poetry

Question 1

what is the content and interpretation for the road?

Answer 1

Content- the speaker describes speeding down a dark country road, towards the sun
Interpretation- a sense of liberation is created through fantastical and timeless images

Question 2

what is somethign you must mention for the road?

Answer 2

In the poem, nature is being undone, creating an otherworldly quality of nature. There is also a sense of discordance. The road is a liminal space.

Question 3

describe the development/tone in the road.

Answer 3

At the beginning, nature is being undone and is personified showing the thrill of adventure. As the poem continues, the sense of harmony is being dented. Clarity and connection is lost in the poem, however there is light ahead creating a sense of hope. The use of infantile language also makes the world around the author seem vibrant, and constantly moving. At the end, the reader is left with a sense of hope.

Question 4

what are the key images for the road?

Answer 4

‘I made the rising moon go back behind the shouldering hill’ - nature being undone. The writer regains control.
‘Stars swarmed’- a violent image of entrapment as well as contrast between ‘stars’ (something beautiful) and ‘swarm’. Makes the stars seem insectile.
‘like a long black carpet’- liquid alliteration and simile, creates a sense of mourning.

Question 5

what are some other key techniques for the road?

Answer 5

The motif of a road connotes journey of life, freedom, hope perseverance.
Polysyndeton in final stanza creates a sense of urgency and tunnel vision to the final destination
Temporal suspension and personification in stanza 1 as natural rules of time are broken (‘till time itself stood still’)
Pastoral setting is an idyll of nature.
The anonymous speaker makes it universal.

Question 6

what is the form and structure of the road?

Answer 6

Rhyme scheme- ABABCDEDFGHGIJKJLMNM (it goes form controlled to becoming more discordant)
Iambic rhythm- creates a sense of lulling and a seemingly endless journey
The stanzas are in regular quatrains- sense of predictability and stability

Question 7

what is the impact of the last line in the road?

Answer 7

‘I drove towards the sun’
Creates a sense of hope, determination, motivation, perseverance, leaving the darkness behind (renewal after destruction e.g., post WW2)

Question 8

what is the content and interpretation for the bus?

Answer 8

Content: The poem describes a bus journey through the night towards Jejuri, an Indian site of pilgrimage
Interpretation: The reader is asked to consider why they are on the journey which is characterized by ambiguity, disconnection, division and images of violence

Question 9

what is somethign you must mention for the bus?

Answer 9

Images of race and self-improvement and holding ourselves accountable
Violence: nature vs society = bus vs outside mentions of class – liminal space

Question 10

describe the development/tone in the bus.

Answer 10

Clarity and certainty are lost through the poem as new perspective are sought after
Pessimism turns to optimism
Becomes more personal through the poem as second person pronouns are more frequent

Question 11

what are the key images for the bus?

Answer 11

Glasses – represent a mirror to the soul, duality of identity
Light- enlightenment, knowledge,
Bus – change, society’s progression against disparity and discrimination

Question 12

what are some other key techniques for the bus?

Answer 12

Repetition: tarpaulin (repeats feeling of claustrophobia)
Aggressive personification
Plosive sounds to mimic whipping
Rhotic alliteration (roaring road)
Caesura “outside,” shows weak barrier between them and the outside world
Internal rhyme (forward toward) + ‘beyond’ repetition shows cycle

Question 13

what is the form and structure of the bus?

Answer 13

Free verse
End-stopped tercets
Enjambment and caesuras mimic bus movements
2-person narrative voice
Uneven line lengths
Uneven capitalisation

Question 14

what is the content and interpretation for These are the Times we Live In
?

Answer 14

Content: Dharker uses second-person perspective to describe the of being a racially profiled at P.C when arriving in a country

Interpretation: The poem’s subtext – that the profiling is based on media stereotypes and fearful modern anxieties – creates a sense of powerlessness. Though at sometimes ironic and subversive, the poem’s final image (of protagonist’s face merging with newspaper photo of somewhere else) conjures a sense of terror and at complete a loss of selfhood.

Question 15

what is the impact of the last line in the bus?

Answer 15

Repeated image of the man connects the journey. The change of perspective shows the speaker’s newfound wholeness and new perspective.

Question 16

what is somethign you must mention for These are the Times we Live In

Answer 16

1-
Second person speech:
a) forces you to feel empathy for speaker
b) capturing voice of border control officer

2-
The border control officer is constantly dehumanising and objectifying the speaker through uses of “it.” They are constructing a new identity, replacing her true personality.

Question 17

describe the development/tone in These are the Times we Live In

Answer 17

The tone is very accusative: “you” “your.”
The tone progressively becomes increasingly harsh, emphasising the brutality of removing the speaker’s identity and how her emotions are being ignored (“the pieces are there/ But they missed out your heart”).
This invokes sympathy.

Question 18

what are the key images for These are the Times we Live In?

Answer 18

1-
“You hand over your passport”
transfer of power – the speaker is no longer in control

2-
“You shrink to the size of the book in his hand” the use of metonymy shows them stripping away her identity as the protagonist is described indirectly as their passport. This is very dehumanising + makes speaker seem feeble/weak and small.
3-
“They scrubbed out your mouth and rubbed out your eyes” potent imagery of silencing.
Silly rhyme scheme of “scrubbed/rubbed” invokes a false sense of joy.
The internal rhyme scheme, scrambling up similar sounds, implies that the speaker feels scrambled/confused by all the questioning.

Question 19

what are some other key techniques for These are the Times we Live In?

Answer 19

Rhetorical questions:
“as it should be. /But what do you expect? /It’s a sign of the times we live in.”
Answer is expressed in a tone of frustration. Rhetorical question implies that this type of questioning is commonplace. Hypophora:
question answered immediately

Question 20

what is the form and structure of These are the Times we Live In
?

Answer 20

1-
Enjambement:
emphasises speaker’s panicked emotions

2-
Unpredictability of free verse lines and line lengths, combined with the infrequent rhymes (photograph/laugh, eyes/surprise) replicates the unpredictability of this encounter

Question 21

what is the impact of the last line in These are the Times we Live In
?

Answer 21

“it rustles as it lands”
“rustles” in present tense showing the situation/occurrence’s continuity.
“lands” - shows the permanence of the stereotypes and the long-lasting impacts and how the “times we live in” will never change.

Last 4 lines:
“half your face” (of the speaker’s) onomatopoeically “rustles” “on to the page of a newspaper.” The subtle auditory impressions of the “rustles” shows that xenophobia and institutional racism is a constant in Dharker’s life and is now a constant background noise – they have grown numb to it.

Question 22

what is the content and interpretation for The Enemies?

Answer 22

Content:
Jennings describes mysterious newcomers arriving in a city and the way that the city’s residents treat them with suspicion at the end of the poem the speakers voice is replaced by the collective voice of the residents, who “draw their blinds” to the strangers
Interpretation:
Jennings represents the way change and newcomers are feared by society she uses the conceit of the invasion to represent the fear and anxiety which festers in communities which ostracize newcomers

Question 23

what is somethign you must mention for The Enemies

Answer 23

Lack of anything substantial actually done by the newcomers, the only real impact on the citizens is the exacerbation of a climate of mistrust that probably existed beforehand, due to the arrival of some new people that bare do anything.
Jennings contrasts this reality with a constant use of a lexical field of violence war and invasion in the first stanzas and one of distrust, conspiratorial thinking and suspicion in the last stanza

Question 24

describe the development/tone in The Enemies

Answer 24

As poem progresses Jennings shows us how the “enemies” are mostly in the inhabitants mind as once the enemies arrive; after a first stanza that describes them as a raiding party and a second as bloodthirsty invaders. There is no real, physical change in daily liofe but each and every citizen now fears this phantom threat and thinks all the other citizens are in on some secret plot

Question 25

what are the key images for The Enemies?

Answer 25

Starts with a theme of invasion as the newcomers cross the river boundary, continues as the next day a lexical field of violence and destruction is used despite the fact that “peace is still apparent on hearth and field” dichotomy between what the people think is happening and what is actually happening is apparent
‘Nine steps from door to balcony and already she is a giant insect fretting in a jar.’: This creates an image of confinement, alongside the false sense of freedom given to the woman by the closeness of the balcony and the outside world yet it is just out of reach.
‘Unhidden by her curtains, two giant black pigs lie dead, or asleep, on a dump.’: This grotesque image follows a regular pattern through the words ‘dead’ and ‘dump’ which brings back the monotonous tone shown earlier in the poem and emphasises the desertion of nature .

Question 26

what are some other key techniques for The Enemies?

Answer 26

Constant repletion of “they” , othering the newcomers, creates a dynamic of suspicion and anger

Question 27

what is the form and structure of The Enemies?

Answer 27

Two mirrored stanzas of midnight and morning. Echo the two faced nature of every citizen who fears and ostracises newcomers. Final “truth” stanza emphasises the hollow nature of this place’s togetherness as no one truly trusts anyone else. Ryming scheme ABABBA continues theme of intrusion and invasion as the rhymes feel like an intrusion in the poem itself

Question 28

what is the impact of the last line in The Enemies?

Answer 28

Demonstrates both depth of fear and distrust between citizens and also the overblown nature of the fear as the newcomers are thought to have permeated into every aspect of city life and to be intruding into every house and “haunting” every citizen. Showing both how deeply-rooted and total the ostracization and fear of the newcomers is but also how ridiculous the fear is

Question 29

what is the content and interpretation for boxes?

Answer 29

Content: Chattarji describes the suffocating, cramped living conditions of a woman in her Mumbai apartment.
Interpretation:
As the poem progresses she captures the strained struggle between the constraining perseverance of life against the onslaught of urbanisation and obliteration of nature.

Question 30

what is somethign you must mention for boxes

Answer 30

An immense sense of detachment is carried throughout the poem, where even just the title ‘Boxes’ creates an image of separation and entrapment with the inhabitants of the city being confined to their box. This sense of categorisation is also highlighted within the final stanza when it reads, ‘trampling underfoot students wives lovers babies.’ This also connotates to a loss of identity where the people are now mindless, locked in the cycle of their monotonous lives.

Question 31

describe the development/tone in boxes

Answer 31

At the start of the poem, the tone is dull with a sense of monotonous rhythm as if the narrator is detached from her life and simply going through the motions. This continues through to the end where the feeling of a lack of control intensifies for the woman as her old life fades away through the gradual destruction of nature and loss of identity in the city.

Question 32

what are the key images for boxes?

Answer 32

‘Nine steps from door to balcony and already she is a giant insect fretting in a jar.’: This creates an image of confinement, alongside the false sense of freedom given to the woman by the closeness of the balcony and the outside world yet it is just out of reach.
‘Unhidden by her curtains, two giant black pigs lie dead, or asleep, on a dump.’: This grotesque image follows a regular pattern through the words ‘dead’ and ‘dump’ which brings back the monotonous tone shown earlier in the poem and emphasises the desertion of nature .

Question 33

what are some other key techniques for boxes?

Answer 33

Temporal language – emphasises the dull, limited life through repetition.
Ayuverda – traditional, ornamental medicine, depicted through the image of the orchid in the first line.
Indefinite articles – sense of detachment and lost identity for the woman from her old life.

Question 34

what is the form and structure of boxes?

Answer 34

The poem is displayed in uniform quintains with ‘block’ stanzas and cesurae which, combined with the enjambment, reflects the dull rhythm of the poem and the repetitive, strict nature of the woman’s life. However, the free verse contrasts with the monotony and brings about a sense of underlying chaos and disorder, trying to break free.

Question 35

what is the impact of the last line in boxes?

Answer 35

‘The sky strides inland on giant stilts, unstoppable, shutting out the light.’: This final line leaves the reader with an image of a once bright world succumbing to darkness with the inhabitants unable to prevent or control it.