This Morning - Esther Morgan

Question 1

Themes? (3)

Answer 1

Nature, Separation, Loss

Question 2

Tones? (1)

Answer 2

Introspective

Question 3

Context? (1)

Answer 3

From a poetry collection called ‘Grace’-

Question 4

Meaning and purpose? (2)

Answer 4

• Morgan zooms-in on a domestic space that is transformed by sunlight the speaker within the poem describes the beauty and
  power of this transformation and the sun’s ability to move on ‘without regret’.
• The speaker directly refers to her grandmother in her ‘final year’, alluding to death and perhaps challenges us to consider how we
  attempt to move on when we are suffering a loss of a loved one.

Question 5

Language? (4)

Answer 5

• Personification of the sun ‘moving round’ gives life to the sun – as though it has purpose.
• Simile of watching like someone
  ‘bedridden’ suggests that we are powerless in stopping time and controlling fate.
• Semantic field of mundane household items “iron frying-pan” “clementine” suggests that the speaker is finding beauty
  in the mundane. ‘Chair and coffee cup’ reflects the memories that we associate between objects and people who have died, our influence remain.
• Admiration of how the sun moves on – metaphor for dealing with loss.

Question 6

Form? (4)

Answer 6

• VOICE: 1st person, past tense
• Anaphora of ‘I watched” suggests that loss can make you more perspective and see life in a new
  way. The repetition suggests that time is prolonged and that the speaker is in a state of inactivity, only able to watch the world move on
  around her.
• Enjambment could convey the idea of moving on after loss and the idea of needing to keep going. ‘sunlight brought each possession in turn to its
  attention’ shows our lives have outward, flowing influence on everything around us.
• Short stanzas reflect that our life is made up of snapshots, moments that shape us and those around us forever before we ‘move on’.

Question 7

Structure? (1)

Answer 7

• 6 stanzas: 3x tercets and 3x couplets. No rhyme.