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What does the title suggest?
The title here clearly gives us connotations of insincerity and role-play, echoing the ‘Last Act’ of the collection’s start.
Describe the significance of the choice of language in ‘high-heeled’ and ‘curlews’.
The models echo the horses in their high-heels, but are also likened to ‘curlews’ (a type of long-beaked bird)– an image which is later picked up when the women ‘flex the featherless wings / of their shoulders’.
How is Sheers negative towards women in this poem?
By likening the models to birds and the photographers to a ‘crocodile pit of cameras’, Sheers is increasing the sense of men being a controlling, negative force in the world of women.
Describe Sheers’ attraction to the woman in part II.
The female has clearly mesmerised the male in this section, but Sheers gives us the sense that it is not a genuine attraction, as she has only achieved it through make-up, jewellery and a nice dress.
Describe the significance of the ‘artful hocus pocus’.
Her image sets ‘the room about you out of focus’, but it is described as a magic trick, therefore something that can ultimately be explained away and debunked.
Why is Sheers not criticising the woman?
Because of the previous section, we do not criticise the woman for her ‘hocus pocus’, but rather the male-driven society of ‘crocodiles’ that forces women to act in this way to get attention (this theme is picked up later in ‘Drinking Tea With Dr. Hitler’).
Describe the rhyme scheme in the last quatrain.
The final quatrain is one of the few examples of full rhyme in the collection and is deployed as a reflection of the trite, insincere effect of the woman on his affections.
