igcse poetry notes english literature (0427) may/june 2013

igcse poetry notes english Literature (0427) may/june 2013 The Bay, by James Baxter

IntroductionThese notes are part of a brief analysis of selected poems for IGCSE English Literature for the May/June 2013 examinations in the USA. They are intended for teachers, although high-ability students may also be able to use these study notes.

Poetry is sometimes difficult to analyse and comment upon, as one person’s interpretation may not be another’s. Please be aware that the notes are my interpretation of each poem, and should be used in conjunction with other materials, resources, and worksheets to have the best results. Nonetheless, these notes can be a useful starting point for students and teachers, and to stimulate discussion for the poem.

Poetry selection:From Songs of Ourselves: The University of Cambridge International Examinations Anthology of Poetry in English:

Poem analysed:124 – The Bay, James Baxter

The Bay, by James Baxter

BackgroundJames Baxter was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1926, and produced a large number of poems in his short life (he died at the age of 46). He wrote about New Zealand society and the landscape, about love, religion and myth. Baxter described his own poems as ‘part of a large subconscious corpus of personal myth’ and also commented that what ‘happens is either meaningless to me, or else it is mythology’1.1 From an article by John Gillespie, accessed at http://www.poetseers.org/poets/james-baxter/

1 www.eddistutorial.com Prepared January 2013

There will only be partial annotations of the poem, as it is assumed that teacher/student discussions may draw out more salient points. This document is one in a set of study notes, and it is intended to be improved upon – so any feedback for suggested improvements or additions would be welcomed via email at [email protected]

Each poem in the selection for the May/June CIE exams will be released as soon as they have been cranked out . If you contact me, and you have found the resource useful, I will try to work harder.

http://www.eddistutorial.com/

http://www.poetseers.org/poets/james-baxter/

http://www.poetseers.org/poets/james-baxter/

mailto:[email protected]


Baxter struggled with alcoholism and yet continued to write. Religion was an important influence on his life, and he was baptized as an Anglican, and then as a Catholic, before taking on the spiritual aspects of Maori life. Although Baxter died early from a heart attack, he produced many poems of note, and he is still well known in New Zealand. This poem, The Bay, is one of his earlier published poems.Structure and languageThis poem is written in free verse, as there is no fixed metrical pattern, nor are there rhyming lines. The only noticeable rhymes within the poem come in the first stanza, in the middle of line 1 and at the end of line 3 (bay, say), and in the last stanza, in the middle of line 19 and at the end of line 20. In the first stanza, the word ‘say’ is followed by a colon to stop the reader and introduce the next thought. Again Baxter uses ‘bay’ in the middle of line 19, and then ‘away’ as the last word of the stanza. This has the effect of making the sounds of ‘bay’ and ‘say’, or ‘bay’ and ‘away’ resonate a little longer in the reader’s mind – perhaps an intentional emphasis of the poet.

The poem consists of six lines in the first two stanzas and then eight lines in the last stanza. Baxter uses colons to abruptly stop a thought and introduce a musing in lines 4 and 6; commas within a line also give the reader pause for thought, and perhaps to take in the imagery that Baxter presents (see lines 5, 11, 12, and 14). This shows a feature called caesura, and enjambment (the running of one line to the next) is frequently found with caesura.

Reading the poem as if someone was reminiscing about the past helps to understand how Baxter might have written this or spoken the poem aloud. It also makes it more obvious to see the transition in mood between the three stanzas – the first introduces the bay and the child’s memories, as well as hinting at a certain melancholy; the second stanza further describes the child’s memories; and the last stanza jolts the reader and poet back to the reality of the present time.

For effect, Baxter uses alliteration ‘cliffs with carved names’ (7), ‘boats from the banks’ (9), ‘carved cliffs’ (11), ‘thousand times’ (13), ‘stand like stone’ (20) – all examples can be used to emphasise the images, such as the harsh ‘c’ sound of cut cliffs with carved names, or to emphasise the words such as ‘thousand times’ (hyperbole - an exaggeration).

Baxter’s only simile in the poem, ‘stand like stone’ (20) can be felt from either the child’s or grown man’s perspective. More important to Baxter than personification, or other abstract forms of figurative language, it appears important to the poet to make this childhood place vivid and true to




the reader (as it might have been to him). So, each stanza is peppered with descriptive terms, such as:‘a lake of rushes where we bathed’ (1-2)‘changed in the bamboos’ (2)‘the alley overgrown’ (5)‘cliffs with carved names’ (7)‘beside the Maori ovens’ (8)‘banks of the pumice creek’ (9)and so on

ToneTo define this poem, it could be argued that it is a lyrical elegy. That is, it is a songlike poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet, and is elegiac as Baxter mourns something lost (his childhood perspective, simpler pleasures, wasted time?).

At first glance, it seems to be a straightforward description of a childhood playground, but there is a hint of conflict, or retrospect, as in ‘How many roads we take that lead to Nowhere’ (4). This also has a similar theme to Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, and Thomas Hood’s Past and Present. Does Baxter feel that time has been wasted in childhood, or mistakes made in the paths taken in his present life? This conflict is also presented in line 6, ‘Not that veritable garden where everything comes easy’. Is this a reference to Eden, and the fact that he sees his Eden is as lost as his childhood? The ambiguity that Baxter introduces in the stanza may be as much for his own benefit as for the readers, who will draw their own conclusions based off their particular experiences.

The second stanza also has conflicting tones – that of wistful memories of racing boats or swimming, and of the physically colder memories of ‘autumnal shallows growing cold in amber water’ (10-11) or of the menacing Maori ‘taniwha’ (12). It appears that Baxter cannot shake the more sombre adult perspective from his childhood memories, as the third stanza shows evidence of the ominous ‘little spiders’ (13) that are in fact ‘poisonous and quick’ (14).

The third stanza also reveals that perhaps the bay ‘never was’ (19), but he remembers it in this poem – perhaps Baxter remembers an idealised childhood, or wants to remember and stay in that moment, as he ends the stanza with a vision standing like stone and being unable to turn away.

Remember, tone is a very subjective aspect of a poem to analyse – my personal interpretation is based on my life experiences, and may or may not reflect the poet’s intention. Thus, one interpretation of Baxter’s poem may




be of happy childhood memories, whilst another interpretation may read far more into the melancholy undertones of an Eden lost as the child grows up.

ThemesThere are a few themes here that can be expanded upon by using the poem to amplify meaning. Obvious themes include childhood memories, mourning lost innocence, conflict between childhood and adulthood. Link themes with the way Baxter uses poetic form for meaning. For example, the first stanza could be spoken in an easy tone up to the third line. After that, lines 3-6 can be read in a more mature and clipped way, to highlight the change in thought from child to adult. Baxter’s words in lines 1-2 flow far easier off the tongue than ‘Now it is rather to stand and say’ (3) as the use of consonance slows speech.

The Bay James Baxter

On the road to the bay was a lake of rushesWhere we bathed at times and changed in the bamboos.

Now it is rather to stand and say:How many roads we take that lead to Nowhere,The alley overgrown, no meaning now but loss:

Not that veritable garden where everything comes easy.

And by the bay itself were cliffs with carved namesAnd a hut on the shore beside the Maori ovens.

We raced boats from the banks on the pumice creekOr swam in those autumnal shallows

Growing cold in amber water, riding the logsUpstream, and waiting for the taniwha.

So now I remember the bay and the little spidersOn driftwood, so poisonous and quick.

The carved cliffs and the great outcrying surfWith currents round the rocks and the birds rising.

A thousand times an hour is torn acrossAnd burned for the sake of going on living.

But I remember the bay that never wasAnd stand like stone and cannot turn away.

(1948 approx. date)

For further reading:Thomas Hood, Past and Present


rhyme example

alliteration

capitalizing for importance, or effect

Use of punctuation for pause, change of direction – this is caesura

examples of descriptive termsexample

of enjambm



Robert Frost, The Road Not TakenNorman MacCaig, Summer Farm

For the students, say:Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like: poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices; language; themes; tone, and so on.

[Draft version of document – final packet will contain all 14 poems for the CIE IGCSE English Literature examination, May/June 2013]



igcse poetry notes english literature (0427) may/june 2013

Documents