on her blindness Flashcards
“on her blindness” poet context
- written recently after his mum’s death (auto biography)
- an allusion to John Milton “on his blindness”
“my mother could not bare being blind”
- plosive alliteration, firm and empathetic tone
- past tense, implies death
“to be honest”
colloquial language, direct and plain language
“handicaps are hell”
“still not finding the food on the plate with her fork”
“like a roman”
contrasts typical portrayals of disability as being strong
- simile, idea of stoicism
“(try it in a pitch black room)”
- colloquialism, imperative
- evokes sympathy
“and whispered, ‘its living hell’, to be honest”
“whispered” - doesn’t want others to know her suffering
extreme pain, impactful
“I’d bump myself off”
- colloquial
emphasises her pure distress
“the usual sop”
sympathetic, cliché and routined
“the locked in son”
metaphor
- helpless and powerless
- feelings of guilt
“like a dodgem”
simile
- dehumanising, ironic
- sad and upsetting scene
“she couldn’t see and smiled”
- she puts on a brave face for the children
- poignant, moving
“vision as blank as a stone”
“she couldn’t see and smiled”
contrasting image
- highlights the difficult reality
- lack of joy
“drive the old Lanchester”
“visit exhibitions”
- trying to maintain normality
but she can no longer enjoy her interests
“golden weather”
“autumn trees”
“ablaze with colour”
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
“staring at nothing. ‘oh yes i know’”
- she is trying to look after her son and protect his feelings
- generosity of his mum
” ‘its lovelt out there’. Dying has made her no more sightless”
- dying has made her no longer blind
OR - her blindness is still the same as previously
“it was up to us to believe she was watching, somewhere, in the end.”
uncertainty, ambiguous ending
- Thorpe hopes that his mum can now see and is watching over them
Ends on a hopeful and sad tone
form
poem uses couplets other than the final line
- symbolises the loss of his mum
- supports the idea that the poem is unfinished and unresolved
