04/01/07
LO: To explore how McMillan uses imagery
and structure to communicate emotions
related to the loss of his mother.
Appealing to the Senses
Sound
Touch
Visual
Less revealing – makes reader curious over
significance of the date.
This date is ‘seared on the poet’s mind’ but
not the reader’s. Death of mother is revealed
towards end of poem.
04/01/07
Also, it becomes another ‘line in the
poem’ that ‘retracts’ and ‘reflects’ the
poem.
Sound
Touch
Visual
Personification suggests violent awakening
shock
Metaphor for dark night
The telephone shatters the night’s dark glass. A
I’m suddenly awake in the new year air B
And in the moment it takes a life to pass A
From waking to sleeping I feel you there. B
Juxtapose – he wakes, she ‘sleeps’
Lack of capital letter
shows no cause to
celebrate – his
father died at similar
time of year in 2001
We’re all vulnerable to death
An event that they were
expecting, but still a shock
Enjambment = slower pace
My brother’s voice that sounds like mine C Like he told himself
about his mother
Gives me the news I already knew. D
Outside a milk float clinks and shines C
And a lit plane drones in the night’s dark blue, D
Positive aural images, suggests:
• Early morning
• Or he’s been up all night
• Or, that life continues
Suggests early morning
Repeated references to
light reflect positivity in
light of mother’s death
Juxtaposed with negative
image of ‘drones’
Aggressive verbs and adjectives reflects
raw emotions
And I feel the tears slap my torn face; E
The light clicks on. I rub my eyes. F
I’m trapped inside that empty space E
You float in when your mother dies. F
Caesura increases the tension.
It happens to us all. ‘float’
suggests gentle, natural
transition to fill the space
of our parents; to be the
next to die.
He now fills the place of
his parents. Generations
dying, sense that he’s
next in line.
Rhyming couplet
fits traditional
form
However, it doesn’t end as it
carries on. Passage of time
continues, with becoming
granddad
Parents dying
Feeling that the story ends just here, G
The stream dried up, the smashed glass clear. G
Oxymoron – forces reader to
consider meaning.
‘stream’ signifies continuity/
passage of time. ‘drying up’
links to his feeling of
something ‘ending’. Or
possibly his tears ending.
Links to line 1. Dark glass of
night ‘smashed’ by the
telephone. ‘Clear’ signals he
realises it doesn’t ‘just end
there’. Leaving more positive
ending to poem.
Relationships - with parents; about the
passage of time, about families, about
parents.
Structure:
• Loose sonnet form (for his mother she said she
liked ‘proper poems that rhymed’ so he wrote
this for her after her death.)
• 14 lines but divided into stanzas – perhaps to
reflect separation from mother and son.
• Regular rhyme fits the traditional sonnet form –
apart from line 5 and 7, which could suggest
speaker’s disorientation. Also strict shape reflects
his connection with his mother.
Essay question
How does the poet use structure and imagery to
convey his feelings about the news of his
mother’s death?
Plenary
• To understand the ways in which McMillan has
used imagery and structure to explore
emotions experienced on the loss of his
mother;
• To engage with the way time seems to stand
still and the accentuation of the senses so that
they are more acute.
Compare to…
… another poem which uses brief, yet striking
images and sounds.
… another poem which relates to relationships
with parents