The Perseverance - Poetry Flashcards
Themes of the perseverance
time, family, laughter/happiness, identity, love
Mood/tone of the perseverance
resigned, bittersweet, reminiscent, reflective, observant
The quote at the beginning
Love is the man overstanding- Peter Tosh
Overstanding means to…?
see the bigger picture- key idea within the poem
stanza 1 analysis
- ‘i wait outside the Perseverance’
memory but is presented as the present- so immersed in the past it feels like the present - ‘just popping in here a minute’
references speech using italics - I’d heard him say it many times before
time expression - happened many times - like all kids with a drinking father
disassociative- him and drinking father is deliberately distanced- this becomes more intimate throughout the poem - watch him disappear
double meaning: him as a person and literally into the pub - into smoke and laughter
hidden and obscured from him- smoke literal from cigarettes -cultural smoking identity in Britain
laughter motif- reinforces lonely image of the boy
stanza 2 analysis
-
There is no such thing as too much laughter
in italics- spoken- motif of laughter - Drinking in the perseverance
double meaning: literal drinking and also drinking in the atmosphere- place his father escapes to and addictive - Until everything disappears
repetition of disappear/s- son watches father disappear and the father watches everything disappear - The man, my father
contrasting images man vs father- reveals inner conflict of disapproval vs desire for the father - linked to disbelief of his father’s character - take me home before… it gets dark (stanza 3)
enjambement
before- time expression - repetitive action- is not dark yet
repetition of line after in stanza 3 -‘we’ve been here before’
stanza 3 analysis
- ‘it gets dark.’
it has become dark- father now looks insincere and has broken a promise - tone begin to shift in the paragraph- change in time - ‘we’ve been here before’
repeated, constant part of his life - tone is longsuffering and futile - ‘no such thing as too much laughter, unless you’re my mother without my father’’
first and only open criticism and first acknowledgment of parents’ relationship
stanza 4 analysis
*‘like a coin in a parking meter before
the time runs out.’
dutiful, forced cost to parking meter for a limited amount of time- son metaphor of parking meter- almost ‘bought off’ by his dad- depressing image
* how many minutes will I lose
idea of cost of time and money, as well as time with his father he will never get back
stanza 5 analysis
- ‘TV spilled canned laughter’
semantic field of spilled and canned implies drink at home as well as false laughter- as if there is only laughter at home with drink but only true laughter in the Perseverance - ‘council flat’
idea of poverty/lower social class- link to immagration
stanza 7 analysis
- I still hear popping in for a minute, see him disappear
- we lose our fathers before we know it
- I am still outside THE PERSEVERANCE, listening for the laughter
The father
- the father is presented ambivalently throughout the poem, with memories mostly rather than judgement
(the most judging line is ‘unless you’re my mother without my father, working weekends’) - their relationship is bittersweet as the son realises the failings of the father but also remembers the happy memories they had together
- ‘love is the man overstanding’ and ‘the perseverance’ - idea that love is persevering through the good and bad memories and allowing them empathy by looking at all the experiences you had together, although it is difficult
disappear motif
‘watch him disappear’
‘until everything disappears’
‘I disappear’
‘Strangers who don’t disappear’
multiple meanings - the father leaves (physically disappearing) but also the father the boy recognises becomes something else
all of the father’s responsibilities and duties disappear
the boy leaves physically (but also is forgotten about by the father)
the strangers don’t leave, inverting the typical family dynamic as the boy is looked after by strangers but ignored by family
disappears - as in dead
laughing motif
‘there is no such thing as too much laughter, my father says’
‘there is no such thing as too much laughter, unless you are my mother without my father’
‘the laughter, spilling from the perseverance’
‘spilled canned laughter’
- semantic field of alcohol, idea that the father can only be happy in the pub and not at home (as the laughter is on the TV), lonely image as the boy is outside of the pub on his own
how does this poem use the same words to invoke different images?
motifs are presented in both positive and negative ways to show the contrasting emotions of the boy’s childhood (REPETITION)
eg laughter, disappear
theme of time
the Perseverance uses many different tenses and time expressions (eg minutes, before, it gets dark, weekends, the time runs out, popping in here a minute)
- used to show the brevity of life and how the father wasted their time together as a family at the pub (theme of death)
- also shows how his past affects his present (I am still waiting outside the perseverance, listening for the laughter)
- also displays the contrasting ideas of perseverance and overstanding - although overstanding is looking over the whole life, while to persevere implies part of a ongoing journey or action, which are different ideas, it is as though the son is reflecting on his father’s life but persevering in loving him regardless
