Poetry of the Decade - Eat Me, Chainsaw, Material Flashcards
E.M - Structure?
Tercets and an ABA rhyme scheme, symbolic of control
E.M - ‘The bigger the better’
plosive alliteration - suggest aggression and demonstrate that the man emphasises his control through a filter of praise
E.M - ‘they said EAT ME. And I ate, did // what I was told.’
Caesura, monosyllabism and enjambment - asserts her submission to her partner’s control (passivity)
E.M - ‘hips judder like a juggernaut’
Links her to something powerful and destructive, she is empowered by his desire for her
E.M - ‘to watch me swell like a forbidden fruit’
Simile - links her to the garden of Eden and the destructive nature of temptation, powerful but also objectified (does that give her power over him?)
E.M - ‘beached whale’, ‘a tidal wave of flesh’
Metaphor - suggests that she is out of place/helpless. But also affirms her power received by the male gaze, linked to language of destruction
E.M - ‘too fat to…’ ‘too fat to…’ ‘too fat to…’
Anaphora - highlights her helplessness and objectification at the hands of her controlling partner, partner may symbolise the male gaze/misogyny
What is a ‘juggernaut’?
a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable
E.M - ‘I allowed’, ‘I rolled’, ‘he drowned’
active verbs - speaker gains the power over the man, subverts misogynistic dynamic of control through his desire for her
E.M - ‘his eyes bulging with greed’
Attention is brought back to his desire for her (linked to the sin of greed), killed by the male gaze and his desire for excess, his objectification gave her power
E.M - ‘how could I not roll over on top.’
Reversal of temptation, a deliberate action to take his life motivated by her temptation - both have dangerous desires
E.M - ‘nothing else in the house left to eat’
His desire foor her to eat is his own undoing and leads to his cannibalisation (alluded to)
C.V.T.P.G - Extended metaphors
Chainsaw - masculinity/man-made destruction
Pampas Grass - femininity/the natural world
C.V.T.P.G - ‘all winter unplugged. grinding its teeth’
Masculinity is repressed/hidden, left to fester. Teeth link to aggression and anger
C.V.T.P.G -‘weightless wreckage of wasps and flies’
Alliteration draws attention to the ideas of destruction
C.V.T.P.G - ‘dropped’, ‘clipped’, ‘gunned the trigger’
dynamic verbs, link to the dangerous and harmful nature of masculinity/man-made power
C.V.T.P.G - ‘flesh’, ‘bones’, ‘kick back’, ‘rear up’
Primal/bestial imagery suggest the violence of the man-made/masculine, depicted as destructive and irrational
C.V.T.P.G - ‘ludicrous feathers and plumes’, ‘warmth and light’, ‘sunning itself’
Pampas Grass, and so nature/femininity, is depicted as delicate. Light imagery relates it to a sense of hope, delicacy and positivity
C.V.T.P.G -‘twelve foot spears’
It is armed against this sudden violence, femininity/nature are not as defenceless as they initially seem
C.V.T.P.G - ‘Overkill.’
Emphatic minor sentence serves as a soft volta. The chainsaw is mocked for its excessive destruction and unnecessary violence
C.V.T.P.G - ‘chainsaw seethed’, ‘seamless urge to persist was as far as it got.’
Restrained and repressed aggression, the desire will never have a definitive, permanent victory. Nature/femininity persists and prevails
C.V.T.P.G - ‘the blade became choked with soil or fouled with weeds’
Dynamic verbs are now attributed to natural power, demonstrates a subversion in how man-made/masculine power is eventually overcome
C.V.T.P.G - ‘like cutting at water or air with a knife’
Simile - demonstrates the futility of man-made power, it will never prevail without resistance
C.V.T.P.G - ‘riding high in its saddle, wearing a new crown. Corn in Egypt.’
Biblical allusion - demonstrates the triumph and abundance of nature/femininity in the face of aggression
C.V.T.P.G - ‘knocked back a quarter pint’, ‘like powder from a keg’, ‘orange power line’
Colour imagery - demonstrations of masculinity and power, emphasise the aggression of the chainsaw
M - Structure?
ABCBDEFE - Semblance of rhyming couplets, regimented structure links to the traditionalism that the hankie represents.
M - Extended metaphor
The Handkerchief represents the motherhood style of the speaker’s mother (significant, warm, solid), where the tissue represents her own style of motherhood as a working mother (disposable, convenient).
M - ‘she bought her own; I never did.’
Caesura and end stop - separates speaker from her mother’s generation of motherhood, makes clear how they represent different values. Perhaps she feels less personally involved?
M - ‘Greengrocer George […] from a Comma van’ ‘friendly butcher’ ‘Mrs White […] taught us’
Proper noun depictions present the past as a more personal time, sense of community. Contrasts the depersonalised present.
M - ‘parceled rows of local crab // lay opposite the dancing school’
Enjambed across stanzas - represents the speaker’s fondness of memories, how they flood back to her. Fluid and comfortable, not regimented fragments
M - ‘nostalgia only makes me old.’
End-stopped line, blunt turning point, the focus shifts from the narrator’s mother to her own children, dismisses the significance of the past
M - ‘never a hanky up my sleeve.’
End-stop represents societal change, moving away from the romanticised ideals of the past
M - ‘this is your material to do with, daughter, what you will.’
In italics, the voice of the mother - ends on a hopeful tone of progression, we are free to behave how our future demands
M - ‘killed in TV lassitude. And it was me that turned it on’
TV as a metaphor for social change, movement away from tradition and towards a conscious choice of working motherhood
M - ‘distant aunts’ ‘naffest Christmas presents’
Lack of respect/appreciation. she dismisses the romanticism of the past to move on (ideas of the patriarchy?)
M - ‘waving out of trains’ ‘mopping the corners of your grief’
significant emotion and desire linked to motherhood of the past, nostalgia and romanticism
Poet of Material?
Ros Barber
Poet of Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass?
Simon Armitage
Poet of Eat Me?
Patience Agbabi
