Poem Pairs (final) Flashcards
‘Follower’
Seamus Heaney
Mother any distance
MAD relationship holds child back ‘anchor. Kite’ whereas F relationship holds back parent, ‘nuisance, tripping, falling, yapping, always.’ Enjambment and caesura
-both seen as parents of support, comparison to nautical objects like anchor and sail, iambic tetrameter of F.
Both have to distance themselves from one another (physically and emotionally) ‘stumbling in his hobnailed wake’ (enjambment).
‘Hatch that opens on an endless sky’.
Sun in MAD breaks away from mother, ‘I reach’ whereas F kept in bondage w father shown by empathetic role reversal (‘stumbling’) iambic tetrameter kept throughout. cyclical narrative
‘Before you were mine.’
Carol Anne Duffy
The farmer’s bride.
Both show possessive imagery, ‘I chose a maid’/‘before you were mine’ (CHREMAMORPHIC device). Lack of voice in each.
BYWM presented as abnormal w reversal of parent child relationship, ‘sweetheart?’ Vs TFB is shown as patriarchal product of society, ‘we chased her, flying like a hare’. Use of ‘us’ perhaps reflects men vs ‘frightened fay’ dehumanised.
Both criticise women’s predetermined role as carer in home. Shown in BYWM by contrast w liberty and injustice (reflected w cyclical narrative) ‘shriek at the pavement’, ‘blows round your legs’ > ‘wrong pavement’.
TFB demonstrates via literal entrapment within home, ‘does the work about the house, as well as most but like a mouse’ ‘eyes beseeched’
Both display tones of resentment, ‘but what to me?’ / ‘decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?’.
Walking away
Mother any distance
Both children actively walking away from parents, ‘I reach’ MAD and ‘you walking away from me’ WA - for , ‘endless sky’. Enjambment prolongs.
Passive role in WA, ‘watched’ ‘I can see’ (spectating lexical field). MAD actively prevents separation, ‘fingertips still pinch the last one hundredth of an inch’ enjambment.
Space imagery highlights isolation, ‘space-walk’ and ‘satellite wrenched from its orbit’.
Although natural imagery highlights cyclical narrative of life in WA, ‘winged seed loosened from its parent stem’
‘Climbing my grandfather’ Andrew Waterhouse
‘Follower’ Seamus Heaney
Both idolise relative. F ‘globed like a full sail strung’ (link to god atlas and depicts wise/all-knowing, infallible) vs extended metaphor of Grandfather to mountain. Both associate w earth, ‘earth-stained hand’ and ‘furrow’ shows unity w nature, constant figure of reliance.
CMG grows closer to grandfather spiritually w tactile imagery, ‘grip’ and ‘push’ in relation to ‘slow pulse of his good heart’. F grows more emotionally distant to father, ‘all I ever did was follow’ enjambment links to continuous strive to be closer to father, never actually reaching there.
Despite infallible nature described at beginning, progression of each uses semantic field of age, ‘loose skin of his neck’ and ‘stumbling’. Showing more human element to each.
Progressive 6 stanza poem in CMG reveals closure between them as conquer summit ‘knowing’ (lack of doubt), cyclical narrative of F signifies constant gap between them.
‘Porphyria’s lover’
Both present passionate relationships filled w desire, although both have obstacles preventing the full expression of their love.
‘Thoughts do twine and bud’ / ‘hide the wood’ [infatuation perhaps blocks obscures view of lover, preventing deeper understanding of him]
Pathetic fallacy ‘tore the elm tops down for spite’ reflects mental state of narrator which is resisting active role of porphyria, ‘she has come through wind and rain’.
Petrarchan sonnet prevents S29 as timeless/ancient love (excelling bounds of society) while PL only mentions love for porphyria after death, psychotic nature preventing from loving in normal way (‘burning kiss’).
PL narrator portrayed as inferior via use of levels ‘kneeled’ and ‘stooped’ (rejects her lowering of oneself to his status). ‘Glided’ perhaps conveys ‘pride’ and elevation (envy). ‘And, last, she sat down by my side’. Transgresses female Victorian expectations?
S29 feels inferior, ‘straggling green’ looks to tree for support, links to jesus’ comparison of disciples to vines, God-like presence to lover? Simultaneously uses imperatives, showing is driving force in relationship, breaking down boundaries to be with him. (Links to father disowning her)
‘Neutral tones’
WHEN WE TWO PARTED
Death imagery in both showing lasting and meaningful toll taken on both, ‘starving sod’ (have sucked everything out to point of deterioration of nature around them. 2 meanings of sod) and ‘knell in mine ear’ (contrasts w ‘silence’ created in both and sparsity). *links to holy imagery of both.
Both use juxtapositions to highlight perversion of their relationship, ‘grin of bitterness swept thereby’ coincides w coldness and lack of human emotion. ‘Pale grew thy cheek and cold,/ colder thy kiss’ (juxtaposition of physical contact association w coldness shows lack of humanity)
*enjambement and ‘swept’ convey sudden end to relationship.
Cyclical nature of both shows emotional turmoil of relationship, WWTP feels left behind while NT wonders whether he can love again.
‘Love’s philosophy’
Both use nature to convey natural instincts by which man is governed, ‘all things by a law divine’ (suggesting lady should succumb to natural instincts and kiss him) *romanticism and atheism. Demonstrates nature coinciding w religion and faith.
Nature also used in TBF, all farmer ever known (country dialect) contrasting sharply w that of unnatural love w no progression. ‘Berries redden up to Christmas time’ demonstrating growing inability to restrain from man’s instincts, snowing darker side of nature w intimations of turning persona w seasons.
Both show persistence in that of attempts to be with lover (long stanzas punctuated w colons/semicolons and water imagery, “the sunlight clasps the earth and the moonbeams kiss the sea” celestial imagery and sun/moon’s routine appearance.
Contrasting darker, closed imagery, limiting sense to their love, persistence despite literal running away from him.
‘Sonnet 29’
Unfinished
Natural imagery to convey natural imagery.
‘My thoughts do twine and bud’
‘Berries redden up to Christmas time’
> endless limits to their love vs literal limiting and entrapment within that of role as wife.
Lack of control
‘-burst, shattered, everywhere!’
‘Her eyes, her hair, her hair!’
>spontaneity vs instability of mental state
Breakdown of distance between them.
‘Breathe within thy shadow a new air,’
‘But a stair betwixt us’
>through closeness only can their relationship go on
‘When we two parted’
WINTER SWANS
Both use cold imagery to symbolise lack of emotional warmth, perhaps dormancy.
‘Pale grew thy cheek and cold,/ colder thy kiss’
Juxtaposition >perversion, lack of empathy to lover, lover is seen as source of coldness.
‘Icebergs of white feather’
Underlying problems due to ‘silence’ in both.
Although natural imagery/ ‘white’ suggests is a natural love.
While WWTP shows inability to move on and feelings of betrayal, ‘in secret we met- in silence I grieve’, WS shows mutual, active cooperation to fix, further shown in alliteration of ‘we walked’.
Further conveyed in cyclical narrative and constant rhyme scheme of WWTP vs tercets through to 2 lines in WS.
‘Letters from Yorkshire’
‘Climbing my grandfather’
Both use metaphors to display closeness despite separation over distance/ time, (tactile imagery, ‘knowing the slow pulse of his good heart’) (‘it’s you who sends me word of that other world’)
LFY links nostalgia to sense of longing, wants to be in ‘other world’ (although there’s no mention as to others longing to come to her world, suggesting disapproval and so closeness) while CMG rather associates w danger, ‘not looking down, for climbing has its dangers’ (suggests memories could conjure mental instability). Both negatives within each poem could convey deep love for one another as negative feeling conjured.
Both disagree w time and distance as a barrier to their relationship, demonstrates metaphorical healing and happiness given, “glassy ridge of a scar” (suggests delicate healing taking time) despite death imagery shown in “(soft and white at this altitude)” as extra info suggesting time has no impact on closeness to grandfather, lexical field of age hints at faded memories. Similarly, despite distance, are connected via letters, “pouring air and light into an envelope” (erupts feelings of closeness as immediately feels Yorkshire air as if she’s present with him. Sucking air and light out of the relationship??
Eden rock
Walking away
Both show reminiscence in poem. (ER distorted time frame, suggesting longing to return back to that moment in time, ‘same suit/ of genuine Irish tweed’) w both memories preserved w intricate detail (WA ‘almost to the day’) although WA demonstrates more regretful tone of past event (‘gnaws at my mind still’ conveying sudden past event vs continuous present)
Ongoing event in ER shown by half rhyme and continuos verbs, suggesting closeness to death and progression on into afterlife, ‘crossing is not as hard as you might think’ vs past event (part of cyclical nature of life) in which path has already been found, ABACA rhyme scheme, B and C representing obstacles of life (much like final crossing into after life caesura)
Both use natural imagery to convey natural part of life, ‘drifted stream’ (river Styx symbolism shows languid and peaceful stage).
‘Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away’ (same ‘drift’ stem used to convey nature’s give and take)
