Not My Best Side Flashcards
What were the writer’s intentions?
- Much less acerbic than Larkin and Lochhead
- Mocks Uccello’s celebrated idiosyncratic style
First stanza (dragon)
half sympathetic, labelling uccello a ‘poor chap’ with an ‘obsession with triangles’ who has not given him the chance to ‘pose properly’
How does the dragon describe the knight?
‘ostentatiously beardless’, riding a horse with a ‘deformed neck’
Which Gwendolen quote does the maiden link to?
‘I am smart. I intend to develop in many directions’
Which ambitions of the male are ridiculed?
‘diplomas in dragon management and virgin reclamation’
‘horse is the latest model’
‘automatic transmission and a built in obsolescence’
How is the maiden mocked as insipid?
‘I mean, I quite took to the dragon’
‘It’s nice to be liked, if you know what I mean’
‘He was all ready to eat me. And any girl enjoys that’
What is ironic about the male?
He chastises the maiden saying she can not do better than him with his ‘custom-built’ technology.
What does the maiden say in stanza 2?
‘the dragon got himself beaten by the boy, and a girl’s got to think of her future’
when the boy turned up ‘wearing machinery’ she ‘didnt much fancy him’
dragon is ‘nicely physical’ with a ‘sexy tail’
