The Woodspurge

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

The poet talks about a world that seems surreal and talks about the Woodspurge

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

• AAAA/ monorhyme scheme => consistency => creates a monotonous/tedious atmosphere

Question 3

Literary techniques

Answer 3

• Oxymoron (“perfect grief” ) => effective at steering reader opinions and “saying without saying”, grief is a foundation for happiness

Question 4

Themes

Answer 4

• Hope
• Grief
• Surrealism

Question 5

Word analysis (Stanza 1)

Answer 5

• Repetitive image of the wind, wind drift things away slowly and subtly => suggests “gone with the wind”
• “Shaken out dead” => loss of wind, make an allusion to the loss the poet might have suffered
• ” I had walked on at the wind’s will” => poet follows the wind => wind controls him like a puppet => aimless, vague and ambiguous purpose in life => dull like the rhyme scheme. He does not oppose => sign of submissive, lack of defiance => hopeless?

Question 6

Word analysis (Stanza 2)

Answer 6

• “Between my knees my forehead was” => fetal position => desperate to keep his head up
• “My lips, drawn in” => words cannot pass his lips => desperate
• “My naked ears heard the day pass” => time only passes slowly when you are experiencing depression => desperate + stillness => tedious. Naked suggests emptiness and exposure. Overall, waiting for death

Question 7

Word analysis (Stanza 3)

Answer 7

• “Out of the sun” => the sun goes down, foreshadowing the fact that we are about to experience a world unseen
• “Of some ten weeds” = unwanted wild flowers, compete with other plants to survive, a strong plant
• “The woodspurge flowered” => though sun is gone and there’s a presence of weed => flowered => represents hope, poet forgot about grief for a brief moment

Question 8

Word analysis (Stanza 4)

Answer 8

• “There need not be wisdom or memory” => wisdom and memory will not be the solution but hope is
• “One thing then learnt remains to me” => of all the emotional turmoil that has washed over him, of all the depression and emptiness that he holds, there is only one thing that he remembers, one thing that he can’t deny: “the woodspurge has a cup of three” => unique characteristics > name => a meaning that only the poet knows, and what we can only do is ponder about it.