IGCSE POETRY NOTES ENGLISH LITERATURE (0427) MAY/JUNE 2013 The Bay, by James Baxter
Introduction
These 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
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 Samantha@eddistutorial.com
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.
The Bay, by James Baxter
Background
James 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.
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.
1
1
From an article by John Gillespie, accessed at http://www.poetseers.org/poets/james-baxter/
www.eddistutorial.com
Prepared January 2013
IGCSE POETRY NOTES ENGLISH LITERATURE (0427) MAY/JUNE 2013 The Bay, by James Baxter
Structure and language
This 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
Tone
To 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
2
www.eddistutorial.com
Prepared January 2013
IGCSE POETRY NOTES ENGLISH LITERATURE (0427) MAY/JUNE 2013 The Bay, by James Baxter
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.
Themes
There 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
capitalizing for
importance, or effect
Use of punctuation for
pause, change of direction
– this is caesura
example of
enjambment
3
www.eddistutorial.com
On the road to the bay was a lake of rushes
Where 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 names
And a hut on the shore beside the Maori ovens.
We raced boats from the banks on the pumice creek
Or swam in those autumnal shallows
Growing cold in amber water, riding the logs
Upstream, and waiting for the taniwha.
rhyme example
alliteration examples
examples of
descriptive terms
So now I remember the bay and the little spiders
On driftwood, so poisonous and quick.
Prepared January 2013
IGCSE POETRY NOTES ENGLISH LITERATURE (0427) MAY/JUNE 2013 The Bay, by James Baxter
The carved cliffs and the great outcrying surf
With currents round the rocks and the birds rising.
A thousand times an hour is torn across
And burned for the sake of going on living.
But I remember the bay that never was
And stand like stone and cannot turn away.
(1948 approx. date)
For further reading:
Thomas Hood, Past and Present
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Norman 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]
4
www.eddistutorial.com
Prepared January 2013