Quotes Analysed Flashcards
A mean wind wanders through the backcourt trash
-the wind is personified - hostile, aggressive character looking to threaten people or harm them
- wind - cold and harsh
- setting: being desolate, near-empty ‘wild west’
Hackles on puddle rise, old mattresses
‘Hackles on puddles rise’ - metaphor
Old mattresses puff briefly/ and subside
The mattresses: -abandoned outside the block by former residents
- personified here
- wind rippling across makes them seem alive, lacking energy though
- whole area seems tired and broken down
- foreshadows the man at end of poem
Play fortresses/ or bric-a-brac spill out some ash
Play fortresses: suggests all children have to play in the this area in debris and rubble surrounding tenement
Bric-a-brac: - alliteration
- harsh, consonantal sounds, adds to sense of harshness and hostility in area
Ash: suggests dirt, pollution, and unpleasant environment to play in
Fours storeys have no windows left to smash
To smash:
-emphasises vandalism in the area
- reflects the reality if someone or somewhere isn’t cared for (in this case, the tenements, council) then people will treat as worthless and unimportant
But the fifth a chipped sill buttresses
Buttresses:
- word choice
- buttress is a stone that supports a building
- Morgan makes it seem only the window sill is holding together the building
Mother and daughter and the last mistresses
Mistresses:
-irony
- mistress is normally head of powerful or wealthy family
- where as, mother and daughter from impoverished family
- Morgan may also imply that these 2 women are who are holding the family together as man at end of poem has lost all hope
Of that black block condemned to stand, not crash
‘Condemned to stand’:
- paradox
- usually something is condemned to death, not to remain
- Morgan, suggests kinder to demolish these flats than leave them standing
‘Black block’:
- alliteration and half rhyme
- emphasises harshness of the blocks by repeating harsh consonants
Around them the cracks deepen, the rats crawl
Focus moved to inside of tenement
‘Cracks’ and ‘rats’:
- assonance
- draws attention to the terrible conditions
‘Cracks deepen’:
- gives sense that they are more and more cut off from the rest of society
The kettle whimpers on a crazy hob
‘The kettle whimpers’:
- personification
- compares to sound of the kettle starting to boil by someone who is frightened or in pain
‘Crazy’:
- word choice
- suggests one cooker ring is warped or out of shape and uneven
These add atmosphere of vulnerability
Roses of mould grow from ceiling to wall
‘Roses of mould’:
- metaphor
- spreading patches of mould compared to roses flowers here
- irony
- instead of walls being covered in nice, patterned wallpaper, only decoration comes from damp and dangerous patches of mould
The man lies late since he has lost his job/ smokes on one elbow, letting his coughs fall/ thinly into an air too poor to rob
Final 3 lines focuses on the man of the house;
‘Breadwinner’:
-used to be head of family but now his skillset is redundant as the demise of the ship building industry
- long term unemployment, poverty, and poor housing have reduced him to poor physical and emotional health
His situation is emphasised first by the alliteration of (’lies late’) since he has lost his job
‘One elbow’:
-word choice
- implies he doesn’t have the strength to prop himself up
‘Too poor to rob’:
-irony
- people usually say smoking ‘robs’ people of air
- Morgan is suggesting the air in the flat is so affected by damp and industrial pollution and that the man smoking in it couldn’t possibly make it any worse
