Poetry of the decade Flashcards
‘when I hit thirty, he brought me a cake,//
three layers in icing ….//
A candle for each stone in weight’
Example of a pun- weight introduces the idea of a fetish.
‘three layers’ - ideas of excess
‘They said, EAT ME. And I ate, did what I was told. Didn’t even taste it.’
Example of Caesura - emphatic of agreement
example of monosyllabic language - agreement perhaps lacks the agency and power to escape.
End stop- lack of enjoyment.
‘hips judder like a juggernaut.’
Example of a simile - large truck symbolises her power
she is powerful by becoming an object of attraction.
‘The bigger the better… I like // big girls … girls that I can burrow inside’
Example of Plosive alliteration - emphatic of aggressive control and the male gaze
italics - THE MAN”S VOICE
‘my only pleasure was the rush of fast food ,//
his pleasure was to watch me swell like a forbidden fruit.’
potential suggestion of her own enjoyment and pleasure
Example of a simile Eve? religious image of temptation (leading eventually to corruption and damage.
‘tidal wave of flesh’
example of a metaphor - destruction and power.
’ I allowed him’
juxtaposes earlier male control - she is shown to have power, uses his fetish to control him??
‘How// could I not roll over on top. I rolled and he drowned in my flesh. I drowned his dying sentence out’
Example of repeated verbs as she gains power - indicative of deliberate action could show EMPOWERMENT OR DESPERATION.
‘his eyes bulging with greed.//
There was nothing else in the house to eat .’
Desire and greed kills him and causes his own destruction
subversion - she is free from control
Structural comments
eat me
Tercet structure and ABA rhyme scheme - symbolises control
‘All winter unplugged ,//
grinding its teeth’ ‘under the hatch in the door’
represents how masculinity is repressed, socially changing gender standing
‘grinding’- active verb - masculine action
‘it knocked back a quarter- pint of engine oil’
colloquial language alludes to the male drinking culture , develops the chainsaw as an extended metaphor for masculinity personification of the chainsaw
‘weightless wreckage of wasps and flies,//
mothballed in spider’s wool’
alliteration- emphasises destructive nature of masculinity/ the man made.
‘day- glo orange powder line’
use of colour imagery to suggest hostility of masculinity / the man made
‘powder from a keg’
simile- alludes to a gun or bomb, suggesting masculine / man-made destruction.
‘ficked’ ‘‘clipped’ ‘dropped’ ‘gunned’
Dynamic verbs indicate destruction
‘perfect disregard’ ‘tangle with cloth, or jewellery ,or hair’
callous yet enjoyable nature of the chainsaw
damage to feminine delicate images.
‘kick back against nail or knot’
‘gargle’
animalistic release of aggression
onomatepia - release of anger.
‘ludicrous feathers//
and plumes.’
‘taking in the warmth and light’
‘sunning itself’
Feminine description of the pampas grass
Natural imagery
‘twelve foot spears’
metaphor - natural world against man made
‘all that was needed was a good push and shove’
‘overkill’
Speaker realises his behaviour was needless, mocks this overly aggressive masculine behaviour.
Soft Volta and minor sentence.
‘dabbed’ ‘touched’ ‘it didn’t exist’
degree of shame to his actions, euphemistic or callous
‘carved’ ‘spat’ ‘ripped’
return to dynamic verbs- active nature of masculinity / destructive nature of the man made
‘Then cut and raked and cut and raked’
repetitive futile and monotonous
‘blade became choked’ ‘fouled with weeds’
‘like cutting at air or water with a knife.’
dynamic verbs now shift a degree of power to the natural world / feminine
simile - previous actions of the speaker to be pointless - natural world / femininity is never able to be destroyed
’. I left it at that.’
short utterance and caesura are emphatic of his defeat
actions are pointless the natural world will grow again
‘wearing a new crown’
nature now has dynamic verbs
crown is symbolic of regality value and strength.
‘chainsaw seethed’
‘seamless urge to persist was as far as it got.’
return to restrained anger of the man made/masculinity
separated short stanza shows resolution
violence will never defeat the natural word/ masculinity will never defeat femininity
structural comments - chainsaw
structure- juxtaposition between masculinity and femininity
‘my mother was the hanky queen’
‘paper tissues’
hanky -extended metaphor for a different generation of motherhood
tissues - her own experience of motherhood in a disposable and fast paced society
‘embarrassment of lace’ ‘spit and scrubbed against my face.’
extension of extended metaphor for time and care taken
example of sibilance - emphasis on anger and embarrassment however now feels a nostalgic appreciation that she lacked when she was young.
‘naffest Christmas presents you’d get’
‘serious and grey,//
and larger like they had more snot.’
Simile ridicules the patriarchy of the past
critique structural link ‘naffest’
‘green grocer George and his dodgy foot’ ‘Mrs White with painted talons’
proper nouns -permanence - concrete and personal
‘step-together, step-together ,step-together’
repetition highlights the conformity of the past, girls taught to follow the same path and the status quo.
‘Nostalgia only makes me feel old.’
Shift in tone
endstop - attempt to move on from nostalgia and grief
attempt to rationalise her thoughts.
tone is slightly dismissive
‘tv lassitude’
‘It was me who turned it on’
link to technology - metaphor for social change
self- critique of her own motherhood
‘There is never a hanky up my sleeve.’
‘the kind whose noses strangers clean’
endstop- decisive thought
extended metaphor form distance between her motherhood and her mum’s motherhood
struggling with grief and comparison
But it isn’t mine. I’ll let it go.
Endstop and caesura at the beginning off the stanza attempt to move on with grief and the past.
‘this is your material//
To do with, daughter, what you will’
ITALICS - inserts mum’s voice into the poem
sense of freedom she is able to look to her future.
Structural comments - material
regular rhyme scheme - regimented past/ ordered and traditional
octave structure - this is broken in stanza 5 and six as she reminisces on the past.
‘Today’
immediate time marker attempts to ground himself in the present - speakers struggle
‘sand spinning off in ribbons along the beach’
‘that gasoline smell from Leuchars’
‘Quail grey in the distance’
Juxtaposition between natural world and moment with his family at the beach, and the symbolic interruption off the bigger picture - juxtaposes natural peaceful imagery
‘today//
- with the news in my mind, and the muffled dread //
of what may come - ‘
Parenthesis, interruption/ intrusion of the historical moment on the natural and present moment
‘with Lucas
gathering shells
and pebbles’
‘A child’s first nakedness’
peaceful moment contrasted
enjambment
‘petrol blue jelly fish’
Use of colour imagery suggests the invasion of the historical moment on the speakers attempt to appreciate the natural world and on his perception of the present moment.
‘snail shells; shreds of razorfish;//
smudges of weed and flesh on timeworn stone’
Sibliance emphasises the natural world is peaceful.
‘I think at times what makes us who we are’
Stanza 5
Stanza five of the poem is written in iambic pentameter as the speaker attempts to rationalise and make sense of the historical event
philosophical refection.
‘I am dizzy with the fear// of loosing everything- the sea, the sky,// all living creatures ,forests, estuaries:’
Another example of iambic pentameter as the speaker attempts to rationalise.
The caesura is perhaps indicative of the interruptive nature of this reflection.
listing conveys the importance of nature
‘Bodies fixed and anchored to the shore’
Metaphor- speaker’s attempt to ground himself in the present and rationalise his constant distraction of reflecting on the horrific historical event.
‘transitive gold’
‘goldfish’
beauty and the value of nature
colour and natural imagery
‘jam jars of spawn’
childish interactions with nature -adult perspectives ar damaging, intrusion of the bigger picture.
‘plugged into the sky’
metaphor- suggestive of adult anxiety around the bigger picture.
‘all nerve and line// patient; afraid; but still, through everything // attentive to the irredeemable.’
Speaker’s final reflection- despite his experience with the stress of the bigger picture- acknowledges that first moments with his son are important and they won’t happen again. Aware of the significance.
end stop - final attempt to rationalise reaches somewhat of a resolution.
history structural comments
uneven line length- indicative of the chaotic thought in then moment
This is contrasted by highly organised stanzas - represents speakers attempt to find clarity in a confusing moment.
‘Once she is halfway up there’
Copus opens with a time marker establishing a moment of singular transition
‘On the porch roof of her family’s house, trembling,’
use of parenthesis to emphasise difficulty of transition between adulthood and girl hood, suggesting a sense of anxiety.
‘crouched in her bikini’
suggests childish innocence, and the suggestion of potential sexualisation suggesting that the girl is balancing between two states.
‘narrow windowsill’ ‘sharp drop of the staircase’
house is a metaphor for womanhood being a dangerous leap from girlhood - window is a moment of transition and a moment of change
‘friend with whom she is half in love’
inexperience, naivety of childhood innocence
‘blonde gravel’
‘gold stud earrings’
‘oyster -painted toenails’
semantic field of value, worth and light - contrast to the darkness of adulthood.
‘flimsy, hole punched, aluminium lever’
tricolour emphatic of precarious position
‘warm flank of the house’
slight suggestion that perhaps womanhood is nothing to fear, security in womanhood
‘Her tiny breasts rest lightly on her thighs.- What can she know// of the way the word admits us less and less // the more we grow?’
Double pause- Intrusion of the adult voice, girl is too innocent to know the restrictions that older women face
‘grey// eye of the street’
‘drap electroplating factory’
Adulthood as drab and restrictive lack of colour compared to girlhood
‘far too, most far, from the flush- faced secretary’
‘head full of the evening class // she plans to take, or the trip of a life time l=, looks up now// from the stirring omens of the astrology column’
parallel phrasing - looking to the future , the adulthood experience as dull and monotonous
‘a girl- thirteen if she’s a day-‘
Parenthesis - separation from the speaker-distance from the innocence of girlhood.
‘catch the sunlight briefly like armaments’
military weapons- hopeful tone - prepared for womanhood
‘dropping gracefully into the shade of the house.’
Use of an adverb to suggests the girl transitions with ease
an easy passage structural comments
continuous single stanza - single moment in time -ageing an passing from girlhood to womanhood
caesura and enjambment - much more of it used when the adult voice is present
‘crippled or dark or girls.’
Use of tricolon, matter of fact listing of devalued and discarded characteristics.
‘girls’ is placed at the end of the list emphasising the least importance.
‘covered in garbage, stuffed in bags,//
Abandoned at their doorstep’
Lack of figurative language- brutal simplicity - reality of infanticide
‘One of them was dug up by a dog, thinking the head barely poking above ground// Was bone or wood, something to chew.’
Plosive alliteration -Hidden nature of infanticide
babies come equated to objects they are dehumanised by the way they are discarded
‘This is the one my mother will bring’
‘The parents wait at the gates’
Pronoun- a thing -detached treatment of her
Ambiguious speaker, we are left unsure of who the speaker is - could it be the daughter whop is discarded, the adoptive sister?? does the speaker change throughout.
the - detached treatment
‘Don’t know her fetish for plucking hair off hands’
shame around infanticide - it is hidden away
suggests a strange maladaptive behaviour - indicative of trauma?
revulsion at her ties to the identity that rejected her, disgust at her identity before she was adopted into American culture.
But they are crying.//
WE COULDN’T STOP CRYING, my mother said’
Speaker inserts the voice of the adoptive mother into the poem - emotive image is later contrasted with the speaker’s detachment.
‘Feeling the strangeness of her empty arms.’
distance of the relationship with her adoptive family/parents trauma has impacted her relationships.
‘This girl grew up on video tapes’
Detached tone - suggestive of damage trauma is too great, perhaps suggestive of identity struggles that comes with this type of traumatic experience.
‘Sees how she’s passed from woman // To woman.’
Enjambment - emphasises movement multiple partial places of belonging- perhaps resulting in a lack of identity
Further emphasised by the detached use of second person and the ambiguous identity of the speaker, who may be the abandoned and adopted child who feels detached from her own identity as a result of her trauma.
‘twilight corners’
infanticide is not talked about as a hidden and dark cultural issue
‘desolate hut’
‘outside village boundaries’
semantic field of marginalisation of women - ‘othering’
also could be intended to portray how the transgressive dead of infanticide is kept hidden from society.
‘Where mothers go to squeeze out life’
serves as a pun- literal giving birth to girls and killing the baby girls.
‘Watch body slither out from body’
Serpent imagery perhaps alludes to the story of Adam and Eve - eve and women and girls are blamed and equated to sin or harm, due to being less desirable.
‘Feel for Penis or no penis’
linguistic parallel emphasises the most important thing that will prevent a baby being killed, simplistic brutality of the language
‘Toss the baby to the heap of others’
Casual callousness of infanticide
‘Trudge to lie down for their men again.’
monosyllabic nature of the sentence conveys the lack of agency of the women as they are unable to break the cycle.
suggests how women fall victim to patriarchal behaviour.
This is emphasised by the single line stanza.
The title ‘ The Lammas Heirling’
Refers to a retelling of a traditional Irish folk story of ‘hare folklore’ - believed witches could take on the forms of hares
Pre christian and pagan festival of Lammas.
lammas hireling Structural comments
Structure as a dramatic monologue - creates intrigue an ambiguous atmosphere.
enjambment between stanzas change of tone
‘After the fair, I’d still a light heart//
and a heavy purse, he struck so cheap’
During initially creates a pleasant atmosphere establishing the hairline as helpful and pleasant company.
however the juxtaposition between the words struck perhaps foreshadowing an atmosphere of guilt and violence
perhaps introduces a semantic field of currency - suggesting motive?
‘cattle doted on him’
‘mine only dropped heifers, fat as cream’
‘yields doubled’
initially pleasant and helpful introduction of the hireling- unnatural connection to the natural world - foreshadowing of supernatural nature of hireling
- extension of the semantic field of currency
‘Disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife
I hunted down her torn voice from his pale form.’
‘stark-naked’ ‘a cow with leather horns’
‘lovely head’ ‘I carried him.’
alliteration emphasises the disruption caused by the hireling.Plosive sounds - suggestive of threat and aggression.
Queer theory reading - a potential suggestion of homosexuality
potential surging of gender - ambiguity and confusion.
sense of care and affection contrasts brutal reality of what he has done.
‘Stock- still in the light of the dark lantern’
dark and light imagery - oxymoronic language atmosphere here is inexplicable
‘muckle care . I levelled//
And blew the small hour through his heart.’
Minimalist and brutal violence
use of dialectal language-folk like atmosphere
‘The moon came out. By its yellow witness’
natural/light imagery the moon reveals sin?
colour imagery is suggestive of guilt ability of truth.
‘In a sack that grew lighter at every step’
suggestion of supernatural/ hare/ ambiguous truth
‘There was no //splash.’
ambiguity - of truth, did the hireling even exist
“I don’t dream’
potentially cursed punishment for his crimes/actions/destruction
‘spend my nights casting ball from half crowns’
Semantic field of money and currency - currency has now become pointless his money is used to defend himself against the hireling
‘Bless me, Father for I have sinned.//
It has been a hour since my last confession.’
slightly oxymoronic- as not seeming to be genuine-suggestion that he is unable to successfully confess as his deed is too great/ he is lying so is unable to make a true and full confession
Queer theory reading suggests that the speaker’s inability to confess is due to his homosexual relationship with the hireling - as he feels he can not admit this to a catholic priest of the time period.
