Request To A Year

Question 1

How do Wright’s personal experiences relate to the meaning of the poem?

Answer 1

Wright is an Australian activist poet, that experienced sexism and was even called “shrewd”. This is one of the main themes of the poem

Question 2

What device is used in “difficult distance” and what effect does it create?

Answer 2

Alliteration is used to amplify the difficulty for the mother to watch her son approaching death helplessly . It emphasises her resilience and stoicism to resist her feelings

Question 3

What does the enjambment is stanzas 3 and 4 show?(when the incident happens)

Answer 3

The rapid escalation of the incident and the overwhelming helplessness.

Question 4

What device is used in “struck rock bottom eighty feet below” and to what effect?

Answer 4

Consonance is used to express the violent nature of the incident

Question 5

What device is used in “the sketch survives to prove the story by” and what effect does it have?

Answer 5

The sketch is personified, which shows the importance of it to the gg - grandmother, even over her own son. Furthermore, the sketch is a documentation of history, without which the event would have been forgotten - showing its significance.

Question 6

What effect does the cyclical structure of the poem have

Answer 6

The poem starts and ends with the speaker’s request to inherit her gg-grandmother’s strong, stoic attitude. This reveals how the incident is insignificant to her, compared to the lesson/attitude that she wants to take away.

Question 7

What does the couplet in the final stanza symbolise?

Answer 7

The speaker’s love and admiration for her gg-grandmother and her attitude