On Her Blindness (PotD) Flashcards
AO2 for…
bear being blind
Plosive alliteration
- blunt force is communicated
AO2 for…
to be honest. One shouldnt….
Caesura
Establishes fro the outset that this poem is one of truth and honesty and doesnt trivialise/ sugar-coat serioud illness
AO2 for…
One (x2)
Repeated formal pronouns
- reflects the way we are told to approach illness with quiet stoicism
AO2 for…
handicaps are hell
Metaphor
- suggests a perpetual suffereing that comes with serious terminal illness - not sensationalised
AO2 for…
those who bear it like a Roman
Simile
-shows a usual portrayal of serious illness is one of resistance and bravery
AO2 for…
in a Paris restaurant
Juxtaposition
- between the reality of the mother’s life ans the connotations of a Paris restaurant
- romance juxtaposed with bleak reality - dark humour
AO2 for…
(try it in a pitch-black room)
Direct address through paranthesis
- makes the coping with a family memebers illness personal
- wants the reader to see the true reality of the illness
AO2 for…
whispered, ‘It’s living hell’
Suggests that the truth of illness cant be spoken out loud
AO2 for…
the locked-in son
Metaphor
- trapped by his inability s=to show his emotions when caring for his terminally ill mother
- ‘sop’ - insincere
AO2 for…
long,//
//slow slide
Enjambment
- inevitable deterioration of her health shown
- the use of long vowel sounds ‘o’, shows her suffering is being dragged-out
AO2 for…
vision as black as stone
Simile
- light and joy has left her
- ‘stone’ - her loss of sight takes part of her humanity with it
AO2 for…
autumn trees
leaves die = shes dying
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pretend…end
The use of rhyme at the end of the poem, whent he rest is written in free verse, suggests a resolution/ conclusion has been drawn
AO2 for…
What is the significance of the last stanza of On Her Blindness being a single line stanza?
Throughout we see couplet stanzas - symbolic of the mother and son
When the mother dies the line is reduced to one line, but, not right away, suggesting that only after the son has accepted her death does this final resolution appear
