Poetry Flashcards
Close: time quotes
A couple that’s been together since they were young, the relationship deteriorated over time and is a long way from when they were innocent and naive.
The cliche kid time quotes
The persona is haunted by childhood memories:
‘I cant forget’ stative verb emphasised by enjambement portrays how the memories will never leave despite the persona’s desperation to forget.
Minor sentence ‘chalkdust.’: memories of the past are presented as fragmented, only remembering general impressions from the past and the trauma it brought him.
Patterns:
Imperatives: ‘give me a shot of something’, ‘give me a break’, ‘don’t let me pine for that first love’
The persona recalls the happy memories of his first love:
Antithesis: ‘that easy laugh in my ears, in my lonesome heart’ contrasts with the personas feelings of isolation in the present.
Cliche kid people and relationships quotes
The persona’s relationship with his parents causes him to be overly masculine with an adult, mixing up cliches demonstrating his confusion between reality and what he wants to make reality.
Patterns: Nouns from semantic field of fashion
‘’My fathers ballgown’
‘His french scent’
‘Me so butch in my boots down the macho bars’- alliteration, the persona tries to compensate for his feelings of weakness and inadequacy by adopting a powerful, masculine persona. This is as a result of his parents not conforming to gender roles. (Macho idiolect and colloquial language also demonstrates this ‘pissing’, ‘shot’ , ‘doc’.)
This is a criticism of society- people who didnt fit stereotypes are made to repress their feelings.
Personas lonely childhood:
Hyperbole ‘every imaginary friend left me for another child’ highlights isolation. Led to him repressing his true self.
As a result:
‘Fresh baked grass’
‘New mown bread’
What kind of poem cliche kid
Dramatic monologue
Mean time: time quotes
Patterns:
Personification expressing the effect of time: time is something to be blamed.
‘Clocks slid back an hour and stole light from my life’
‘I felt my heart gnaw at all our mistakes’- her heart keeps returning to revisit the mistakes that led to this point.
‘Mean time’- adjective ‘mean’- blame of time for end of relationship.
The persona’s past in small female skull
‘My warm lips to it’s papery bone’- oxymoron of noun phrase ‘papery bone’ suggests the strength of the bone is worn down by past experiences presenting vunerability.
‘Dry it- first born- gently’. The caesura after the adverb ‘gently’ presents the skull as her own state of mind. She’s supporting her past and her childhood self.
‘Read that shattering day like braille’- simile. She’s able to relive the traumatic events through the feeling of her skull.
Death and insanity in small female skull.
‘I balance my small female skull in my hands’- repetition of personal possessive pronoun ‘my’ shows that the persona has come to terms with death.
Stative verb ‘balance’ shows the persona trying to support her vunerable self through clinical depression (‘papery bone’ noun phrase- fragility of her mental state).
‘As though it could levitate’- simile. Power that death holds over her and how she sees her future self in the skull.
Isolation of the persona:
Repetitive structure ( 4 five line stanzas).
‘In my hands, appalled’- appalled stative verb thinking about what her life has become.
‘Downstairs they will think i have lost my mind’- abstract noun ‘downstairs’. distancing herself from the rest of society. Could represent the effects of her mental illness on her mental state or could be the persona embracing death.
Patterns:
‘Think i have lost my mind’ Emphasised by caesura- isolation between her and others.
Enjambement ‘weep’- sadness contemplating death. ‘Sand’- delicacy of skull and fragility of mental state.
‘Appalled’ and ‘disturbing’ evaluative adjectives present her feelings when thinking about her own mortality.
Before you were mine: mother daughter relationship.
Persona feels possessive over her mother:
‘Mine’- first person singular possessive pronoun.
‘Loud, possessive yell’ -evaluative adjectives
The persona feels guilty for ruining her mothers chances at fame and stardom:
Juxtaposition created in ‘i remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics’- the red shoes symbolise what the mother could have had and the child being what she got. Abstract noun ‘relics’- she thinks she ruined her mothers dreams’.
‘Stamping stars from the wrong pavement’- sibilance- she carried the excitement of her childhood to the relationship with her daughter but the persona believes she should’ve been famous.
The close bond they had:
Pattern of dynamic verbs ‘laugh’, ‘shriek’ and ‘stamping’ present the fun childhood her mother had that she carried on to the relationship with her daughter.
‘Whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?’- rhetorical question shows the persona taking on the role of her grandmother. Abstract noun ‘sweetheart’- parental role shows the love and care she has for her mother while the mocking tone presents their close bond.
Enjambement shows the excitement in her mothers youth.
Personas attempts to get closer to her mother after her passing:
‘Clear as scent’- simile presents her attempts to relive the moments with her mother as well as gain an understanding of her life to become closer to her.
Proper nouns ‘Maggie McGeeney’ ‘Jean Duff’- important people in her mothers life.
Litany: mother daughter relationship.
- The cold relationship (daughter is an accessory for mother to prove perfect life).
- The daughters desire to escape (the relationship and judgement) and her mockery of the women and their judgement of eachother.
The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team: childhood and memory contrasting with disillusionment of life today.
Pattern of dynamic verbs: ‘whooped’ ‘ran’, ‘stamped’ (emphasised by enjambment) presents the excitement of his childhood in comparison to stative verb ‘want’ ( ‘i want it back’ simple declarative sentence) shows the dissappointment of his current life (a fall from grace).
Other excitement quotes: metaphor ‘fizzing hope’ his youth was full of optimism and excitement, simile ‘my lips numb as a two-hour snog’ sexual experimentation in his youth is contrasted with evaluative adjectives ‘stale wife’ (and ‘thick kids’) showing his contempt for his family as if they don’t live up to his expectations or aren’t good enough for him.
Feeling of confidence and control persona had as a child compared with present:
Pattern of possessive pronouns show juxtaposition in past and present: minor sentence ‘my country’ feels he’s in control of his environment and has a sense of ownership and entitlement (as well as repitition of adverb ‘again’ shows he’s sure he’ll always get the answer right, colloquial noun in minor sentence ‘no snags’ suggests confidence). Juxtaposes with ‘my boss’ where the concrete noun shows he’s no longer in charge. Sense of entitlement he gained from his childhood extends to his adult life as he appears to be an emotionally abusive father ‘stale wife’, ‘thick kids wince’.
Never go back: time, memory, identity
The persona has moved on and is no longer the person she used to be, but the place stays frozen in time:
Semantic field of death shows that the persona is sad she can no longer connect with her past: ‘ghost’- abstract noun suggests the old her is dead and she has moved on.
‘The house where you were one of the brides has cancer’- personification of house emphasised by enjambement shows the effect of time on the place: it’s decaying.
‘Living dead’- oxymoron shows all the people drink because they’ve lost their purpose in life.
‘A taxi implying a hearse’+ simile ‘the driver looks like death’- decaying and depressing.
Pattern of personification presents the place as angry at her: presents her guilt for leaving:
‘Each groan and creak accusing’- the house knows she wants to leave.
Memory: memories are presented as painful for the persona.
‘Suddenly swarm in the room, sting you, disappear’- sibilance presents the memories as aggressive and painful to the persona.
Pattern of dynamic verbs show the persona is determined to free herself from the past: ‘slamming’, ‘shaking’.
Minor sentence ‘forget’
Imagery of warmth and light show that with time she’s changed and feels she belongs somewhere else ‘fires and lights come on wherever you live’.
Time: effect of time on places and people. Memory: memories are presented as painful and she wants to escape them. Identity: she has moved on while the place has stayed the same.
The biographer: identity, time, disillusionment.
Persona feels inferior to the writer and like a failure:
Pattern of stative verbs emphasised by short lines ‘wanted’, ‘needed’ and (within a metaphor) ‘i felt your dislike’ create a sense of the persona’s inferiority to the writer. The persona goes from feeling this contempt towards the writer to craving a sort of intimacy ‘i slept alone in your bed’ or dynamic verb ‘caressing’
Conflicting emotions: the persona feels close to the writer yet resents his own inferiority to the writer:
‘A stew and tangle of rags, sniffed by a dog, stood, spoke, spat at the shadow i cast, at the meagre shadow i cast’- sibilance shows his desparation to immerse himself in the writers stories yet the metaphor ‘at the meagre shadow i cast’ amplified by evaluative adjective ‘meagre’ shows his disillusionment as the influence he had on the world is nothing compared to the writers.
The inferiority the writer causes the persona to feel makes him resent the writer:
Alliteration in minor sentences ‘Maestro. Monster. Mummy’s boy. My Main Man’- biographer moves from intense admiration to contempt.
Persona attempts to copy the writer because he looks up to him but is unable to:
‘In all of your mirrors, my face’- attempts to copy
‘Her forgiveness. Her violent love.’- parallel phrasing- his wife’s forgiveness is destructive to his ego.
Time: the writer has power over the persona and he can feel the writers presence despite the passing of time.
‘Like a hood and a cloak of light’- simile
‘How close can i get to the sound of your voice’- abstract noun voice emphasised by enjambement shows the personas attempts to be closer to the writer, as if he’s trying to live his life.
Nostalgia: time, memory, the power of language
Memory and time: After being away for a long time, they recognise it yet have been alienated:
Parallel phrasing and repetition of adjective ‘the same street with the same sign on the inn, the same bell chiming the hour on the clock’ emphasises sameness (time has had no effect on the place/ its as if they never left) so how much the mercinary has changed psychologically (time’s effect on them- they’re different people).
Antithesis ‘and everything changed’- the shock they experience when everything they once knew seems different to them.
Pattern of adjectives ‘wrong’ and ‘same’ shows how much the mercinaries have changed and how they view their home differently.
Memory and nostalgia is presented negatively and as powerful:
‘The scent of her youth’ metaphor.
Oxymoron ‘sweet pain in the heart’ happy memories cause pain as it’s what they left behind.
Sibilance ‘the sad pipes- summoning’- memories of places they once loved draws them back to the place.
Could be presented as an illness in hyperbole ‘it was killing them’.
Power of language: abstract noun ‘it was given a name’- the abstract noun ‘nostalgia’ was invented to make sense of the feeling of yearning for the past.
Time: mercinaries are presented as yearning for the past.
Time is presented as having stood still for their home which led to the feeling of alienation for the people who had time change them.
Memory: memory is presented as an illness, causing the mercinaries pain as they yearn for their home.
The mercinaries experiences have changed them which leads them to feel they no longer belong there and their memories are in the past.
