V Revision Flashcards
Paper 2 Section A Revision
Where did Tony Harrison visit before writing the poem V?
Beeston Cemetery
What was happening in 1984 when Harrison wrote V?
The Miner’s strike
In what year was the poem V written?
1984
What is the name of a four-line stanza, like the one Harrison uses in V?
Quatrain
What rhyme scheme does Harrison use in V?
ABAB
What is the function of epigraph in V?
Highlights the importance of speech and articulation (similar to Marked with D)
What meter does V use?
Iambic pentameter
In the third line of the third stanza of V, Harrison uses what meter instead?
Trimeter
Who was Aurthur Scargill?
A British trade unionist
Which 18th century poem influence the writing of V?
Elegy in A County Churchyard by Thomas Gray
The title V seems to stand for?
Versus. Harisson explores multiple ideas of divisions throughout the poem.
In line 3 of V, why is their use of parenthesis ‘now me’ to break up the list of family occupations?
It symbolises the separation he feels from the employment of his family.
Who are Byron and Wordsworth in the poem V?
They are the names of people buried there, not the famous poets.
Analyse: ‘we’ll all be thrown together if the pit’
Presents death as equaliser, highliting the pointlessness of class difference compared to the concept of life, death and time.
In line 13, Harisson describes the mines as ‘galleries’. Why?
He gives working-class life a meaningful value that perhaps his peers do not.
What technique does Harisson use in line 16 to bring to life the descruction of industrial life?
Onomatopoeia - ‘crushed’ and ‘smashed’
Wordsworth built church organs, Byron tanned luggage…and knew ____ _____’
their place
____ in on the lowest worked out seam’
caves
Employment in manufactuaring fell from 7.1 million in 1979 to what in 1993?
4.4 million
Today, how many mining sites are left in operation?
Two
in 1964, how many coal pits were in operation?
545
In June 1984, 5000 miners faced 8000 police officers in what came to be known as?
The Battle of Orgreave
by spraying words on tombstones, pissed on beer’ is similar to the disdain Harrison feels towards the working-class in which other poem?
Divisions
On line 33, how does Harrison use setting to comment on the destruction of the working-class way of life?
The graveyard (a symbol of death) is ‘above the worked-out pit.’
What technique does Harrison use by mentioning the ‘graveyard ranges from a bit of Latin’ and then writing ‘CUNT, PISS’?
Juxtaposition
What is the effect of ‘the sprayed master of his flourished tool’?
It mocks the vandal by comparing to an artist but could also hint at the alter-ego revelation to come.
What is Harisson critiquing when he states ‘never marked his worked much with at school’?
The limited nature of working-class education compared to his grammar school one. He focuses on the limited expression again.
In his list of different vs from line 70, why does he use enjambment to place class on a different stanza?
Because class v class is the main focus of the poem.
What contextual event is references on line 77?
Sir Ian McGregor (National Coal Board) versuse the NUM (National Union of Miners)
Why does Harrison focus on the time he hasn’t spent tending to his parents’ graves from lines 100-103?
To show this displacement he feels from the past/from his class.
What is Harrison referring to in line 140?
Prince of Wales Colliery, Pontefract.
let the people know who’s _____ their ______’
forged/fetters
Why do the advertisements and sings (like ‘the big blue star’) dwarf the lads?
It serves as a reminder of the imbalance of power in the world. Advertisments used to sell products that help keep the working-class down or from work.
What is KRUPP?
A company that supplied weapons to the Nazis and used slave labour. It continued to trade in the post-war world, highliting corruption.
According to Harisson on line 148/149 what keeps the ‘British ruling class’ up?
clandestine, genteel aggro’
What does Harisson mean by ‘clandestine, genteel aggro’?
He is referring to the suppresion of threats to the social order such as riots, strikes and protests.
Between lines 153 and 155, the speaker asks 3 questions. Why?
It shows his conflicted nature. He fights for the right of the working-class to express themselves but is also disgusted by their chosen form of expression.
When talking about the graffiti sprayed on ‘the pitman’s’ and ‘grocer Broadbent’s’ graves, what is Harrison trying to show?
The difference between the meaninful employment of the past versus the juvenile vandalism of the present.
Who seeminly interrupts the speaker?
A skinhead
The skinhead actually turns out to be?
His alter-ego.
How does Harisson employ bathos to introduce the skinhead?
The intelligence of being bi-lingual ‘cri-de-couer’ is undercut by the vulgarity of the speech ‘CUNT’
What is the impact of ‘fucking Greek’?
It establishes the difference betweent the two personas due to the humorous mistake made by the skinhead.
How does ‘fucking poetry obscene’ link to one of Harisson’s other poems?
It shows a similar disdain for his own work that we see in Working.
Folk on t’fucking dole // ave got about as much scope to ____ // above the shit they’re dumped in’
aspire
What really riles a bloke. // Is reading on their graves the ____ they did -‘
jobs
been on t’dole all mi life in fucking ______’
Leeds
The cunts who lieth ‘ere wor _______’
unemployed
Following ‘Byron’ with ‘Tanner’ in line 207 shows what?
The importance of work to working-class identity.
Why does the skinhead suggest that ‘poet’ is ‘a crude four letter word’?
It shows Harrison’s critique of his employment compared to the manufacturing working-class of the past he admires.
ungrateful cunts like you a ______!’
hearing
Why does the skinhead not believe a book is ‘worth a fuck’?
Because of his class, he has not been educated well enough to find value in it.
Why does the skinhead swear so much?
To emphasise his limited form of expression.
The skinhead’s limited form of expression could link to which other poem in the collection?
His father in Marked for D
What attitude is revealed in ‘Don’t fucking bother, cunt! Don’t waste your breath!’?
The hopelessness of subject.
What is the meaning behind the skinhead diminishing the speaker’s anecdote about rebelion between lines 226 ad 249?
It solidifies the separation between the two. Harrison cannot pretend to be like them.
Don’t talk to me of fucking _______ // the class yer born into any more.’
representing
it’s not _____ we need in this class war.’
poetry
Which quotation reveals the skinhead is the alter ego?
He aerosolled his name. And it was mine.’
What technique does Harrison use to make the revelation of his alter ego more emphatic in ‘He aerosolled his name. And it was mine.’
Caesura
What is the skinhead meant to symbolise in the poem?
The unpoliticised, alienated young men of the 70s and 80s.
Who is ‘the enemies within’ a reference to?
Margaret Thatcher
Why does ‘That UNITED that I’d wished onto the nation’ ‘recede’?
The speaker realises the impossibility of stopping the conflict between classes or bringing about loyalty.
What does ‘cavernous hollow’ ‘gravestones lean’ ‘matter of mere time’ ‘all the resters down’ reveal?
The fragility of the old way of life that is slowly eroding away.
still years away from being _____ or skin ______.’
skald/skin
What does ‘still years away from being skald or skin’ suggest about the boys’ future?
Their is hope for them perhaps to not turn into the skinhead. However, only two options reveals there are still limitations on them.
goes by routes that I don’t _______’
recognize
House after house ___ _____’
FOR SALE
What two things did a 1000 ages makes?
Coal-bearing seams’ (the old generation) ‘the hand that sprayed CUNT’ (new generation)
The ‘Methodist and C of E billboards’ reveal what?
Another historical conflict (a versus)
The fact that the ‘Methodist and C of E biloards’ have become warehouses reveals what?
The death of the past way of life. Religion was often very important to working-class cultures previously.
Between lines 395 and 399 which three conflicts are referenced?
The Gulf War, Miner’s Strike and Northern Irish Troubles
Why does the speaker desire one small v to be left on his grave?
He is desperate for victory or to be untied forever.
