Higher
English
‘A Last Marriage’
Study Pack
“Snows melt. The mountain silvers into many a stream.”
‘Peeling an Orange’
Virgina Hamilton Adair
Contents:
1. ‘A Last Marriage’ text
2. Initial Response, Overview & Annotation Tasks
3. Textual Analysis
4. Critical Essay Questions
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Arran High School
A Last Marriage
by Virginia Hamilton Adair
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The children gone, grown into other arms,
Man of her heart and bed gone underground,
Powder and chunks of ash in a shamefast urn,
Her mother long since buried in a blue gown,
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Friends vanishing downward from the highway crash,
Slow hospital dooms, or a bullet in the head,
She came at last alone into her overgrown
Shapeless and forlorn garden. Death was there
Too but tangible. She hacked and dragged away
10
Horrors of deadwood, webbed and sagging foliage,
Self-strangling roots, vines, suckers, arboreal
Deformities in viperish coils. Sweat, anger, pity
Poured from her. And her flesh was jabbed by thorns,
Hair jerked by twigs, eyes stung by mould and tears.
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But day by day in the afterbath she recovered stillness.
Day by day the disreputable garden regained
Its green tenderness. They wooed one another. The living
Responses issued from clean beds of earth.
It was a new marriage, reclusive, active, wordless.
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Early each morning even in rain she walked
The reviving ground where one day she would knock and enter.
She took its green tribute into her arms and rooms.
Through autumn the pruned wood gave her ceremonial
Fires, where she saw lost faces radiant with love.
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Beyond the window, birds passed and the leaves with them.
Now was a season to sit still with time to know,
Drawing each breath like a fine crystal of snow.
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Task 1 – Initial Response
 Answer the following questions on your own before sharing your ideas with others
o Consider the title of the poem – what expectations does it create? What sort of poem
do you expect this to be? Why?
o Which parts of the poem do you find particularly striking / memorable / effective?
Explain why this is the case.
o Do you think that Adair is trying to achieve anything in particular with this poem?
Does it seem to be aimed at a particular group? Explain your answer clearly.
Task 2 – Overview
 Answer the following questions about the poem
o What happens in the poem? (events)
o What is the poem about? (themes)
Task 3 – Annotation
 Annotate your A3 copy of the poem, highlighting examples of literary techniques
employed by the poet
 Add as much analysis to your annotations as you can (and remember to continually
add to this as you learn more about the poem)
o Think about the effects of the various techniques that you have found, especially in
relation to the poem’s themes
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Task 3 – Textual Analysis
1. Read lines 1-3. In your own words explain what has happened.
(3)
2. Why was death ‘tangible’ in the garden? Use your own words.
(2)
3. Read lines 8-14. Show how the poet’s use of language effectively develops her
description of the garden.
4.
(4)
(a) Overall, what mood is created in the first verse?
(1)
(b) How is this achieved?
(2)
5. How does the poet emphasise the idea of change in lines 15-16?
(2)
6. In your own words explain what the poet means by: ‘They wood one another.’
(2)
7. Read lines 19-21.
(a) Why is this new relationship described as a marriage?
(1)
(b) Explain how the writer’s word choice supports this comparison.
(2)
8. What mood is developed in lines 23-24?
(1)
9. How effective do you find the final lines of the poem as a conclusion to the text?
(2)
10. Overall, how well do you feel that this poem explores the following:
(a) The relationship between a person and a place.
(4)
(b) The impact of the passing of time.
(4)
Total 30 marks
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Critical Essay Questions
 The questions below are taken from Higher past papers and specimen papers and
show you the type of questions that are suitable for ‘A Last Marriage’
 You should be able to prepare an essay plan for each of these questions
1. Choose a poem in which the poet explores one of the following emotions: grief, happiness,
love, alienation, anguish, regret, loss.
Discuss how the poet’s exploration of the emotion has deepened your understanding of it.
2. Choose a poem which features a relationship.
Discuss how the poet’s presentation of this relationship adds to your understanding of the
central concern(s) of the poem.
3. Choose a poem which explores the pain of love or the pleasure of love or the power of love.
Show how the poet’s exploration deepens your understanding of the pain or the pleasure
or the power of love.
4. Choose a poem which features a complex character.
Show how the complexity of the character is presented and discuss how significant this
aspect of characterisation is to the impact of the poem.
5. Choose a poem in which there is a powerful evocation of place.
Show how the poet powerfully evokes a specific place to explore an important theme.
6. Choose a poem in which the creation of mood or atmosphere is an important feature.
Show how the poet creates the mood or atmosphere, and discuss its importance in your
appreciation of the poem as a whole.
7. Choose a poem which depicts a particular stage of life, such as childhood, adolescence,
middle age, old age.
Discuss how effectively the poet evokes the essence of this stage of life.
NB – Questions 1 and 2 were taken from the New Higher Specimen Paper
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