Post 2000 poetry Flashcards
Summary and deceptive point ab them
Eat Me
Poem reflects relationship imbalance
Half - rhymes could show her attempt to break free from the cycle / hesitation (hesitation lessens as poem goes on)
Double meaning throughout - more sinister things are hidden
Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass
Failure poem - underdog is victor - could be about gender, man v nature, social class etc
Flows in and out of chainsaw and speaker’s perspective - unifying? speaker blaming machine?
Stanza length thins out - reflective of peace?
The Lammas Hireling
Purposefully ambiguous and confusing e.g each line seems to be a completely different tone - reflective of nerves of this confession- strung out emotion?
Archaic qualities e.g hare symbolic of devil in folklore
Giuseppe
Element of fairy-tale realism - almost framed like a story
Simple language - have to face horrors
Mermaid has no voice
Cyclical nature - back to uncle only now we know he is aquarium keeper
The Gun
1st stanza is short, last is long = adds to hard to read choppy rhythm and how a positive perspective brings more to life
Unemotional tone
2nd stanza - purposeful nature of gun with very short lines
Material
Small losses like a hanky are a reminder of a greater grief
Flow between past and present, often personifying hankies - have power to evoke memories etc
Hopeful ending tone of acceptance
An Easy Passage
Opposites, halves, beginning on a window ledge - all used to demonstrate the delicate movement between girlhood and womanhood reflected in poem
Ends in sensory imagery - intimacy of this change - perhaps omniscient narrator understands
Freedom of youth vs restriction and mundanity of adulthood
Genetics
Beat of the meter is reflective of a heartbeat
Adaptation of villanelle form - often associated with lyrical poems (adds to playful quality of the poem) and repeats lines (see a refrain in this poem)
To My Nine-Year-Old Self
Title connotes a letter but there is no response, emphasised by child being voiceless yet having a strong disinterested physical presence
Intimate nature - readers not let in on everything e.g ‘that dream we had’
Stanzas get longer then shorter - older self no longer dwelling on the disconnection?
The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled
Emotional journeys can be just as important
Radically different stanza lengths - freedom and movement of travel? not getting anywhere when physically travelling?
Dashes and disruptions show careful consideration and purpose
On Her Blindness
Critical of stoicism - mother in denial of her disability
Could be seen as an elegy
Challenging to read e.g 23 short stanzas, enjambment etc, reflective of failing eyesight
Effects
Hands are everywhere and do everything, change, grief etc
Poem only made up of two sentences - only final 3 lines rhyme
lines 22 and 45 link - both use f alliteration but they contrast - amusing to sad, reflective of fast paced nature of life?
Contrast throughout between speaker and their mother
A Minor Role
Could interpret poem literally or figuratively e.g ‘monstrous fabric’ = society?
Poem consists of imperatives speaker puts on themselves so last line direct address is more impactful
Oedipus reference - classical Greek tragedy where he discovers man he killed = father and wife = his mum so he blinds himslef
Hospital expectations just as worse as illness
Please Hold
Antagonsit - wife (also has robot voice)
Chaotic tone as all speakers overlap
An initial humour e.g robot oblivious to his rage but disrupted by ‘this is the future’.
Bleak ending tone, almost dystopian - refrain of ‘this is the future’
From the Journal of a Disappointed Man
Contrast between speaker and the workers throughout. also narrator seems insecure ‘ignoring me’ etc
Many interpretations like class difference, sexuality ‘i cannot say what’, failure of masculinity
No one achieves anything in the poem
