On her blindness

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

allusion to john milton’s “on his blindness”

Question 2

opening couplet

Answer 2

purpose of perm to provide an honest account of her suffering
brutal truth of her suffering

Question 3

could not bear being blind

Answer 3

plosives
alliteration
harsh reality of her blindness

Question 4

repetition of one

Answer 4

distant plural - formal register
mocking tone
impersonal and stoic approach to her illness

Question 5

bear it like a roman

Answer 5

simile - sarcastic tone
stoic tone
suggesting that those w an illness face it w courage but it is unrealistic

Question 6

paris restaurant

Answer 6

setting of elegance vs her clumsiness- juxtaposing ideas

Question 7

pitch black room

Answer 7

pain is hidden from society

Question 8

to be honest

Answer 8

demotic language - explore blunt nature of reality.
juxtaposes formal language of ‘one’

Question 9

locked in son

Answer 9

metaphor - suggests son feels trapped and not able to express how he feels

Question 10

like a dodgem

Answer 10

simile - demotic
mother as clumsy in a light hearted tone

Question 11

as black as stone

Answer 11

juxtaposes “like a dodgem” - tone has changed as the stanzas go on
perhaps her condition is worsened
stripped of humanity and vibrancy
she is hardened by her suffering

Question 12

saw things she couldn’t see and smiled

Answer 12

antithesis- desire to overcome limitations and in denial of her fatal illness

sibilance emphatic of her denial

Question 13

long slow slide

Answer 13

enjambment - perhaps reflects the quick demise of mothers condition
lack of contemplation from locked in son

Question 14

listing “exhibitions, films and television

Answer 14

caesura and enjambemt / asyndetic listing
deep desire to return back to her old self

Question 15

(a fortnight back)

Answer 15

repeated use of brackets creates a somewhat informal tone - so what’s relatable to the reader
not romanticising illness

Question 16

visual imagery

Answer 16

golden weather - connotes wealth and abdunance
autumn trees- signify the end of the mothers life

Question 17

staring at nothing

Answer 17

locking into the abyss while looking at colour
juxtaposes colour imagery above

Question 18

“it’s lovely out there.”

Answer 18

return to dialogue - significant as the like is hard off what we can’t say out loud

end stop emphatic of her continual denial

Question 19

pretend
end

Answer 19

rhyme provides us with resolution

Question 20

final single line

Answer 20

suffering has ended
emphatic of separation between narrator and mother
“somewhere” - vague and uncertain language - indefinite pronoun - adds to fragility of the illusion

continues to fictionalise her vision even in death