GCSE English Literature

Poetry

On My First Sonne

The Laboratory

Song of the Old Mother

The Man He Killed

Pre-1914 Duffy Armitage

Salome

Havisham

Stealing

Elvis’ TwinSister

November

Kid

Hitcher

My Father Thought It

The Man He Killed

Thomas Hardy

• Hardy reduces a killing on the battlefield simply to two innocent young men who have arrived at their present circumstances by trying to do the right thing. The narrator does not condemn the two young men in the poem for attempting to kill each other

Explanation: "The Man He Killed"

• Lines 1-4 • The poem is being set up; the action in the poem has

already taken place and the narrator of the poem is ruminating on this action. This is a technique that in contemporary literature would be considered a flashback. He imagines himself near "some old ancient inn," not a specific inn, but a cozy imaginary place. The diction of the poem (particularly "right many a nipperkin") suggests that the speaker is not a high brow sort, but a common bloke and this diction is important in establishing the persona of the narrator — an educated philospher he is not. "Nipperkin" is a half-vessel that is filled, in this situation, one suspects, with alcoholic drinks.

• Lines 5-6 • The speaker locates both himself and the

other fellow on a battlefield, a far cry from the ancient inn he imagines in retrospect. The men are not distant from each other, but close enough to look into each other's faces.

• Lines 7-8 • These lines are as jarring and sudden as a

gunshot. Two people on opposing lines shoot and one is left dead and the other still enjoys the ability to be able to reflect on the actions. This is the plot of the poem and its climax.

• Lines 9-10

• In these lines there is a justification for the killing and it is a simple justification, without deliberation.

• Line 11

• The repetition of the concept of "my foe" and the "of course" in this line signify a need for the speaker to convince himself of his justification for the killing. The "Just so:" which prefaces the repetition is similar to the modern phrase: "That's it; that's the ticket."

• Line 12

• The "although" in this line serves as the pivot point for the following lines, in which the speaker deliberates his justification.

• Lines 13-16 • In these lines the narrator begins deliberation speculating

about the man he has just killed, and he begins to attribute his own motives to the dead man. Remember that in line 7, they shot at each other, and the narrator could just as easily have been the dead man. In fact, he imaginarily becomes the dead man. We as readers know this is a imaginary life he has placed the dead man within, but we learn something about the narrator's life — that he enlisted ('list) in war because he was out of work, and had sold his "traps" which we can read as "possessions," not because of a cause he believed in, but as something to do. He did it off-hand, without much thought about the possible the consequences, including the situation he has just encountered.

• Line 17 • Now the speaker gives some thought to the

condition of war. The word "quaint" is an unusual one to use here. One can think of it as a word which describes antique shops, not a war, but it can also be taken to mean cunning. Still, the explanation point suggests a tone that is not dire but almost ponderingly wonderous and the word "curious" while suggesting perplexion does not suggest despair that another speaker in the same situation might have voiced.

• Lines 18-20 • Here the narrator defines the curious nature of war — you shoot a man, who

under other circumstances you would act kindly toward, a man who could possibly become your friend. "Half-a-crown" is roughly about sixty cents, and it is probably not so much that the narrator imagines the fellow as a beggar as it is that he feels that his own character in a different context is one which would be willing to do a stranger who needed it, a kindness, and so by the end of the poem he has also arrived at a kind assessment of himself. He has done so with the presumption that his actions are universal, saying, "You shoot a fellow down / You'd treat" in lines 18-19, rather than using the first person as he did in "I shot at him..." in line 7. This movement from individual accountability to universal justification leads the speaker to a distance within himself and perhaps causes the use of the second person when the poet may still be speaking of himself.

The Song Of the old Mother

• I rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blowTill the seed of the fire flicker and glow;And then I must scrub and bake and sweepTill stars are beginning to blink and peep;And the young lie long and dream in their bedOf the matching of ribbons for bosom and head,And their days go over in idleness,And they sigh if the wind but lift a tress:While I must work because I am old,And the seed of the fire gets feeble and cold.

• The poem is about a hard-working, poor old woman who compares herself to the young women of the house who spend their days dreaming of love and worrying about their appearance. It is not clear whether these young women are her own children or the children of people she works for as a maid. The poem is written in the ,first person, as if we are listening in to the woman's own thoughts.

Form and Rhyme

• Form

The poem is just ten lines long, with most lines exactly ten syllables long. So the poem is almost like a square - ten by ten. Perhaps this reflects how limited the Old Mother's life is: she cannot break away from the rigidity of her life.

• I rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blowTill the seed of the fire flicker and glow;And then I must scrub and bake and sweepTill stars are beginning to blink and peep;And the young lie long and dream in their bedOf the matching of ribbons for bosom and head,And their days go over in idleness,And they sigh if the wind but lift a tress:While I must work because I am old,And the seed of the fire gets feeble and cold.

• Rhyme

The poem is written in rhyming couplets: the rhyme scheme isAA BB CC DD EE. A half-rhyme between the first and last couplets (blow and old) helps to 'round off' the poem, which both starts and finishes with the seed of the fire.

Rhyming couplets are a traditional rhyme scheme scheme for simple songs and nursery rhymes, so it is poignant that this sad song about an old woman who feels left out of life rhymes as lightly as a child's nursery rhyme.

• If you say the poem out loud you can hear that there are four stresses or beats in each line. Each group of stressed and unstressed syllables is called a metric foot, and verse which has 4 feet per line like this is called tetrameter:

• I rise ¦ in the dawn, ¦ and I kneel ¦ and blowTill the seed ¦ of the fire ¦ flicker ¦ and glow;

Language

• The Old Mother uses very simple language. It is ordinary polite English (not colloquial) with few words more than one syllable in length. This suggests that the woman has had a simple, straightforward life and that the things that occupy her now are basic: I must scrub and bake and sweep.

• However, the young women have nothing to do but worry about the colour of their ribbons. The contrast Or JUXTAPOSITION between the idleness of the young - who are more suited to physical work - and the old woman, is harsh.

The young sigh or complain (line 8) if the wind merely disarranges their hair, but the old woman does not complain - at least, not explicitly. Do you feel that the final line is a veiled complaint?

• The title indicates that the woman is a Mother, but it is not clear whether the young whose idleness she describes are her children or not. It is possible that the word Mother is merely an affectionate name for an old woman, and that she has no children - or that her children have grown up and left her alone. If so, is she perhaps reminded of her own daughters when she sees the young women?

Sound• There is some effective use of repetition in the

poem: - The I must scrub and bake and sweep in line 3 is echoed by the I must work in line 9, reinforcing the repetitive, unending nature of her work. - Line 10 mirrors line 2, giving a feeling of finality and enclosure to the poem.The strong regular rhythm emphasises the physical side of the woman's work: the beat falls on rise, dawn, kneel, blow in line 1, for example, as if hammering out her tough routine.

• There is a lot of alliteration and assonance in the poem. For example:- The repeated b and k and p sounds in scrub and bake and sweep (line 3) emphasise how hard and physical the woman's work is- The long l sounds in lie long (line 5) help to convey the laziness of the young women.- We can hear the girls sighing in the assonance of line 8 - sigh if the wind but lift a tress - while the soft rhyme in lines 7 and 8 - idleness / tress emphasises the gentle way in which they spend their days.

Imagery• Each morning she blows at the seed of the fire (line 2)

until it flickers and glows, and she can get on with the rest of her work. The seed metaphor suggests that the fire is alive and growing.

• However, when the seed of the fire is repeated at the end of the poem (line 10), it refers to the 'fire' within herself. She is dying, so her own seed is not glowing/growing, but becoming feeble and cold. (And what about her own seeds - her own children?)

• The Old Mother's day is dictated by the stars - she starts work at dawn and doesn't stop Till stars are beginning to blink and peep. The burning stars echo the seed of the fire, glowing in the dark sky like coals in the hearth.

Attitudes and ideas

• Tone• The dominant tone of voice we hear is that

of resignation - but there is certainly a hint of resentment, even bitterness, in her attitude to the young. The degree of sympathy we feel toward her will probably depend on whether we think the girls in the poem are the daughters of the Old Mother's wealthy employers, or her own children.

• ideas

Yeats wrote a great deal about the passage of time, and of youth and beauty giving way to old age and death. The Song of the Old Mother is a meditation on this theme. The poem contrasts two types of human endeavour: the young women's dreams of love and obsession with appearance; and the hard, grinding, thankless work that is the Old Mother's lot.

• An interesting cross-current is set going by our uncertainty about who the young women are.

• Are they the Old Mother's own children? If so, their idleness is easier to forgive. Perhaps in her youth the old woman herself dreamed of love, lay late in bed, and obsessed about whether her ribbons matched. Perhaps, as old people often do, she has forgotten what it's like to be young!

• Or are they the children of the old woman's rich employers? If they are, we are more likely to view them as spoilt and selfish young people whose idle lives are made possible only by the drudgery of poor servants like the Old Mother.

Comparison

• Little Boy Lost / LIttle Boy Found

• Before You Were Mine

• Mother, any greater distance -

• The poem is a simple monologue in rhyme - an old woman describes her daily routine and contrasts it with the easy time that young people have. She gets up at dawn to light the fire, wash, prepare food and sweep up. Meanwhile the young people sleep on and pass their day "in idleness". More than a century later, few old people in the west will live quite such hard lives - but the poem

The Laboratory

Robert Browning (1812 – 1889)

Simple summary

• A woman is about to kill her rival, in the presence of her lover.

• She consults an apothecary to obtain poison.

• She takes great pleasure in watching the poison being prepared.

• She is determined to enjoy her revenge.

THE LABORATORY - ANCIEN REGIME

NOW that I, tying thy glass mask tightly,

May gaze thro' these faint smokes curling whitely,

As thou pliest thy trade in this devil's-smithy--

Which is the poison to poison her, prithee?

He is with her; and they know that I know

Where they are, what they do: they believe my tears flow

While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear

Empty church, to pray God in, for them! -- I am here.

Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,

Pound at thy powder, -- I am not in haste!

Better sit thus, and observe thy strange things,

Than go where men wait me and dance at the King's.

That in the mortar -- you call it a gum?

Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come!

And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue,

Sure to taste sweetly, -- is that poison too?

Dramatic monologue

First personThe old regime (describes France before the revolution)

To protect from poisonous fumes Smoke from making poisons

A woman is to be poisoned!

Suggestion of evil

There is no consolation in religion

A relationship gone wrong

Narrator is taking control of the situation, playing god

Onomatopoeia and alliteration Almost

savouring the preparations

The bowl in which the elements are prepared Poison

described with rich imagery Taste is

deceptive

Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures,

What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!

To carry pure death in an earring, a casket,

A signet, a fan-mount, a filligree-basket!

Soon, at the King's, a mere lozenge to give

And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!

But to light a pastille, and Elise, with her head

And her breast and her arms and her hands, should drop dead!

Quick -- is it finished? The colour's too grim!

Why not soft like the phial's, enticing and dim?

Let it brighten her drink, let her turn it and stir,

And try it and taste, ere she fix and prefer!

What a drop! She's not little, no minion like me--

That's why she ensnared him: this never will free

The soul from those masculine eyes, -- say, 'no!'

To that pulse's magnificent come-and-go.

Poisons

Disguises for the poison

Emphasises the deadly effects

Jealousy?

Anxious to get the poison now

Why does she consider herself a minion? Trapped a man,

HER man?

For only last night, as they whispered, I brought

My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought

Could I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall,

Shrivelled; she fell not; yet this does not all!

Not that I bid you spare her the pain!

Let death be felt and the proof remain;

Brand, burn up, bite into its grace--

He is sure to remember her dying face!

Is it done? Take my mask off! Nay, be not morose

It kills her, and this prevents seeing it close:

The delicate droplet, my whole fortune's fee--

If it hurts her, beside, can it ever hurt me?

Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill,

You may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will!

But brush this dust off me, lest horror it brings

Ere I know it -- next moment I dance at the King

Wishes she could kill with her looks But the poison will instead

She wants her to die in pain

Creates a sense of pain she wants her victim to go through

Question brings a sense of immediacy

She wants the man to remember the agony his mistress suffered

Uses imperative verb, like a command, she is in control

Payment for future happinessCould there be repercussions?

Rich imagery, suggests greedDust

carries the horror of the poison

Structure

• The poem has an AABB rhyme scheme. This makes it sound rather jaunty and cheery. Browning does this deliberately to create antithesis with the chilling subject matter. The effect is to make the woman seem all the more cold hearted and intimidating.

• Each verse ends with a full stop. There is no doubt in any of the statements - it creates a terrible remorselessness.

• There is also a deliberate attempt to subvert pleasant things. The pretty phials actually contain poison, a dance will be a place of murder and the beautiful ball gown has to be cleaned of incriminating dusts.

Themes

• Hatred

• Madness and paranoia

• Killing

Possible links

• Story telling and killing - The Man He Killed (Hardy).

• Love - Sonnet 130 (Shakespeare)

Salomeby

Carol Ann Duffy

Who was Salome?

• ‘Salome’ from the New Testament, the book of Matthew, chapter 14. Salome danced for Herod on his birthday and he was so pleased by her performance that he promised to give her whatever she wished for. She was prompted by her mother, Herodias to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a plate. John the Baptist had been preaching about the coming of Jesus and had baptised Jesus.

I’d done it before…woke up with a headon the pillow beside me -

Images with quotes

Good-looking, of course,dark hair, rather matted;the reddishbeard severalshades lighter

- hungover

and wrecked

as I was fr

om

a night

on the batter.

I needed to clean upmy act,get fitter, cut out the booze and the fags and the sex.

…it was time to

turf out

the blighter…

who’d come like

a lamb to the

slaughter

to Salome’s bed .

Carol-Ann Duffy’s ‘Salome' in a nutshell!

• Salome has become a serial remover of heads.

• Having woken up with a severed head on the pillow, she cannot even remember the owner’s name!

• She calls for the maid, has breakfast and decides to clean up her life.

I'd done it before (and doubtless I'll do it again,sooner or later) woke up with a head on the pillow beside me -whose? what did it matter? Good- looking, of course, dark hair, rather matted;the reddish beard several shades lighter;

Initially there doesn’t seem anything amiss. Many people

wake up in bed with a stranger in the modern world. However,

knowledge of the original Salome makes the words

profoundly shocking.

Serial killer

An arrogant voice. Sounds almost boastful. They only have good

looking partners.Lots of detail.

Casual almost indifferent voice.

Sex is casual.

“The Godfather”

Red theme

Free verse. The narrator is just awakening.

with very deep lines around the eyes,from pain, I'd guess, maybe laughter; and a beautiful crimson mouth that obviously knewhow to flatter... which I kissed…Colder than pewter. Strange. What was his name? Peter?

Can’t remember his name! The murder is told in a very matter of fact way. Her lack of

interest in the individual suggests she might be a psychopath

The mouth is cold because he is dead. Kissing the decapitated

head is depraved and shocking.

Red theme

Simon? Andrew? John? I knew I'd feel betterfor tea, dry toast, no butter,so rang for the maid. And, indeed, her innocent clatterof cups and plates, her clearing of clutter,her regional patter, were just what needed - hungover and wrecked as I was from a night on the batter.

Names of the disciples. Link to the biblical roots of the

poem.

A very simple breakfast sits in juxtaposition to the scale of her

depravity.

Colloquial language. This makes it seem chatty and friendly which is at odds with the violence and the madness.

Hard “c” sounds

She is now more awake so the tempo picks up.

Never again! I needed to clean up my act, get fitter, cut out the booze and the fags and the sex. Yes. And as for the latter, it was time to turf out the blighter, the beater or biter, who'd come like a lamb to the slaughter to Salome's bed.

Simile

Casual about these things.

But also casual about killing

Use of the 3rd person. She is a force to be reckoned with.

Doesn’t include murder in her list of things to cut

back on.

Hates the male sex. Misandry.

In the mirror, I saw my eyes glitter. I flung back the sticky red sheets, and there, like I said -and ain't life a bitch - was his head on a platter.

Poem culminates in the decapitation. Echoes the

original biblical story.

Is she referring to herself? Or is it

ironic sympathy for her victim?

Red theme

Havisham

Carol Ann Duffy

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then

I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it

so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,

ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.

Oxymoron shows combination of feelings – hatred and love

Metaphor used to emphasise strength of hands.

Her means of revenge.

Metaphor

Enjambment

Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days

in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress

yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;

the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

One word sentence is what society sums her up as

She sees her life as decay and memories

Makes her sound like an animal

Sounds like she no longer recognises what she has become

Turning or twisting

Disgusted with herself

With age

Unstable?Self aware?Wondering?

cliché of madness

to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.

Some nights better, the lost body over me,

my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear

then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s

Suggesting that at night she is able to dream

What is the effect of ‘bite awake?’

She asks who has made her this way

The man she might have married

Purplish-red

Abstract not personal

hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting

in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake.

Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.

Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.

Stammered words to suggest a kind of collapse

Combines both love and revenge

Suggests celebrations that did not take place. What else might ‘red’ suggest?

Use of oxymoron to show unstable mixture of Havisham’s feelings.

Mind broken as well

Masks hate not blushing

bride

Wedding party burst – metaphor

of what happened

Stealing

by Carol Ann Duffy

Imagery Analysis

Stealing

Carol Ann Duffy

The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.

Midnight. He looked magnificent; a tall,

white mute

beneath the winter moon. I wanted him, a mate

with a mind as cold as the slice of ice

within my own brain. I started with the head.

Better off dead than giving in, not taking

what you want. He weighed a ton; his torso,

frozen stiff, hugged to my chest, a fierce chill

piercing my gut. Part of the thrill was knowing

that children would cry in the morning. Life’s tough.

Sometimes I steal things I don’t need. I joy-ride cars

•

to nowhere, break into houses just to have a

look.

I’m a mucky ghost, leave a mess, maybe pinch a

camera.

I watch my gloved hand twisting the

doorknob.

A stranger’s bedroom. Mirrors. I sigh like this – Aah.

It took some time. Reassembled in the

yard,

he didn’t look the same. I took a run

and booted him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out

in rags. It seems daft now. Then I was standing

alone amongst lumps of snow, sick of the world.

Boredom. Mostly I’m so bored I could eat myself.

•

One time, I stole a guitar and thought I might

•

learn to play. I nicked a bust of Shakespeare once

flogged it, but the snowman was strangest.

You don’t understand a word I’m saying, do you?

Stealing

• The speaker in the poem states that the most unusual thing they ever stole was a snowman. They describe how they did so and how enjoyable it was to know that 'children would cry' as a result of the theft.

• They also tell us about other things they've stolen, often pointlessly:Sometimes I steal things I don't need.

• The speaker then tells us how they destroyed the snowman, by kicking it to bits, because they were 'sick of the world' and 'bored'. Finally the writer admits this account of what they have done sounds strange and that people 'don't understand'.

Structure• Although the poem is written in five equal

Stanzas, there is no regularity in the lines. Sometimes the end of one line runs into the next line (enjambment). What is the effect of enjambment in these examples?

• I joy-ride cars / to nowhere • I took a run / and booted him again • My breath ripped out / in rags • In each case, the line breaks 'act out' what is

being described.

Language • Although the poem is about I, it is not the poet herself

who is talking to us. Do you think the poem is told in the voice of a man or a woman, a boy or a girl? There is no way of telling - it is deliberately ambiguous, a mystery voice.

• The poet appears to be responding to a question someone has asked. 'The most unusual thing I ever stole?' S/he continues to 'talk' to the reader throughout the poem and so the language of the poem sounds like natural speech. S/he asks us to respond ('You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?') and so we feel directly involved.

• The speaker glamorises themselves and what they have done, almost as if they are imagining themselves as the star of a film. At times s/he even seems to be speaking lines from a script: 'I sigh like this - Aah.'

• Some of the language is violent and destructive. 'The slice of ice within my own brain.''My breath ripped out in rags.''I'm so bored I could eat myself.' It shocks and surprises us. Is this perhaps to emphasise the lack of order in the speaker's life?

Imagery and sound• The central image is that of the snowman alone

in someone's empty yard in the middle of the night - an image of dark and icy cold:

.. beneath the winter moon ..

.. a mind as cold as the slice of ice / within my own brain .. .. frozen stiff, hugged to my chest, a fierce chill / piercing my gut ..

• How does this image add to the impact of the poem?

• Well, there is an obvious parallel between the ice-cold snowman, alone in his yard, and the speaker, '.. standing / alone among lumps of snow ..'

• The parallel is underlined by the speaker themselves when they describe the 'ice within my own brain', and the 'chill piercing my gut' - as if the snowman is inside them, as well as on the outside. The snowman, in other words, stands as a Symbol for the cold and loneliness of the speaker's own situation. Because the speaker smashes the snowman up ('booted him. Again. Again') it is also symbolic of his or her self-destructive behaviour.

Sound• The poem replicates natural speech, so

that we can 'hear' the voice of the speaker talking to us - especially since s/he asks us direct questions. We can even hear the pauses as s/he adds details to the story. 'A snowman. / Midnight.'

Ideas• What the poet is trying to say in this poem? All the

following ideas are contained in the poem: it's down to you to decide which you think are the most important.

• She is sympathising with the speaker - who is obviously lonely and bored and needs someone to pay attention to him/her.

• She is trying to understand why anyone would want to commit a senseless crime. If there is enough snow for someone to have made a snowman, surely there is enough snow for the speaker to have made one too, so why steal one?

• She is examining someone else's attitude to life - 'Better off dead than giving in.'

• We are shown the speaker's loneliness (s/he needs the snowman as a 'mate'; s/he is 'alone'.

• We see how the writer regards him or herself as a failure - 'I stole a guitar once and thought I might learn to play' - who cannot succeed in an 'ordinary' way.

• We see the speaker's pessimistic attitude: although they'd like their life to be glamorous, they are reduced to getting kicks from stealing a snowman and 'things I don't need'.

ComparisonArmitage: Kid and Homecoming - All three poems are

written in the first person, but I've made out a will seems to be Armitage's own voice, while in the other two he adopts a persona.

Duffy: Before You Were Mine Duffy's poem is personal. Like Armitage's poem, it contains her own thoughts.

Yeats: Song of the Old Mother Yeats' poem also uses the first person, but here Yeats adopts the persona of an old woman; he is not writing about himself..

Clare: Sonnet Both poems use the sonnet form and both write from their own point of view. Clare's poem is less obscure than Armitage's.

Elvis’s Twin Sister

Carol Ann Duffy

Elvis

King of Rock and Roll

Born January 8 1935, died August 16 1977

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, to a very religious family

Died as a result of overdosing on prescription medication

The second of two identical twins (the first was stillborn and named Jesse Garon)

Picked on at school for being different – he stuttered and was very quiet

His music mixed black and white influences

Gyrating hips

Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight?

Elvis is alive and she’s female: Madonna

In the convent, y’all,

I tend the gardens,

watch things grow,

pray for the immortal soul

of rock ‘n’ roll.

They call me

Sister Presley here.

The Reverend Mother

digs the way I move my hips

just like my brother.

Gregorian chant

drifts out across the herbs

Pascha nostrum immolatus est…

I wear a simple habit,

darkish hues,

a wimple with novice-sewn

lace band, a rosary,

a chain of keys,

a pair of good and sturdy

blue suede shoes.

I think of it

as Graceland here,

a land of grace.

It puts my trademark slow lopsided smile

back on my face.

Lawdy.

I’m alive and well.

Long time since I walked

down Lonely Street

towards Heartbreak Hotel.

Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight?

Elvis is alive and she’s female: Madonna

In the convent, y’all,

I tend the gardens,

watch things grow,

pray for the immortal soul

of rock ‘n’ roll.

They call me

Sister Presley here.

The Reverend Mother

digs the way I move my hips

just like my brother.

Gregorian chant

drifts out across the herbs

Pascha nostrum immolatus est…

I wear a simple habit,

darkish hues,

a wimple with novice-sewn

lace band, a rosary,

a chain of keys,

a pair of good and sturdy

blue suede shoes.

I think of it

as Graceland here,

a land of grace.

It puts my trademark slow lopsided smile

back on my face.

Lawdy.

I’m alive and well.

Long time since I walked

down Lonely Street

towards Heartbreak Hotel.

Epigraph in form of rhetorical question

Madonna is female Elvis or a

quote from Madonna?

6 stanzas of quintrains

Highly punctuated

Italics

Enjambement

Colour imagery

Another monologue taken from the collection ‘The World’s Wife’

Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight?

Elvis is alive and she’s female: Madonna

In the convent, y’all,

I tend the gardens,

watch things grow,

pray for the immortal soul

of rock ‘n’ roll.

They call me

Sister Presley here.

The Reverend Mother

digs the way I move my hips

just like my brother.

Gregorian chant

drifts out across the herbs

Pascha nostrum immolatus est…

I wear a simple habit,

darkish hues,

a wimple with novice-sewn

lace band, a rosary,

a chain of keys,

a pair of good and sturdy

blue suede shoes.

I think of it

as Graceland here,

a land of grace.

It puts my trademark slow lopsided smile

back on my face.

Lawdy.

I’m alive and well.

Long time since I walked

down Lonely Street

towards Heartbreak Hotel.

Song by Elvis Presley

American drawl

Religious symbolism / Elvis was thought to be the devil (the twin is the opposite of him)

His gyrating hips got him banned!Original songs of the church

Latin meaning ‘Or Lamb has been sacrificed…’ (Christ)

Completely contrasting / contradictory statements

As twins, they share the same characteristics

What many of his fans believe

Where Elvis lived

Summarise what you now know about the poem:

• What is it about? The imagined ‘other story’ to Elvis’s Twin – from a feminist perspective

• What themes are covered? Love, religion, chastity

• What tone does the poem have? Light, Admiring, reflective

• What literary devices have been used? Enjambement, metaphor, occasional rhyme, religious imagery, epigraph

• How effective is the poem for the reader?

November

bySimon Armitage

Content – the ‘Story’

• The speaker and a man named John (probably a friend) have taken John’s grandmother to a nursing home. They know she will not come back out of the home.

• When they leave the old lady, they drive back to John’s house and drink alcohol, to cope with the emotions of the situation.

• The poet tries to lift John out of his depression.

Analysis

November

Title is very significant. This is a damp, cold month of the year and is often considered depressing. It is also at the

tail end of the year and so is near the end.

We walk to the ward from the badly parked car with your grandma taking four short steps to our two. We have brought her here to die and we know it.

Brutal honesty. The words are all monosyllabic and simple

emphasising the terrible truth told.

Walking very slowly – the effects of aging

You check her towel, soap and family trinkets, pare her nails, parcel her in the rough blankets and she sinks down into her incontinence.

Mementoes of her life. Taking care of

emotional as well as physical needs.

Loss of dignity. Helplessness. Does this repel the speaker?

Taking great care – great deal of love felt

It is time John. In their pasty bloodless smiles, in their slack breasts, their stunned brains and their baldness, and in us John: we are almost these monsters.

A play on words. It is time to leave. However, it also

signals the passage of time that has led the old woman to

this point.

Lists all of the signs of aging – that lead to the loss of the body’s attributes. The

poet recognises the horror with the choice of word “monsters”. Listing

brings home the amount.

Poet fears that he is also

growing old.

The alliteration of b and s

emphasises the poet’s

disgust and bitterness.

You're shattered. You give me the keys and I drive through the twilight zone, past the famous station to your house, to numb ourselves with alcohol.

Emotionally exhausted

Encroaching darkness – actual and metaphorical. Also name

of famous T.V show where terrible and macabre events

took place.

They use alcohol to overcome their

emotional trauma.

Inside, we feel the terror of the dusk begin.Outside we watch the evening, failing again, and we let it happen. We can say nothing.

The evening is a metaphor of their

old age. It is coming and they cannot stop it.

They have to face the inevitable – there is

no point getting upset about it.

Sometimes the sun spangles and we feel alive. One thing we have to get, John, out of this life.

There are positive things to look forwards to. Ends on a positive note.

Ends with a positive affirmation of life.

Carpe diem.

Repeating these words emphasises the positive. It

also is the exact opposite of Line 3.

Structure• The poem is constructed of six

stanzas, the first five of three lines each, the last of only two lines.

• The first three stanzas focus on the nursing home, leading up to a crescendo at the end of Stanza 3 with “these monsters.” Throughout these stanzas, the poet is reassuring John, despite feeling repulsed by the images of the elderly in the home.

• Stanzas 4 and 5 concentrate on the aftermath, emotionally, of leaving the grandmother in the home, no doubt John’s main feeling being one of guilt, and the final stanza is an attempt to lift the emotions of the reader and of John by giving a message of expediency, but one which is positive for the younger men.

• The poem is written in free verse and contains little rhyme.

• The irregular number of beats in different lines perhaps reflects the emotional turmoil felt at the subject of the poem.

Overview• The poem is effective in its exploration of the

emotions of sadness and guilt felt by relatives and friends when the passing years lead to a loved one losing all sense of dignity and quality of life.

• It provides an insight into the poet’s sense of horror about how society preserves life of the elderly, once it has become devoid of meaning and quality.

• The poem stands useful comparison with others in the collection from the following points of view: death; strong emotions; sadness; inter-generational relationships; (loss of) independence.

Kidby Simon Armitage

Starts with explosive alliteration

Batman, big shot, when you gave the order to grow up, then let me loose to wander leeward, freely through the wild blue yonder as you liked to say, or ditched me, rather, in the gutter ...well, I turned the corner.

Lines 1-5 describes events in the past

Sarcastic use of cliché

Repetition of “er” sound

Now I've scotched that 'he was like a father to me' rumour, sacked it, blown the cover on that 'he was like an elder brother' story, let the cat out on that caper with the married woman, how you took her

Giving away Batman’s secrets

Batman has a sordid secret - scandal

Adventure – but also a pun on “cape”

downtown on expenses in the motor. Holy robin-redbreast-nest-egg-shocker! Holy roll-me over-in-the-clover, I'm not playing ball boy any longer

Batman is corrupt

Mixing British and American slang

Parody of the television series.

Takes on a tabloid newspaper expose style.

Batman, now I've doffed that off-the-shoulder Sherwood-Forest-green and scarlet number for a pair of jeans and crew-neck jumper; now I'm taller, harder, stronger, older.

Robin has dispensed with the childish uniform and

switched to his own clothes.

Continuous enjambment makes the poem sound like

Robin’s talking.

Harsh repetition shows how he has grown away from

Batman.

Self-ridicule

Batman, it makes a marvellous picture:you without a shadow, stewing over chicken giblets in the pressure cooker, next to nothing in the walk-in larder, punching the palm of your hand all winter,

Batman seems a lonely pathetic figure. Or is this just Robin’s

imagination of what he is like now?

Robin seems to enjoy Batman’s reduced state.

Robin used to do all the shopping.

you baby, now I'm the real boy wonder.

Pun on boy wonder.

He has outgrown Batman – he is now confident on his own.

Structure

• Monologue• The poem is made up of 12 rhyming couplets• There are a number of internal rhymes as well

e.g. elder, gutter rumour etc.• There are ten syllables on each line – they are

pentameters• The rhythm is crated by using a trochaic meter.

The stress is on the first syllable e.g. yonder.

Themes

• Failure of heroes and icons to live up to their reputation.

• Tension between generations.

bySimon Armitage

Hitcher

Content – the ‘Story’

The poem is about a person, who is stressed out, at work. He hitch-hikes to a car he has hired. Somewhere near Leeds the narrator picks up a hitcher who is a hippie. He takes out all his frustration on the hitcher by hitting him with a ‘krooklok’ and then throwing him out of the moving car to his death. He jokes that the hitcher can walk the rest of the way.

I'd been tired, underthe weather, but the ansaphone kept screaming.One more sick-note, mister, and you're finished. Fired.I thumbed a lift to where the car was parked.A Vauxhall Astra. It was hired.

Hitcher

Personification. This highlights the stress of the

narrator.The rhyme reminds the

reader of how the narrator’s needs his

work.

The narrator also hitches a lift. Emphasising a

connection with the hippie.

The narrator’s obsession with brands is the opposite outlook

to the hippie.

I picked him up in Leeds.He was following the sun to west from eastwith just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed. The truth,he said, was blowin' in the wind,or round the next bend.

Romantic and carefree existence.

A dream like attitude. Also

echoes the Dylan song.

Has no possessions – opposite of the earlier

materialism demonstrated by the narrator.

Short and long lines reflect the narrator’s uneven thought

process.

Poetical language contrasts with the

violent outbursts of the narrator.

I let him have iton the top road out of Harrogate -oncewith the head, then six times with the krooklokin the face -and didn't even swerve.I dropped it into third

The enjambment betweenthe stanzas keeps the tone calm and relaxed – makingthe report of violence even

more chilling.

Extreme and shocking violence. It is unprovoked

and comes out of nowhere.

Savage and sustained. Intended to kill.

He boasts about his skill at the

wheel during the

murder.

This should be used to

prevent crime.

Armitage inverts the

middle class order.

and leant acrossto let him out, and saw him in the mirrorbouncing off the kerb, then disappearing down the verge.We were the same age, give or take a week.He'd said he liked the breeze

Ironic tone – almost as if he is being helpful.

Disturbing imagery – he seems unconcerned

about the horror of what he explains.

Another connection – but the narrator feels

no empathy.

to run its fingers through his hair. It was twelve noon.The outlook for the day was moderate to fair.Stitch that, I remember thinking,you can walk from there.

Making fun of the hippie’s outlook on

life.

Colloquial language – almost if he is telling it to a

friend.

A weather forecast seems mundane

after what has happened. Also an irony the forecast is good – but not

for the hippie.

The Structure

• Monologue• 5 Stanzas and 5 lines• Short line, Longer, Longest, Shorter and

Shorter again – Visual Impact not aural impact

• Only two rhymes Fired/Hired - Fair/There

Themes

• Violence and death

• Troubled relationship with others

• Hatred of others

Speaker HitcherShackled by work commitments

Freedom from work and commitments

Materialistic possessions Essential possessions only

Mundane language Poetic language

Interested only in the impact of the elements

A child of the elements

Moral ugliness Moral beauty

Realistic Idealistic

Influenced by other people Influenced by nature only

Yuppie Hippy – free spirit

Violence Peace

My father thought it

Simon Armitage

My father thought it bloody queer,

the day I rolled home with a ring of silver in my ear

half hidden by a mop of hair. “You’ve lost your head.If that’s how easily you’re led

You should’ve had it through your nose instead.”

Shows father’s down-to-earth attitude. Double meaning.

Starting with these words shows focus is on relationship with father and his reaction, not just the event of the piercing.

What is he comparing his son to?

Assonance

Alliteration

Contrasts his feeble approach with that of others who pierced their own ears. Makes fun of himself. Is he also ashamed of his cowardice? It’s not a very successful teenage rebellion…

What do these words imply?

And even then I hadn’t had the nerve to numb

the lobe with ice, then drive a needle through the skin,

then wear a safety- pin. It took a jeweller’s gun

to pierce the flesh, and then a friend

to thread a sleeper in, and where it slept

the hole became a sore, became a wound, and wept.

Alliteration

At twenty-nine, it comes as no surprise to hear

my own voice breaking like a tear, released like water,

cried from way back in the spiral of the ear. If I were you,

I’d take it out and leave it out next year.

This is his voice – but it sounds like what his father might have said. Has he come to share his father’s values? Is removing the earring a sign of maturity? Or a sign that he is now ready to conform?

He couldn’t admit the mistake he had made at the time. Why?

Assonance

Themes

• Son trying to be independent, father disapproving

• Humorous tone and rhymes, but shows pain in remembering his adolescence

• Could be a trivial subject, but shows how his attempt at rebellion was not very successful

Structure

• 3 part structure: first 2 stanzas show what happened in the past, last stanza brings poet up to date with what the event means to the poet when he is 29

• Conversational style, with very frequent irregular rhymes, which emphasize key words: queer/ear, hear/year

Comparisons

• Relationship between parent/child figures:

“On My First Sonne”, “Kid”.

On my First Sonne,by Ben Johnston

LO: to understand the poem, using TSLAP.

1743 142

1743 143

Ben Jonson (1572-1637) was an actor, playwright and a poet. During his day he was a very highly regarded playwright, even more so than his contemporary, William Shakespeare!

He lived through many traumas: not only did his son die at a young age but he was also convicted of murdering a fellow actor, Gabriel Spencer!

As well as writing plays he also wrote two collections of poetry.

Name:

About the poet

Occupation:Actor, playwright and poet

Education:

The young Jonson attended Westminster School, a rigorous, classics-minded grammar school. He did not go to university, probably for reasons of money, training instead in his step-father's trade as a bricklayer. However, at some point in the 1590s he chose to try his luck as a soldier in the Low Countries where English troops were involved in the continuing wars between the Dutch and the Spanish.

The records of the Tylers and Bricklayers' Companies seem to indicate that Jonson worked in their trade from 1595 to around 1602 the same years which saw Jonson establish himself as both actor and writer.

Other:

b.1572 d.1637Ben Jonson

What is an elegy?

An elegy is a mournful poem or song, a lament for the dead.

What does lament mean?Lament means to express sorrow, remorse or regret. A poem or song in which a death is lamented.

On My First SonneFarewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.Seven yeeres tho'wert lent to me, and I thee pay,Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.O, could I loose all father, now. For whyWill man lament the state he should envie?To have so soone scap'd worlds, and fleshes rage,And, if no other miserie, yet age?Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here doth lyeBen. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,As what he loves may never like too much.

On My First Son – Modern Goodbye, you child of my right hand, and joy;My sin was hoping too much for your future, beloved boy.Seven years you were lent to me, and I pay you in my grief, Caused by your fate on that just day.O, could I loosen all fatherliness now. Why Will people feel sad about death when they should envy it? To have escaped the world and unhappiness of the world,And to have escaped the misery of age?Rest in soft peace, and, if asked, say here doth lieBen. Johnson’s best piece of poetry.For my own sake, from now on, all my vowes be,To never love something too much.

1743 146

1743 147

On my first Sonne

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.Seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.O, could I loose all father, now. For whyWill man lament the state he should envie?To have so soone scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage,And, if no other miserie, yet age?Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lyeBen. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vows be such,As what he loves may never like too much.

Ben Jonson 1616

1743 148

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

What kind of a statement is this? Who is he speaking to?

1743 149

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

How did he feel about his son?

Religion was really important in the 17th Century. Who sat at the right hand of God? Is there a connection?

”Thou” second person singular pronoun.

used here rather than “you’ to express

closeness of relationship.

In Hebrew, Benjamin means

"son of the right hand.”Jonson is playing on the name.

1743 150

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.

Jonson believes that he has sinned by loving his son too much. He feels responsible for his son’s death.

The church had very strict rules in the 17th Century. Your relationship with your loved ones should have been seen as second to your relationship with God. Maybe Jonson feels that his relationship with God was not as it should have been and that as a result, God has taken his son away?

1743 151

My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

Seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,

Why use this word?How is he paying?

1743 152

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.

Seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.

‘just’ means – morally right and fair. Jonson believes his punishment to be fair.

That had to be paid back with the boy’s life

1743 153

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.Seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,

Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.

In the first four lines of the poem, Jonson forms the beginnings of an ‘extended metaphor’. His child’s life has been a seven year loan. The day that his son died is the day that he paid back the loan.

Bank of GOD

You owe ME one child!Did you know that Jonson’s child was called Benjamin and that ‘child of my right hand’ is the English translation of this Hebrew name?

1743 154

O, could I loose all father, now. For whyWill man lament the state he should envie?

Father is him & GOD. What could this statement be suggesting? (Who has his son gone to be with?)

I wish I could give up acting like a father

The boy is in heaven - why grieve about this

1743 155

O, could I loose all father, now. For why

Will man lament the state he should envie?

Father is him (Jonson) & GOD. What could this statement be suggesting? (Who has his son gone to be with?)

Be sad about something

Wanting what his son has got.

1743 156

O, could I loose all father, now. For whyWill man lament the state he should envie?

To have so soone scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage,And, if no other miserie, yet age?

Escaped

There is a real CONTRAST to his feelings in the first part of the poem. Why do you think he uses the phrases ‘escaped worlds’ and ‘fleshes rage’?

The misery is on earth

His son has managed to escape the earthly misery of ageing.

1743 157

O, could I loose all father, now. For whyWill man lament the state he should envie?

To have so soone scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage,And, if no other miserie, yet age?

In the first part of the poem we saw Jonson blame himself for his son’s death. He created the image that his son had only been lent to him.

In the next four lines we see a contrast to his earlier feelings. He now displays a little jealousy at the fact that his son has escaped the miseries of earth and found the peaceful and envious place of Heaven.

And the misery of age

To have escaped

the demands of passion

Jonson is trying to convince himself that the boy is better off dead

1743 158

Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lye

Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.

An Epitaph?

Who is he talking about here?

Is he talking about this poem or something else? Poetry is a creation.This is a metaphor for something he created. What?

This contrasts with”fleshes rage” in the previous couplet

1743 159

Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lyeBen. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vows be such,

As what he loves may never like too much.

promises

He got too close to his son and was hurt badly. He promises never to get that close to the ones he loves again!

1743 160

Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lyeBen. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.

For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vows be such,As what he loves may never like too much.

In the final four lines of the poem, Jonson says farewell to his son – ‘rest in peace’. He says that his son was the best thing he ever had a hand in creating.

He has also learnt that getting close to the people you love can cause immense grief; something he vows to avoid in the future.

http://www.marrasouk.com

For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,As what he loves may never like too much.

He’s telling himself not to like, too much, the things he loves

Why?

Because it’s painful when you lose the things you love

Because loving them too much

is a “sinne” and could

cause their death

“what he loves” could refer to people

or to his poetry

http://www.marrasouk.com

The final couplet picks up on idea earlier in the poem

For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,As what he loves may never like too much.

This links withMy sinne was too much hope of thee

This suggests that loving too much could have caused the death of the boy

Iambic PentameterIambic pentameter consists of one short syllable followed by one long syllable – these pairs are Iambs. There are five groups of Iambs – hence pentameter.

da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum

When read aloud such verse naturally follows a beat, similar to that of a human heart beat at rest. In written form it looks like this:

So Jonson's work would follow the pattern:

Fare-well thou-child of-my right-hand and-joy

On my first sonne

 Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy. Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. Oh, could I lose all father now. For why Will man lament the state he should envie?To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage, And if no other misery, yet age! Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry. For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loves may never like too much.

Bidding goodbye

Addressed to his dead son

What was the sin?

His son’s name was Ben, Hebrew for “right hand”

Hoped for so much, but fate made him pay

The hand of god

Died at 7 years What emotion is portrayed by the “O”?

Questions why we should fear deathGone to a

better place

Escaped the pain of growing old

Euphemism, makes death sound comforting

A gift from heaven

Wants to avoid being hurt again so much