U A Fanthorpe
Georgie, Paddy & Jade
Context
 "Stanton Drew": An ancient stone circle near Bristol, it is
considered to have been used by druids for ritualistic
purposes, Fanthorpe wants the reader to experience the
past by "trying to recreate the ancient landscape and the
stone circle“
 "Horticultural show": Persephone goddess of nature and
springtime juxtaposed with metaphors of death, story of
Persephone and Hades (god of the underworld) and the
temptation to eat the fruit, "fine runes" is a reference to the
alphabet of the Anglo-Saxons of around 700AD, again
historical roots to the poem.
 "Canal: 1977": perhaps inspired by panama canal treaty
of 1977, mainly about deterioration of British canals and
their evolution from modes of haulage to things of leisure
Stanton Drew
 Nostalgia – personification of “the past’s long
pulse”, “stripped of its future” implying that the
past is all we need? Or making the audience feel
bad for ruining the landscape?
 Ruin – “dismantle”, “stripped”, “unemphatic”,
uncertainty caused by humans “archaeologists
have rubbed against them”? Questionable because
“tree’s must go” (not man-made).
 Replenish – “Re-create them” implying that we
need something in our landscape, it can’t be
completely empty, as humans we need something
to remember the past by – link to nostalgia.

Form – This poem is written in free verse style with the rhythmic pattern
created from the choice of words and sounds. There are a number of ‘st’, ‘l’, and
‘p’ sound throughout the poem as we as the use of alliteration and assonance, all
of which help the music of the text.

Structure – Poem structured as a single stanza.Reads like prose.No rhyming
scheme.

Language – The only thing of human making is the stone circle which has ‘tilted
into meaning’ an empty earth. Here the poet is examining the relationship
between people and landscape and how humans use nature to express their
sense of spiritual feeling. They are described as ‘pitted and unemphatic’, giving
them a feeling of permanence and the reader is instructed to ‘re-create ’ as they
must have looked. Wry humour in the way Fanthorpe lumps together ‘cattle,
weather, / archaeologists have rubbed against them’, all contributing to the
wearing away of the stones.

References to the sun and the moon could be connected to ancient rites which
take place in stone circles.

Personification in the verbs ‘hold’ and ‘chain’ to suggest the power of the stone
circle.

Final command to the reader is ‘stand inside the circle. Put / your hand on stone.
Listen / to the past’s long pulse.’ (Form– use of enjambment and caesura here
emphasises the imperative verbs ‘stand’, ‘put’ and ‘listen’). There are pastoral
connotations here in that it gives humans a sense of being at one with the
landscape as modern people have lost this feeling.
Horticultural Show
•Greek Mythology - “Persephone's fruits” Zeus' daughter
(God of all God's) either a sexual/fertility reference or fruit as a
metaphor for death/harvest. “Underyear” Persephone is Queen
of the Underworld after being kidnapped but used to be the
Greek God for nature.
•Harvest - “onions”, “marrow”, “carrots”, “leeks”, “potatoes”,
“beetroots”, “caper”, “coconuts” and back to “fruits” in each
stanza. Could be the link to hope and regeneration or the
death of the harvest. Represents plentifulness.
•Death - “tomb”, “Holystoned”, “sacrificed”. Personifies the
fruit and vegetables as well as representing and implying a
Biblical reference through the language. Links the harvest
because fruit and vegetables are regenerated like Jesus came
back to life.
Form – Most of the poem has a hushed and religious feel whereas the pace of the final 2
stanzas is more rapid, contrasting with the rest. Sense of frantic activity crammed in
one stanza. Use of enjambment and caesura is evident throughout.
Structure – The poem consists of 10 stanzas, nine of which are tercets and the ninth, the
penultimate stanza is a quatrain. 8 out of these 10 stanzas are devoted to vegetables,
while the rest of the show is covered in the last 2 stanzas.
Language –The ‘fruits’ mentioned by Fanthorpe are mainly those that grow wholly or partly
underground, thus their association with Persephone (onions, carrots, potatoes,
beetroots, leeks).
Furthermore, the word ‘underyear’ is used to signify both the underworld and the winter,
which is the part of the year that Persephone is supposed to be in the underworld.
Fanthorpe imagined ‘the fruits’ being sent ‘to guide us […] through the slow dream of
winter.’ Winter is a time when the earth seems asleep and the short days and long
nights make people want to sleep longer.
Onions are translucent when skinned which makes the poet’s comparison with lamps
appropriate. Rubbing them ‘for strange knowledge’ could be a reference to a magic
lamp and a genie; while she once again imagines their ‘light of the tomb’ both as an
association with the underworld and the onions’ underground growth.
Recurring use of biblical language such as ‘holystone’ and references to ‘sacrifice’, the
display of ‘bleeding hearts’; ‘we read the future in these entrails’ could be linked to
Jesus.
Leeks said to be ‘leaning exhausted in corners’ because their shape makes it impossible for
them to stand upright.
Final vegetables mentioned are ‘sacrificed beetroots’ which are deep red in colour which
could be a reference to blood. The vegetables ‘utter where they have been, where we
are going’: a reminder of our mortality as humans, we will die one day… a pastoral
acknowledgement that we aren’t immortal.
Canal 1977
 Nostalgia – through remembrance. Common
theme of “remember”. Voice remembers the past
and expresses this in a positive manner through
language such as “picturesque”. Ends in abrupt
death which brings reader back to present day and
sadness enhancing the nostalgia.
 The elements – “water”, “ashes”,
“undistinguished” (fire), “grass”, “weather”. The
elements enhance the natural scenery putting a
positive tone onto the past she remembers, links
back to nostalgia.
Form – Use of 1stperson gives an immediacy to the poem as the personal
recollections of the writer. Repetition of the sentence ‘I remember this
place’ encloses the images of nature regaining her place. Enjambment
across stanzas (‘there will be an after to be remembered/ as the
pleasurecraft purr their idle way…’) takes the reader immediately into the
present where the canal is being used for leisure. It also helps create a
conscious contrast between families mentioned in different stanzas.
Language– ‘whooping leggers’ and ‘sly lurchers’ is juxtaposed with ‘smooth
pink families’ with ‘superior dogs’. Lack of rhyme scheme.
Structure – This poem consists of 5 sestets in free verse style and tells the
reader Fanthorpe’s memories and images of the canal, where past and
present, nature and humanity mingle.
Language –Deserted buildings along the banks are described as ‘pocky
stonework[…] ruining mildly in mottled silence[…] the gutted pub’. The
transferred epithet of ‘mottled silence’ evokes the spotted, lichened and
pitted walls while appealing also to the sense of hearing, as the silence
indicates the lack of life around and along the canal. Trees are
‘conspirational’ as they seem to be close enough to whisper to each other,
but there is also an implication of nature’s ‘design’ reflected in their leaves
on the ‘uncommitted water’ – almost as if the water itself is remaining
neutral in the battle between nature and man.
Opening sentence for 2ndstanza ‘and before’ refers back to ‘I remember this
place’ and is about the canals before they fell out of use, when barges
carried goods along them.