On Her Blindness Flashcards
Title ‘On Her Blindness’
Adaptation of a famous sonnet by John Milton ‘On His Blindness’ from 1655 after the poet’s loss of sight - struggle with his blindness, limits his ability to serve God, but ultimately resolves to bear this loss patiently.
Thorpe’s poem partly rebuffs Milton’s stoicism of those ‘like a Roman’ who deal with their illness, without complaint.
‘One shouldn’t say it. One should hide..’
‘whispered, ‘it’s living hell’
Repeated formal pronoun reflects the encouraged quiet stoicism towards illness - lack of emotion.
‘Whispered’ reinforces the idea that serious illness should not be openly discussed.
‘bear being blind, to be honest.’
Plosive alliteration emphasises speaker’s blunt, forceful tone. Enjambment and caesura immediately establish the poem as a truthful account of serious illness.
‘One should hide the fact that catastrophic handicaps are hell’
Metaphor: The perpetual suffering of serious illness is inescapable.
‘bear it like a Roman’
Simile: Those facing serious illness often depicted as a test of strength, will, courage.
‘a Paris restaurant’ vs ‘not finding the food on the plate’
Setting of Paris - love and intimacy JUXTAPOSED with the bleakness of his mother’s illness = the deep personal suffering that is faced.
’ (try it in a pitch-black room) ‘
‘Adam’ ‘Lanchester’ ‘Paris’
Parenthesis and various proper nouns directly address the reader to offer a personal tone to depict illness and this poem as real and personal.
‘the locked-in son’
Metaphor. Speaker feels trapped by his inability to help or express his emotions - only able to offer empty and meaningless ‘sop’
‘like a dodgem’
Simile. Humourous and mocking tone, which emphasises the clumsiness of his mother - perhaps in denial of her suffering and demise.
‘long, slow slide’
‘vision as black as stone’
Enjambment and longer vowel sounds shows her descent into illness and suffering is drawn out.
Simile : This illness is unchanging and has taken apart of her humanity and life.
‘the autumn trees…ablaze with colour’
Natural imagery, and metaphor suggests the mother’s approaching death. Juxtaposition between her death, and the colour of the landscape.
‘she was watching, somewhere in the end’
Break to a single line final stanza represents the mother’s death and how the son is now alone, as the couplet throughout perhaps symbol mother and son. Final rhyme offers a tone of resolution - perhaps relief that her suffering has now ended. A degree of uncertainty.
What themes are there in On Her Blindness?
Grief. Suffering. Death. Parent-Child Relationships. Protection. Denial.
