The Spirit Is Too Blunt An Instrument By Anne Stevenson

Question 1

Sound

Answer 1

Many onomatopoeic sounds/techniques - consonance
Makes it feel like a tongue twister- the difficulty to speak the poem mirrors the complexity she is amazed by

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

1st stanza: introduces the contrast she is exploring
2nd stanza: focuses on the precision of human anatomy
3rd stanza: focuses on messiness of human emotion

No rhyme scheme is contrasted by the equal length of 9 lines each stanza has - represents the juxtaposition she introduced

Question 3

Lexical fields

Answer 3

Abstract vocabulary to describe human emotion (passion, sentiment, desire, anxiety)
Detailed vocabulary to describe human anatomy and its perfection (intricate,exacting, complexity, flawless)
(Helps establish a contrast between both)

Question 4

Message of the poem

Answer 4

The poetic voice is amazed as she looks at a baby - she is in disbelief that humans are able to create such perfectly crafted beings easily and as habit.
Her disbelief is further emphasises by human emotion - which she describes as messy and imperfect, making it even more unbelievable that something so ‘unskillful’ as human emotion could have created something as perfect as a baby

Question 5

Language

Answer 5

The language is scientific and has many repeting consonants, making it difficul to speak out loud (mirrors the complexity she is amazed by)

Question 6

The spirit is too blunt an instrument
To have made this baby.
Nothing to unskillful as human passions
Could have managed the intricate
Exacting particulars: the tiny
Blind bones with their manipulating tendons,
The knee and the knucklebones, the resilient
Fine meshings of ganglia and vertebrae,
The chain of the difficult spine.

Answer 6

The first 2 lines set the tone of disbelief: shows that a baby is too perfect to have been created by humans
Listing in the first stanza: sense of neverending perfection in the detail of human anatomy.
The caesura (:) creates importance towards thst perfection of the baby - invites the reader to examine the perfection
Precise vocabulary: shows that even the most intricate and tiny aspects of the baby are designed with care and accuracy

Question 7

Observe the distinct eyelashes and sharp crescent
Fingernails, the shell-like complexity
Of the esr, with its firm involutions
Concentric in miniature to minute
Ossicles. Imagine the
Infinitesimal capillaries, the flawless connections
Of the lungs, the invisible neural filaments
Through which the completed body
Already answers to the brain.

Answer 7

Imperatives: invitation to share the wonder of the baby with the audience - invites us to observe, imagine etc
Caesura after ossicles: puts emphasis on the word ‘imagine’ - creates further invitation to the audience to do what she says and marvel at the baby (almost a command). This emphasises her fascination
Sibilance: emphasises the perfect harmony a flawless nature of human anatomy that contrasts emotion

Question 8

Then name any passion or sentiment
Possessed of the simplest accuracy.
No, no desire or affection could have done
With practice what habit
Has done perfectly, indifferently,
Through the body’s ignorant precision.
It is left to the vagaries of the mind to invent
Love and despair and anxiety
And their pain.

Answer 8

Tonal shift: from describing perfection to imperfection
Repetition of No: intensified the lack of accuracy and skill of human emotion/spirit
‘Body’s ignorant precision’ has juxtaposing words - emphasises the shock of having both something messy and perfect be part of humanity
‘Vagaries’ : contrasts perfection described earlier and shows that humans invent their own messy concepts that are responsible for their issues