The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team

Question 1

What is the difference between the first three stanzas and the last stanza?

Answer 1

First 3 stanzas: Hopeful/ monotonous, in past tense
Last stanza: Regretful, in present tense

Question 2

Technique of ‘Try Me. Come on.”

Answer 2

Short syntax, aggressive imperative clauses. The poetic voice is trying to prove himself and show off his knowledge.

Question 3

What meaning is implied when the poetic voice states: “I stamped the paw prints of the badgers and skunks in the mud.”?

Answer 3

Presents him as believing he is more important that nature, though the active verb which suggests he is asserting dominance.

Question 4

What does the poem open with?

Answer 4

Intertextual references to 1960’s songs which act as epoch markers and also display the poetic voices knowledge of pop culture.

Question 5

How does the use of archaic language in the last stanza present the poetic voice?

Answer 5

The speaker lists of emphatically stressed questions which use out of date language, however he is shown to be frustrated at his “thick kids”, emphasises by that adjective.

Question 6

Themes and features of the poem.

Answer 6

Masculine voices, nationalism, ego-centric narrative, past, memory.

Question 7

What is ‘dominus domine dominium’?

Answer 7

Repetition of Latin phrases for ‘master’, the common noun connoting to masculine power and the speakers own egotistical nature.

Question 8

The structure of the poem and what that suggests.

Answer 8

Four octet stanzas, written in free verse with constant caesura and short syntaxes. This demonstrates the sheer amount of knowledge and how he is showing it off and constantly adding onto it, making it seem chaotic.