
- Declarative sentence function -> attempt to connect with anything concrete and certain
“How many florins in a pound?”
- Final rhetorical question and interrogative defines the poem and most succinctly communicates the resounding message -> hopelessness at lack of understanding of time’s progression and inability to understand the present situation and engage meaningfully with it, especially contrasted to a seemingly perfect past

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37
Q

Who is the poetic voice in Beachcomber?

A

Elderly woman

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38
Q

What is the narrative of Beachcomber?

A

Elderly woman talking to herself and younger self as she tries to recall her past (COMBING THE BEACH FOR HER MEMORIES)

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39
Q

What is the prevailing message/emotion of Beachcomber?

A

Frustration with time and oneself -> time passes, harder to remember, even as we try harder

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40
Q

What is significant about the graphology of Beachcomber?

A

Carefully chosen line lengths -> waves ebbing and flowing (tides on the beach) -> symbolic of memories (some recalled in detail/run far up the beach -> surprise ourselves; some recalled a little/never reach the shore)
Concrete poem - shaped to represent a concrete noun
Choppy, not smooth -> Friends, family and previous self taken away by dementia -> sea erodes the coastline

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41
Q

What is significant about the pattern of questions in Beachcomber?

A

3 questions (Start, Middle, End) -> 3 stages of life (Childhood, Adulthood, Elderly)
1st question answered -> inexperience of childhood
2nd & 3rd questions answered -> life experience

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42
Q

How is the poetic voice presented in Beachcomber?

A

“Trow.”

  • Archaic verb -> Age of poetic voice
  • Poetic voice’s frustration at inability to remember-imperative, minor sentence
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43
Q

How are the memories presented in Beachcomber?

A

Vivid, recall every detail (sensory-sight and sound)
“and not in sepia”
- Reference to development of old photographs - reinforces age of poetic voice

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44
Q

How are the lines between material and mental verbs blurred in Beachcomber?

A

“If you think…do it without getting off that chair”

- No actual physical exertion -> compared to mental strain

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45
Q

How are interrogatives used in Beachcomber?

A

“How old are you now?”

- Poetic voice questions restrictions of old age

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46
Q

What is the significance of ellipsis in Beachcomber?

A

“This is what happens-“

- Enjambment demonstrates how life slips away w/ age - Pathos in listener

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47
Q

What is the significance of the pronoun use in Beachcomber?

A

“the child”, “Now she is kneeling.”
- Third person reference to themselves - dissociation of past and present selves -> dementia
“If you think till it hurts”
- Poetic voice addresses her past self, potentially also the listener, acknowledges universal experience of attempting to relive memories
- Difficult, painful -> metaphorical pain barrier
“scare yourself”
- Overwhelming experience, triggered by a single word, fear at lack of mental control -> a passenger/prisoner of her own mind -> isolation from reality/other people -> dementia
Poem is intimate, validates text receiver’s struggles (trying to go back and relive past experiences-futile)

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48
Q

How is sibilance used in Beachcomber?

A

“sound of the sea…describe”

- Hidden sibilance and direct sibilance -> sound iconicity, poetic voice hissing with frustration/self-hatred

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49
Q

What is the significance of the use of imperatives in Beachcomber?

A

“Get it into your head”
- Poetic voice’s frustration that they cannot remember, commanding
“Open your eyes.”
- Given up, resigned tone

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50
Q

What is significant about the use of minor sentences in Beachcomber?

A

“Harder.”

- Minor sentence, isolated graphologically, represents poetic voice’s mental exertion in remembering past life

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51
Q

What is significant about the use of colour imagery in Beachcomber?

A

“The red spade/scooping a hole in the sand”

  • Bold, memorable colour -> irony (almost forgotten)
  • Imagist poetry (sequence of images presented by poetic voice to text receiver)
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52
Q

What is significant about the use of repetition in Beachcomber?

A

“You remember that cardigan, yes?/ You remember that cardigan.”

  • Sense of pride at remembering something important
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53
Q

Where is the volta in Beachcomber?

A

“But this is as close as you get.”

- Tragic effect of age on memory reinforced

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54
Q

What is significant about the use of pre-modifiers in Beachcomber?

A

“Those older, those shaking, hands cannot touch,”

  • Cruelty of physical effects of time
  • Pre-modifying adjectival phrases
  • Use of caesura emphasises the shaking breaths
  • Intertwining of physical and mental effects - reality becomes blurred
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55
Q

What is significant about the use of anaphora in Beachcomber?

A

“or the spade/or the sand/or the seashell on the shore”

  • Stream of consciousness, unordered list
  • Disruption of logical hyponymic relationship within a semantic field
  • Enjambment reinforces these effects
    • Poetic voice’s desperate urgency, grasp thoughts before they disappear (tumbling from brain to page)
  • Symbolic of blurring of past with age and onset of dementia
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56
Q

What is significant about the use of discourse features in Beachcomber?

A

“and what/what would you have to say,”

- False start -> incoherent speech, acceptance of futility of recalling memories

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57
Q

What is significant about the use of ambiguous language in Beachcomber?

A

“The girl suddenly holding a conch, listening, sssh.”
- Phonologically ambiguous:
- Listening for the sound of the sea
- Calming herself after the sudden emotional memory she has unexpectedly recalled
“Exactly.”
- Interrogative sentence, given sense of urgency by enjambment, is text receiver’s focus

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58
Q

What is the narrative in First Love?

A

Description of dream about their first love, seems real, brings first love metaphorically close
World transformed into magical place, naturally beautiful
Memories seem dim/unclear (passage of time), wills to recall them
Constant reminders of first lover, poetic voice feels unified in spirit and imagination, despite no knowledge of life or whereabouts

59
Q

How would the poetic voice’s feelings towards their first lover best be described?

A

Strong, erotic

60
Q

What is the form of First Love?

A

Lyric poem

61
Q

What is the significance of light imagery in First Love?

A

Stars -> pain of loss
- Stars we see may no longer exist, light takes a long time to reach Earth, appear real to us (Memory of loved one real, no physical existence in the poetic voice’s life)
“to say it again to garden shaking with light.”
- Ambiguous
- Religious links (Garden of Eden -> reliving beginning of relationship/beginning of humanity; innocence/purity of their love)
- Frosted glass distorts/shakes images
- Shaking from unexpected dream
- Shivering due to physical nakedness
- Fear of being caught by current partner
- Emotionally overwhelmed: tears distort image

62
Q

What is the significance of traditions of love in First Love?

A

“love letter sent from dreams”

  • No communication between poetic voice and past lover, sees lover as faithful (keeps her alive in poetic voice’s imagination)
63
Q

What is the significance of memory in First Love?

A

Joy & pain - Spirit reunion bittersweet as can never physically be together

64
Q

What are some characteristics of lyric poem?

A
  • Explores persona’s innermost thoughts &feelings

- Ancient Greek origin - poems written to be performed w/ lyre (small harp)

65
Q

What are some key details of First Love?

A
  • Tells a detailed story of the experience
  • More literal/direct title -> vulnerable, passionate poem
  • Naive, inexperienced narrative voice
  • Distinctive memory -> detailed, unforgettable, emotional
66
Q

What is the significance of present tense verb phrases in First Love?

A

“Waking, with a dream of first love forming real words,”
- Draws attention to the dream (implied in waking)
- Present continuous verb -> immediacy & intimacy (narrative is unfiltered, innermost thoughts -> confessional)
“a love-letter out of dream stammers itself in my heart.”
- Voices from the past (Heart stammer - dramatic physical effect - Struggling to articulate themselves (verbal verb))

67
Q

What is the significance of abstract nouns in First Love?

A

“Waking, with a dream…real words”

  • Juxtaposition of reality and dreams
  • Emphasises dream’s impact -> Subconsciousness becomes consciously understood
68
Q

What is the significance of figurative language in First Love?

A 
"as close to my lips as lipstick,"
- Simile
 - Closeness of memories
 - Romantic/sexual connotations (emphasised)
"Unseen flowers suddenly pierce..."
- Metaphor (Ex-lover/Flowers)
- Freshened the foggy/stale air
- Feels joyful at memory of past lover, brings joy back into life
69
Q

What is the significance of enjambment in First Love?

A

“I speak your name, / after a silence of years,”

- Memory is unable to be repressed to dreams

70
Q

What is the significance of prepositional phrases in First Love?

A

“into the pillow”

  • Ambiguous
    • Childish practice of kissing pillows (emphasises naivety of poetic voice)
    • Sexual frustration in current relationship (current partner cannot hear the name of the ex-lover)
71
Q

What is the significance of caesura in First Love?

A

“brings me here to the window, naked,”

  • Emphasises ambiguous physical state
  • Physically naked -> Sleeping
  • Emotionally naked - Vulnerable, exposed and conscious of feelings seen in dream
  • Emphasises the use of concrete noun “window”
  • Metaphorically see the relationship (feels close, realistically out of reach)
72
Q

What is the significance of material verbs in First Love?

A

“clench my eyes till the pictures return,”
- Physical effort of remembering
“Unseen flowers suddenly pierce and sweeten the air.”
- “pierce” : Popped bubble of current relationship, can see clearly that they are not in love

73
Q

What is the significance of sibilance in First Love?

A

“an old film played at a slow speed.”
- Relationship’s story, fondly remembered.
- Calming sibilance -> emotionally overwhelmed
“seems precisely the size”…“stammers itself”…“Such faithfulness.”
- Bittersweet relationship end (Never go back, cannot share feelings w/ anyone, especially current partner)

74
Q

What is the significance of schematic knowledge in First Love?

A

“an old film played at a slow speed./All day I will glimpse it, in…my lover’s eyes”

  • Listener understands risks & taboo - fantasy of past relationship during current relationship
  • Can’t escape overwhelming emotion/desire
75
Q

What is the significance of asyndetic lists in First Love:

A

“All day I will glimpse it, in windows of changing sky, in mirrors, my lover’s eyes, wherever you are.”

  • Emphasises how remembering consumes poetic voice’s life
  • Cathartic
76
Q

What is the significance of declarative phrases in First Love?

A

“This was a child’s love,”
- Implicature that relationship has developed
- Acceptance of past/closure, still reminisces
(Should not dwell, considers possibilities anyway)
- Overwhelming power of dreams

77
Q

What is the significance of analogy in First Love?

A

“And later a star, long dead,”

  • Ex-lover/Star still seen but exploded passionately long ago
  • Wishing on a (dead) star (Fixed expression/Schematic knowledge) -> Fruitless longing - lack of acceptance
  • Hyperbolic metaphorical representation of distance between ex-lover and poetic voice -> Pain
78
Q

What is the significance of temporal deixis in First Love?

A

“Tonight, a love-letter out of a dream”

  • Emphasises short time-frame of poem/overwhelming impact (lots of things have happened/been thought in such a short space of time)
  • Creates a sense of intimacy, the listener is taken on a journey with the poetic voice -> Sensory experience
79
Q

What is the significance of minor sentences in First Love?

A

“Such faithfulness.”

  • Wavering faithfulness in current partner/Current relationship is disappointing/Lacks emotional impact of first relationship
  • Irony: Poetic voice faithful to past partner, not current.
80
Q

What is the significance of superlative adjectives in First Love?

A

“the last evening.”

- Letting go, closure of relationship (Emotional development/maturation)

81
Q

How could the poetic voice of Nostalgia be described?

A

Omniscient, anonymous
Emotional about mortal human struggles
Increasing emotional investment, narrowing in focus

82
Q

What is the etymology of ‘nostalgia’?

A

Ancient Greek - Pain of wanting to return
Nostos - Return
Algia - Pain

83
Q

What is the history of ‘nostalgia’?

A

1688 - Swiss doctor Johannes Hofer invented when working w/ Swiss mercenaries - legitimate illness

84
Q

What does Nostalgia explore?

A
  • Etymology, history and effects of nostalgia
  • Power of language
  • Shapes perception (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)
85
Q

What is the significance of indefinite pronouns in Nostalgia?

A

“it made them ill,”
- No language to describe experience (Sapir-Whorf)
“It was killing them.”
- Increasing intensity of relational verb phrases, crescendo of tension
- Fear of unknown > physical effects

86
Q

What is the significance of parallelism in Nostalgia?

A

“leaving the mountains, leaving the high, fine air,”

- Emphasises journey/departure (significant - responsible?)

87
Q

What is the significance of pre-modifying adjectives in Nostalgia?

A

“the high, fine air,”

  • High altitude
  • Luxury
88
Q

What is the significance of repetition in Nostalgia?

A

“to go down, down.”
- Symbolic of mental state, juxtaposed with high, fine air - use of schematic understanding of emotion on vertical scale
“wrong taste”…“wrong sounds”…“wrong smells”…“wrong light, every breath-/wrong”
- Asyndetic list -> emphasise negative experience, alongside enjambment & caesura
“the same street”…“the same sign”…“the same bell”
- Strong juxtaposition to repetition of wrong & physically identical, mentally changed
- Sibilant sounds soothe text receiver -> painful acceptance of passage of time - cruelty of time, transcendent nature

89
Q

What is the significance of plosive sounds in Nostalgia?

A

“crude coins clenched”
- Negative connotations/reality (glottal stop)
“the sad pipes”….”light of the plains,/ a particular place-“
- Pain/anguish of nostalgia

90
Q

What is the significance of free indirect speech in Nostalgia?

A

“They had an ache here, Doctor”

- Proximal deixis helps text receiver to imagine scene

91
Q

What is the significance of ascending tricolons in Nostalgia?

A

“pined, wept, grown men.”

- Ticking of clock, inevitable death

92
Q

What is the significance of the passive voice in Nostalgia?

A

“It was given a name.”
- Power of language (Indefinite pronoun & euphemistic phrase), agency -> not anonymous phenomenon
“there were those who stayed put,”
- Isolation -> against natural instincts of social creatures (Traveller/Homebody), language -> self-destructive power

93
Q

What is the significance of oxymoron in Nostalgia?

A

“sweet pain”

- Inability to universally describe experience (fear of unknown)

94
Q

What is the significance of aspirant sounds in Nostalgia?

A

“in the heart; of how it hurt,/in that heavier air, to hear,”

  • Exhalation of speech
  • Hyperventilation (hard work, pain/anxiety)
  • Caesura (dramatic pause of traditional poetry, unusual in modern poetic style)
95
Q

What is the significance of enjambment in Nostalgia?

A

“in the dwindling light of the plains,/ a particular place- where maybe you met a girl,”

  • Outpouring of emotion/stream of consciousness (intimacy)
96
Q

How is the power of language demonstrated in Nostalgia?

A

“Some would never fall in love had they not heard of love.”

- Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (language shapes perception)

97
Q

What is the significance of ambiguous language in Nostalgia?

A

“the colour of leaves”

- Change & impermanence -> nostalgia

98
Q

What is the effect of sensory imagery in Nostalgia?

A

“opened a book to the scent of her youth, too late.”

  • Importance of all senses in experience
  • Appreciation of present -> life experience required to understand importance, cannot go back and appreciate youthful freedom
99
Q

What is the significance of cyclical structure in Nostalgia?

A

“one returned”

  • Reference to swiss mercenaries at beginning
  • Poem’s focus returns to original location, time only moved forward (juxtaposition is sad - inevitable change)
100
Q

What is the significance of caesura in Nostalgia?

A

“to go down, down. What they got”

- Highlights disruption of mercenaries’ wellbeing

101
Q

What is the significance of auxiliary verbs in Nostalgia?

A

“Not a red rose”
- Unusual subversion of cliche (overused, impersonal, lost all meaning - represents view of relationship)
- Implies romance & luxury
- Alliteration & primary auxiliary verb
“It will make your reflection..”
- Modal auxiliary verb, authoritative tone

102
Q

What is the significance of schematic knowledge in Valentine?

A

“Not a red rose or a satin heart.”

- Subversion of cliche

103
Q

What is the significance of simple sentences in Valentine?

A 
"I give you an onion."
- Impact of subversion, dispreferred response
"I am trying to be truthful."
- Avoid cliche at all costs
"Take it."
- Imperative insistence
104
Q

What is the significance of extended metaphor in Valentine?

A

“It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.”
- Lights up life, dispels darkness, needs something else to light it up, reflects the light of another (realistic relationship standard of support?, selfish taking of light, instead of equally providing support - reality of one-sided, toxic relationships)
- Romantic cliche “I love you to the moon and back” -> cliche is so embedded in language, it is inevitably used.
“It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief.”
- Onion makes you cry, relationship makes you cry - emotionally hurt (distorts image)
- Serious loss of love, agree w/ poetic voice, dislike them.

105
Q

What is the significance of light imagery in Valentine?

A

“It promises light,”

  • Hope, joy, positive connotations
  • Personification of onion -> assimilate to lover
106
Q

What is the significance of simile in Valentine?

A

“It promises light, like the careful undressing of love.”
- Layers of an onion
- Fragility, emotional vulnerability of lovers in a relationship
“It will blind you with tears like a lover.”
- Realistic simile

107
Q

What is the significance of deixis in Valentine?

A

“Here.”

  • Spatial, proximal deixis -> intimacy
  • Imperative function -> Minor sentence, authoritative tone
108
Q

What is the significance of refrains in Valentine?

A 
"Not a red rose or a satin heart."
"Not a cute card or a kissogram."
- Popular allusion to 80s/90s
- Repeated alliteration
"I give you an onion."
- Forceful, sinister material verb
- Acknowledgement of text receivers' disbelief
109
Q

What is the significance of juxtaposition in Valentine?

A

“possessive and faithful”

- Attempts to portray realistic relationships are unsuccessful

110
Q

What is the significance of sibilance in Valentine?

A

“possessive”…“as we are,/for as long as we are.”

  • Hissing, snake-like, sinister tone, hatred
  • Boastful of intense, messy love (threatening future relationship dependent on response)
111
Q

What is the significance of collective pronouns in Valentine?

A

“as we are,/for as long as we are.”

  • One person speaks for both in the relationship - domineering, dominant (power imbalance, strength of one person over another)
112
Q

What is the significance of material verbs in Valentine?

A

“Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,/if you like.

  • Illusion of choice
  • Peel back layers, reach true feelings (proof of love in deep, visceral experience, not superficial or outward affection)
  • Entrapment of marriage
113
Q

What is the significance of sensory imagery in Valentine?

A

“Its scent will cling to your fingers,/cling to your knife.”

  • Trying to prevent inevitable relationship breakdown
  • Desperate, danger of relationship breakdown, assertion of dominance
  • Stench of death -> of relationship
114
Q

What is the form of Before You Were Mine?

A

Autobiographical prose-poetry

115
Q

What is significant about the title of Before You Were Mine?

A

Demonstrates power of relationships

Impact of children on parents (irreversible change)

116
Q

How is the use of possessive pronouns in Before You Were Mine significant?

A

Subverts the text receiver’s expectations of a parent-child relationship (parent usually dominant over children)
“I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on”
- Clarify poetic voice’s identity in first stanza

117
Q

Who is the poetic voice of Before You Were Mine?

A

Unborn child

118
Q

How is the use of verbs significant in Before You Were Mine?

A

“bend”…“shriek”

- Gives photograph sense of movement & teenage vivacity

119
Q

How is the use of popular allusion in Before You Were Mine significant?

A

“polka-dot dress”
- Pre-modifier indicates 1950s time period
“blows round your legs. Marilyn.”
- Comparison of mother to Marilyn Monroe -> glamourous, sex appeal
- Seen as scandalous by text receivers of the time -> The Seven Year Itch
“ballroom”
- Dancing, 1950s pastime
“the thousand eyes”
- 50s hit ‘The Night Has A Thousand Eyes’

120
Q

How is the use of spatial deixis in Before You Were Mine significant?

A

“I’m not here yet.”

- Unborn child makes reference to events from their POV, focuses attention on themselves

121
Q

How is the use of schematic knowledge in Before You Were Mine significant?

A

“I knew you would dance like that.”

  • Child imagines mother’s lifestyle from stories told
  • Power of schematic knowledge -> emotional response
122
Q

How is colloquial language significant in Before You Were Mine?

A

“your Ma stands at the close with a hiding for the late one.”
- Pathos in text receiver
- Freedom to break rules restricted by pregnancy
- Foreshadowed by narration from child’s POV (dramatic irony)
- Embodied knowledge of stereotypical teenage rule-breaking despite knowledge of consequences
“was the best one, eh?”
- Interrogative, informalised by colloquialism in tag question
- One-way conversation (poetic voice’s sadness)
“whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?”
- Subversion of power dynamic
- Sexual light of own mother

123
Q

How are asyndetic lists significant in Before You Were Mine?

A

“loud, possessive yell”

  • Constant control of mother - first by own mother, then by child (relentlessly controlled from day one), power imbalance
  • Poetic voice’s assumption mother’s life better before arrival
124
Q

How is symbolism significant in Before You Were Mine?

A

“high-heeled red shoes”

  • Danger, love, lust, bold bright
  • Poetic voice’s longing to know adolescent mother
125
Q

How is religious imagery significant in Before You Were Mine?

A

“relics”
- Highlights significance of mother’s past to poetic voice (spiritual meaning, sacred connection - mother changed on a spiritual level)
- Mother’s lack of freedom - very old/unused object
“on the way home from Mass”
- Catholic Church
- Negative effects of childbirth - closed doors on other opportunities

126
Q

How is ambiguous language significant in Before You Were Mine?

A

“your ghost clatters”

  • Physical death of mother
  • Teenage identity mental death
127
Q

How is sensory imagery significant in Before You Were Mine?

A

“clatters”…“clear as scent”

  • Sound of high-heeled shoes
  • Mixing of senses -> dim memory/vivid or overwhelming
128
Q

What is the effect of cyclical structure in Before You Were Mine?

A

“the wrong pavement”

  • links to “shriek at the pavement”
  • Allusion to Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame (could have been Marilyn, famous, dancing & singing)
  • Poetic voice’s acknowledgement of their negative effect
129
Q

What is the effect of polysndetons in Before You Were Mine?

A

“where you sparkle and waltz and laugh”

- Emphasises abundance of wasted potential, emotion, glamour, movement, fame

130
Q

What is the effect of pronouns in The Biographer?

A

“Because you are dead,/ I stand at your desk”

- Establishes POV and key facts of poem quickly

131
Q

What is the effect of deixis in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“Only there”

- Spatial, share deictic centre with poetic voice (intimate)

132
Q

What is the effect of personification in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“…the afternoons could suddenly pause…”

- Sense of imagination and childish excitement, hyperbolically positive description of childhood

133
Q

What is the effect of sibilance in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“afternoons could suddenly pause/…lacing my shoe”

- Self-soothing pain at remembering happy, carefree past

134
Q

What is the effect of symbolism in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“the road held no one”
- Metaphor for the journey into adulthood
“the gardens were empty/an ice-cream van chimed and dwindled away.”
- Imagery of childhood subverted, receding, transition to adulthood
“a strange boy”
- Symbolic of childhood, unrecognisable to poetic voice as in transitionary period.

135
Q

What is the effect of material verbs in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“the road held no one”
- Connotations of parental soothing of child in embrace, lack of childish support
“sponge at my palm”
- Temporary relief from horror of transition, heal emotional wounds.
- Escape into childhood, nature, carefree environment from man-made, artificial, dull adult world.

136
Q

What is the effect of schematic knowledge in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“waved at windscreens”
- Reflection of sunlight on windscreens shows no human response, emphasises loneliness
- Directly faced with progression they must undergo
“In a cul-de-sac,”
- Entrapment, no escape, text receiver (dramatic irony)
forms one idea of what will happen, subverted.

137
Q

What is the effect of adverbs in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“oddly hurt”

  • Sense of entrapment, poetic voice perceives themselves as unchanged despite undergoing transition to adulthood, others move onwards at accelerating pace, resisting natural change makes change more painful
138
Q

What is the effect of mental verbs in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“invented a vivid lie for us both.”

- Emphasised childish imagination, resisting change over time

139
Q

What is the use of plosive consonants in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“the blurred waves back,”

  • Harsh sounds demonstrate depth of pain at shallow, impermanent (high speed) gesture towards suffering, no one understands the poetic voice.
140
Q

What is the effect of personification in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“The green silence gulped once…”
- Nature -> alive, controlling situation, poetic voice’s lack of control, conspiracy against persona
“the trees/drew sly faces”
- Subversion of nature as escapism, ominous foreboding, building tension to climax & volta
“the wood let out its sticky breath”
“flowering nettles gathered spit in the back of their throats.”

141
Q

What is the effect of declarative sentence functions in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“I knew it was dangerous.”

  • Pause before enjambment in stanza which creates breathlessness and fear for text receiver to mirror poetic voice’s perception of situation
142
Q

What is the effect of the volta in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“Too late.”

- Minor sentence, creates a sense of fear and foreboding

143
Q

What is the effect of vague language in Stafford Afternoons?

A

“living, purple root”

- Emphasises traumatic effect of events, inability to comprehend evil nature of people.

AQA English Language and Literature A Level (5 decks)

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