on her blindness Flashcards

1
Q

“on her blindness” poet context

A
  • written recently after his mum’s death (auto biography)
  • an allusion to John Milton “on his blindness”
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2
Q

“my mother could not bare being blind”

A
  • plosive alliteration, firm and empathetic tone
  • past tense, implies death
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3
Q

“to be honest”

A

colloquial language, direct and plain language

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4
Q

“handicaps are hell”
“still not finding the food on the plate with her fork”

“like a roman”

A

contrasts typical portrayals of disability as being strong

  • simile, idea of stoicism
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5
Q

“(try it in a pitch black room)”

A
  • colloquialism, imperative
  • evokes sympathy
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6
Q

“and whispered, ‘its living hell’, to be honest”

A

“whispered” - doesn’t want others to know her suffering
extreme pain, impactful

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7
Q

“I’d bump myself off”

A
  • colloquial
    emphasises her pure distress
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8
Q

“the usual sop”

A

sympathetic, cliché and routined

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9
Q

“the locked in son”

A

metaphor
- helpless and powerless
- feelings of guilt

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10
Q

“like a dodgem”

A

simile
- dehumanising, ironic
- sad and upsetting scene

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11
Q

“she couldn’t see and smiled”

A
  • she puts on a brave face for the children
  • poignant, moving
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12
Q

“vision as blank as a stone”

“she couldn’t see and smiled”

A

contrasting image
- highlights the difficult reality

  • lack of joy
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13
Q

“drive the old Lanchester”
“visit exhibitions”

A
  • trying to maintain normality
    but she can no longer enjoy her interests
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14
Q

“golden weather”
“autumn trees”
“ablaze with colour”

A

ironic as it is one of the most colourful seasons yet she cant see it
contrasts the plain imagery of a hospital

autumn = the season where everything is dying

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15
Q

“staring at nothing. ‘oh yes i know’”

A
  • she is trying to look after her son and protect his feelings
  • generosity of his mum
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16
Q

” ‘its lovelt out there’. Dying has made her no more sightless”

A
  • dying has made her no longer blind
    OR - her blindness is still the same as previously
17
Q

“it was up to us to believe she was watching, somewhere, in the end.”

A

uncertainty, ambiguous ending
- Thorpe hopes that his mum can now see and is watching over them

Ends on a hopeful and sad tone

18
Q

form

A

poem uses couplets other than the final line
- symbolises the loss of his mum
- supports the idea that the poem is unfinished and unresolved