GCSE English Literature
Poetry
Pre-1914
Duffy
Armitage
The Man He
Killed
Salome
November
Song of the
Old Mother
Havisham
Kid
Stealing
Hitcher
Elvis’ Twin
Sister
My Father
Thought It
On My First
Sonne
The
Laboratory
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 blow
Till the seed of the fire flicker and glow;
And then I must scrub and bake and sweep
Till stars are beginning to blink and peep;
And the young lie long and dream in their bed
Of 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 blow
Till the seed of the fire flicker and glow;
And then I must scrub and bake and sweep
Till stars are beginning to blink and peep;
And the young lie long and dream in their bed
Of 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 is
AA 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 blow
Till 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.
Dramatic
monologue
THE LABORATORY -
The old regime
(describes
France before the
revolution)
ANCIEN REGIME
First person
NOW that I, tying thy glass mask tightly,
To protect from May gaze thro' these faint smokes curling whitely,
Smoke from making poisons
poisonous fumes As thou pliest thy trade in this devil's-smithy-Which is the poison to poison her, prithee?
A woman is to be poisoned!
He is with her; and they know that I know
Suggestion
of evil
Where they are, what they do: they believe my tears flow
There is no
consolation
in religion
While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear
Onomatopoeia
and alliteration
Pound at thy powder, -- I am not in haste!
The bowl in which
the elements are
prepared
Empty church, to pray God in, for them! -- I am here. Narrator is taking control
of the situation, playing
god
Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,
Almost
savouring the
Than go where men wait me and dance at the King's. preparations
Better sit thus, and observe thy strange things,
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,
Taste is
deceptive
A relationship
gone wrong
Sure to taste sweetly, -- is that poison too?
Poison
described with
rich imagery
Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures,
Poisons
What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!
Disguises for
the poison
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!
Emphasises the
deadly effects
But to light a pastille, and Elise, with her head
Jealousy?
Anxious to get
the poison now
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!
Why does she
consider herself
a minion?
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.
Trapped a man,
HER man?
For only last night, as they whispered, I brought
Wishes she
could kill with
her looks
My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought
She wants her
to die in pain
Not that I bid you spare her the pain!
Could I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall,
Shrivelled; she fell not; yet this does not all!
Let death be felt and the proof remain;
Brand, burn up, bite into its grace-He is sure to remember her dying face!
Question brings
a sense of
immediacy
But the poison will instead
Creates a sense of
pain she wants her
victim to go through
She wants the man to remember the agony his mistress suffered
Is it done? Take my mask off! Nay, be not morose
It kills her, and this prevents seeing it close:
Uses imperative verb, like a
command, she is in control
The delicate droplet, my whole fortune's fee-Could there be
repercussions?
If it hurts her, beside, can it ever hurt me?
Payment for future happiness
Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill,
Dust
carries the
horror of
the poison
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
Rich imagery,
suggests greed
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)
Salome
by
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.
Images with quotes
I’d done it before…
woke up
with a head
on the pillow
beside me -
Good-looking,
of course,
dark hair,
rather matted;
the reddish
beard several
shades lighter
I needed to clean up
my act,
get fitter, cut out
the booze and
the fags and
the sex.
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.
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.
Casual almost
indifferent voice.
Sex is casual.
I'd done it before
Serial killer
(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;
Free verse. The narrator
is just awakening.
Red theme
Lots of detail.
“The Godfather”
An arrogant voice. Sounds almost
boastful. They only have good
looking partners.
with very deep lines around the eyes,
from pain, I'd guess, maybe laughter;
and a beautiful crimson mouth that obviously knew
how to flatter...
The mouth is cold because he is
dead. Kissing the decapitated
which I kissed…
head is depraved and shocking.
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
Red theme
She is now more awake so the tempo picks up.
Simon? Andrew? John? I knew I'd feel better
for tea, dry toast, no butter,
Names of the disciples. Link
so rang for the maid.
to the biblical roots of the
poem.
And, indeed, her innocent clatter
A very simple breakfast sits in
of cups and plates,
juxtaposition to the scale of her
her clearing of clutter,
depravity.
her regional patter,
were just what needed hungover and wrecked as I was from a night on the
batter.
Hard “c” sounds
Colloquial language. This makes it seem chatty and friendly
which is at odds with the violence and the madness.
Doesn’t include
murder in her list
of things to cut
back on.
Casual about
these things.
But also casual
about killing
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,
Hates the male
sex. Misandry.
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
Use of the 3rd person. She is a force
to be reckoned with.
Red theme
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?
Havisham
Carol Ann Duffy
Oxymoron shows combination
of feelings – hatred and love
Enjambment
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it
Metaphor
so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.
Metaphor used to emphasise
strength of hands.
Her means
of revenge.
One word sentence is
what society sums her up
as
She sees her life as decay and memories
Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
Makes her
sound like an
animal
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
cliché of
madness
With age
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
Turning or twisting
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who
Sounds like
did this
Unstable?
Self aware?
Wondering?
Disgusted with
herself
she no longer
recognises
what she has
become
Suggesting that
at night she is
able to dream
Purplish-red
to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.
She asks who has
made her this way
The man she might
have married
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
Abstract not
personal
What is the effect
of ‘bite awake?’
Use of oxymoron to show
unstable mixture of
Havisham’s feelings.
Suggests celebrations that did
not take place. What else might
‘red’ suggest?
hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
Masks hate
not blushing
bride
in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a
Wedding
party burst –
metaphor of
wedding-cake.
what
happened
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
Mind broken
as well
Combines
both love
and
revenge
Stammered words to
suggest a kind of
collapse
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 selfdestructive 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'.
Comparison
Armitage: 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
Picked on at school for being
different – he stuttered and was
very quiet
King of Rock and Roll
Died as a
result of
overdosing
on
prescription
medication
Elvis
Born January 8 1935,
died August 16 1977
Gyrating
hips
His music mixed black and
white influences
Born in Memphis,
Tennessee, to a very
religious family
The second of two identical
twins (the first was stillborn
and named Jesse Garon)
Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight?
Elvis is alive and she’s female: Madonna
In the convent, y’all,
a wimple with novice-sewn
I tend the gardens,
lace band, a rosary,
watch things grow,
a chain of keys,
pray for the immortal soul
a pair of good and sturdy
of rock ‘n’ roll.
blue suede shoes.
They call me
I think of it
Sister Presley here.
as Graceland here,
The Reverend Mother
a land of grace.
digs the way I move my hips
It puts my trademark slow lopsided smile
just like my brother.
back on my face.
Gregorian chant
Lawdy.
drifts out across the herbs
I’m alive and well.
Pascha nostrum immolatus est…
Long time since I walked
I wear a simple habit,
down Lonely Street
darkish hues,
towards Heartbreak Hotel.
Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight?
Epigraph in form of
rhetorical question
Elvis is alive and she’s female: Madonna
a wimple with novice-sewn
In the convent, y’all,
Madonna is
female Elvis or a
quote from
Madonna?
I tend the gardens,
watch things grow,
lace band, a rosary,
a chain of keys,
pray for the immortal soul
a pair of good and sturdy
of rock ‘n’ roll.
blue suede shoes.
6 stanzas of
quintrains
They call me
Sister Presley here.
Enjambement
Colour
imagery
I think of it
as Graceland here,
Highly
punctuated
The Reverend Mother
a land of grace.
digs the way I move my hips
It puts my trademark slow lopsided smile
just like my brother.
back on my face.
Gregorian chant
Lawdy.
drifts out across the herbs
Italics
I’m alive and well.
Pascha nostrum immolatus est…
Long time since I walked
I wear a simple habit,
down Lonely Street
darkish hues,
towards Heartbreak Hotel.
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
American drawl a wimple with novice-sewn
In the convent, y’all,
lace band, a rosary,
I tend the gardens,
watch things grow,
Completely
contrasting /
contradictory
statements
pray for the immortal soul
of rock ‘n’ roll.
They call me
Sister Presley here.
The Reverend Mother
Religious symbolism /
Elvis was thought to
be the devil (the twin
is the opposite of him)
just like my brother.
Gregorian chant
drifts out across the herbs
His gyrating
hips got him
banned!
Original songs of
the church
Pascha nostrum immolatus est…
darkish hues,
a chain of keys,
a pair of good and sturdy
blue suede shoes.
Where Elvis lived
I think of it
as Graceland here,
As twins, they share
the same
characteristics
a land of grace.
It puts my trademark slow lopsided smile
digs the way I move my hips
I wear a simple habit,
Song by Elvis Presley
Latin meaning
‘Or Lamb has
been
sacrificed…’
(Christ)
back on my face.
Lawdy.
What many of his fans
believe
I’m alive and well.
Long time since I walked
down Lonely Street
towards Heartbreak Hotel.
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
by
Simon 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.
Walking very slowly –
the effects of aging
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.
Taking great care –
great deal of love felt
Mementoes of her life.
Taking care of
emotional as well as
physical needs.
You check her towel, soap and family trinkets,
pare her nails, parcel her in the rough blankets
and she sinks down into her incontinence.
Loss of dignity.
Helplessness.
Does this repel
the speaker?
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.
Poet fears that
he is also
growing old.
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.
The alliteration
of b and s
emphasises
the poet’s
disgust and
bitterness.
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.
Emotionally
exhausted
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.
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.
The evening is a
metaphor of their
old age. It is
coming and they
cannot stop it.
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.
They have to face the
inevitable – there is
no point getting
upset about it.
There are positive things to look
forwards to. Ends on a positive note.
Sometimes the sun spangles and we feel alive.
One thing we have to get, John, out of this life.
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.
Kid
by Simon Armitage
Starts with
explosive
alliteration
Repetition of “er” sound
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
Adventure – but also a pun
on “cape”
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
Batman has a sordid
secret - scandal
Giving away
Batman’s secrets
Mixing British and
American slang
downtown on expenses in the motor.
Holy robin-redbreast-nest-egg-shocker!
Parody of the
Holy roll-me over-in-the-clover,
television series.
I'm not playing ball boy any longer Takes on a tabloid
newspaper expose style.
Batman is corrupt
Self-ridicule
Continuous
enjambment makes
the poem sound like
Robin’s talking.
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.
Harsh repetition
shows how he has
grown away from
Batman.
Robin has dispensed with
the childish uniform and
switched to his own clothes.
Batman seems a lonely pathetic
figure. Or is this just Robin’s
imagination of what he is like now?
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,
Robin seems to enjoy
Batman’s reduced state.
Robin used to do all
the shopping.
He has outgrown Batman – he
is now confident on his own.
you baby, now I'm the real boy wonder.
Pun on boy wonder.
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.
Hitcher
by
Simon Armitage
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.
Hitcher
The narrator also hitches a
lift. Emphasising a
connection with the hippie.
I'd been tired, under
the 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.
The narrator’s
obsession with brands
is the opposite outlook
to the hippie.
The rhyme reminds the
reader of how the
narrator’s needs his
work.
Personification. This
highlights the stress of the
narrator.
Poetical language
contrasts with the
violent outbursts of the
narrator.
Romantic and
carefree existence.
I picked him up in Leeds.
He was following the sun to west from east
with just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed. The truth,
he said, was blowin' in the wind,
or round the next bend.
Short and long lines reflect
the narrator’s uneven thought
process.
Has no possessions –
opposite of the earlier
materialism demonstrated by
the narrator.
A dream like
attitude. Also
echoes the Dylan
song.
The enjambment between
the stanzas keeps the tone
calm and relaxed – making
the report of violence even
more chilling.
I let him have it
on the top road out of Harrogate -once
with the head, then six times with the krooklok
in the face -and didn't even swerve.
I dropped it into third
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.
Extreme and shocking
violence. It is unprovoked
and comes out of
nowhere.
Ironic tone – almost as if
he is being helpful.
and leant across
to let him out, and saw him in the mirror
bouncing 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
Disturbing imagery – he
seems unconcerned
about the horror of what
he explains.
Another
connection – but
the narrator feels
no empathy.
Making fun of the
hippie’s outlook on
life.
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.
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
Shackled by work
commitments
Materialistic possessions
Hitcher
Freedom from work and
commitments
Essential possessions only
Mundane language
Poetic language
Interested only in the impact A child of the elements
of the elements
Moral ugliness
Moral beauty
Realistic
Influenced by other people
Idealistic
Influenced by nature only
Yuppie
Hippy – free spirit
Violence
Peace
My father thought it
Simon Armitage
Assonance
Shows father’s down-to-earth
attitude. Double meaning.
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.”
Starting with these words
shows focus is on relationship
with father and his reaction, not
just the event of the piercing.
Alliteration
What is he comparing his
son to?
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.
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?
Alliteration
Assonance
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?
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
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.
1743
143
About the poet
Name: Ben Jonson
Occupation:
Education:
Other:
b.1572 d.1637
Actor, playwright and poet
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.
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 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 why
Will 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 lye
Ben. 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.
1743
146
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 lie
Ben. Johnson’s best piece of poetry.
For my own sake, from now on, all my
vowes be,
To never love something too much.
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 why
Will 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 lye
Ben. 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
147
Farewell,
thou child of my right hand, and joy;
What kind of a statement
is this? Who is he
speaking to?
1743
148
”Thou” second person
Religion was really important in the 17th
Century. Who sat at the right hand of
God? Is there a connection?
Farewell, thou child of my
How did he feel about his
son?
1743
149
singular pronoun.
used here rather than
“you’ to express
closeness of relationship.
right hand, and joy;
In Hebrew,
Benjamin means
"son of the right hand.”
Jonson is playing on the name.
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?
sinne
My
was
tooofmuch
hope
of thee,
lov’d boy.
Farewell, thou
child
my right
hand,
and joy;
Jonson believes that he has sinned by loving his
son too much. He feels responsible for his son’s
death.
1743
150
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
lent
My sinne
was too much
hopeand
of thee,
lov’d
boy.
Seven yeeres
tho’wert
to me,
I thee
pay,
Why use this word?
How is he paying?
1743
151
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.
Exacted
by thy tho’wert
fate, on the
Seven yeeres
lent just
to me,day.
and I thee pay,
That had to be paid
back with the boy’s life
1743
152
‘just’ means – morally right and fair.
Jonson believes his punishment to
be fair.
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,
In the first four lines of the poem,
Jonson forms the beginnings of
an ‘extended
metaphor’.
Histhe just day.
Exacted by
thy fate, on
child’s life has been a seven year
loan. The day that his son died is
the day that he paid back the
loan.
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?
Bank of GOD
You owe ME one child!
1743
153
The boy is in heaven why grieve about this
I wish I could give up
acting like a father
O, could I loose all father, now.
For why
Will 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?)
1743
154
O, could I loose all father, now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envie?
Wanting what his
son has got.
Be sad about
something
Father is him (Jonson) & GOD.
What could this statement be
suggesting? (Who has his son
gone to be with?)
1743
155
Escaped
O, could
I loosescap’d
all father,
now., and
Forfleshes
why
To have
so soone
worlds
Will man lament the state he should envie?
And, if no other miserie, yet age?
His son has
The misery
managed
to is on
earth the
escape
earthly misery of
ageing.
1743
156
rage,
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’?
O, could I loose all father, now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envie?
To have
escaped
the demands
of passion
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
him.so soone scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage,
To to
have
And, if no other miserie, yet age?
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.
Jonson is trying to convince
himself that the boy is better off dead
1743
157
And the misery of age
This contrasts with”fleshes rage”
in the previous couplet
An Epitaph?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lye
Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.
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?
1743
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promises
Rest
in softsake,
peace,
and, ask’d,all
say
dothbelyesuch,
For whose
hence-forth,
hishere
vows
Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.
As what he loves may never like too much.
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
159
Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lye
Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.
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
had
a hand
in creating.
Forever
whose
sake,
hence-forth,
all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
He has also learnt that getting close to the people you love
can cause immense grief; something he vows to avoid in
the future.
1743
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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
Because loving
them too much
is a “sinne”
and could
cause their death
“what he loves”
Why?
Because it’s painful when
you lose the things you love
http://www.marrasouk.com
could refer
to people
or to his poetry
The final couplet picks up on idea earlier in the
poem
This suggests that loving too much
could have caused the death of the boy
My sinne was too much hope of thee
This links with
For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
http://www.marrasouk.com
Iambic Pentameter
Iambic pentameter consists of one short syllable followed by one
long syllable – these pairs are Iambs. There are five groups of Iambs
– hence pentameter.
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:
da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum
So Jonson's work would follow the pattern:
Fare-well
thou-child
of-my
right-hand
and-joy
A gift from
heaven
Bidding
goodbye
What was the sin?
Died at 7 years
Hoped for so
much, but fate
made him pay
Gone to a
better place
Euphemism,
makes death
sound comforting
On my first sonne
Addressed
to his dead
son
His son’s
name was
Ben, Hebrew
for “right
hand”
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,The hand of god
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
What emotion is
Oh, could I lose all father now. For why
portrayed by the “O”?
Will man lament the state he should envie?
To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
Questions
And if no other misery, yet age!
Escaped the pain of
why we
Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, growing old
should fear
Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry. For death
whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what
he loves may never like too much.
Wants to avoid
being hurt again
so much