Category: Poems of the Decade

Essential Terms for Poetry

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Hi all,

Here’s a quick post noting how to identify rhythmic meter and a few poetic structures.

Rhythm, Feet and Metre

Rhythm — Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line

Feet — Units of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.

Metre — Amount of repeated feet in a line

Heteronym — Words that change meaning depending on where the stress is placed.

Two Syllable Rhythms: Iambic, Trochaic, Spondaic, Pyrrhic

Iambic —

  •  ti tum x / = 1 foot
  • Unstressed + stressed (rising metre)
  • Skipping beating, soothing, opening syllables, mimics natural speech

Trochaic —

  • Tum ti / x = 1 foot
  • Stressed + unstressed (falling metre)
  • Abrupt metre, dynamic, opening syllable

Spondaic —

  • Tum tum / / = 1 foot
  • Stressed + stressed (irregular metre)
  • Emphasis, fills metric gaps

Pyhrric —

  • Ti ti x x = 1 foot
  • Unstressed + unstressed (irregular metre)
  • Softening, fills metric gaps

Metre

1 foot = 1 metre = monometer

2 feet = 2 metres = dimeter

3 feet = 3 metres = trimeter

4 feet = 4 metres = tetrameter

5 feet = 5 metres = pentameter

6 feet = 6 metres = heptameter

7 feet = 7 metres = septameter

8 feet = 8 metres = octameter

Catalexis: Incompleteness usually in the last foot of a line in metrical verse; lacking a syllable at the end ( tum ti/ tum ti/ tum ti/ tum ti/ tum)

Poetic Structures

Blank verse. Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter—almost always iambic pentameter—that does not rhyme.

Free verse. Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or musical form.

Epics. An epic poem is a lengthy, narrative work of poetry. These long poems typically detail extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past.

Narrative poetry. Similar to an epic, a narrative poem tells a story. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” exemplify this form

Pastoral poetry. A pastoral poem is one that concerns the natural world, rural life, and landscapes. These poems have persevered from Ancient Greece (in the poetry of Hesiod) to Ancient Rome (Virgil) to the present day (Gary Snyder).

Sonnet. A sonnet is a 14-line poem, typically (but not exclusively) concerning the topic of love. Sonnets contain internal rhymes within their 14 lines; the exact rhyme scheme depends on the style of a sonnet.

Petrarchan Sonnets have 14 lines, divided into 2 subgroups: an octave and a sestet. The octave follows a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA. The sestet follows one of two rhyme schemes—either CDE CDE scheme (more common) or CDC CDC..

Shakespearean sonnets have 14 lines divided into 4 subgroups: 3 quatrains and a couplet. Each line is typically ten syllables, phrased in iambic pentameter. A Shakespearean sonnet employs the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

A Spenserian sonnet is a variation on the Shakespearean sonnet, with a more challenging rhyme scheme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE

“Miltonic” sonnets are an evolution of the Shakespearean sonnet. They often examined an internal struggle or conflict rather than themes of the material world, and sometimes they would stretch beyond traditional limits on rhyme or length.

Elegies. An elegy is a poem that reflects upon death or loss. Traditionally, it contains themes of mourning, loss, and reflection. However, it can also explore themes of redemption and consolation.

Ode. Much like an elegy, an ode is a tribute to its subject, although the subject need not be dead—or even sentient, as in John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

An ode poem is traditionally divided into three sections, or stanzas:

  1. The strophe. In a Greek ode, the strophe usually consists of two or more lines repeated as a unit. In modern usage, the term strophe can refer to any group of verses that form a distinct unit within a poem
  2. The antistrophe. The second section of an ode is structured the same way as the strophe, but typically offers a thematic counterbalance.
  3. The epode. This section or stanza typically has a distinct meter and length from the strophe and antistrophe and serves to summarize or conclude the ideas of the ode.

Pindaric ode consists of a strophe, an antistrophe that is melodically harmonious, and an epode. Pindaric poems are also characterized by irregular line lengths and rhyme schemes.

Horatian ode consists of two- or four-line stanzas that share the same meter, rhyme scheme, and length. Unlike the more formal Pindaric ode, the Horatian ode traditionally explores intimate scenes of daily life.

Irregular ode. Irregular odes follow neither the Pindaric form nor the Horatian form. Irregular odes typically include rhyme, as well as irregular verse structure and stanza patterns.

Limerick. A limerick is a five-line poem that consists of a single stanza, an AABBA rhyme scheme, and whose subject is a short, pithy tale or description.

Lyric poetry. Lyric poetry refers to the broad category of poetry that concerns feelings and emotion. This distinguishes it from two other poetic categories: epic and dramatic.

Ballad. A ballad (or ballade) is a form of narrative verse that can be either poetic or musical. It typically follows a pattern of rhymed quatrains.

Villanelle. A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with a highly specified internal rhyme scheme. Originally a variation on a pastoral, the villanelle has evolved to describe obsessions and other intense subject matters,

Identity in ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover!’ and ‘History’

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Hello everyone,

Here’s another essay in this recent batch of posts. The following essay was marked at 26/30 (A*1) that could have been improved by the employment of techniques and consideration of these to support ideas.

In ‘Look we Have Coming to Dover’ and ‘History,’ both poems depict the hardships involved in forming and maintaining one’s self-identity within modern society; specifically, the challenge of reconciling one’s past present, and future. Within Dover, we observe the difficulties of British immigrants in maintaining their cultural identities amongst the hostility of anti-immigrant attitudes. Whereas in History, Burnside explore the self and the tender balance between existence, beauty and tragedy. Both poets use their poems to explore the various paradoxes that we find ourselves within, such as a resistance to the natural but also offering readers solace in opportunities to escape these paradoxes. Nagra highlights the hypocrisy and irony inherent in xenophobic attitudes against immigrants; indeed, he questions the purpose of holding onto nationalist British values that only exclude migrants. Burnside, thereby, questioning, what of history can we preserve so as to make progress and benefit the future? Nagra and Burnside explore these intentions and various ideas of identity in order to find comfort in the present.

Both poets introduce the idea that the conception of the self is in continuing and moving forwards in spite of external conflict. The identities of migrants, in Dover, are reduced by xenophobic perceptions of having entered the country in an illegal, clandestine manner for which they are persecuted. The abrasiveness of the nautical language, describing this journey from the ‘alfresco lash’ to ‘ratcheting speed’ reveals the difficulty in making the journey across the channel. equally the harshness and destruction of these waves may also act as a metaphor for the unjustified prejudice that they continue to face, even long after arrival. These prejudices turn individuals into criminals, degrading them as ‘invade[rs]’ rather than comprehending their backgrounds of economic collapse, victims of war, or of nations ruined by Western nations through colonialisation. This renewed prejudice is established in the dramatic increase in sentence length in each stanza; the ever present wave of intolerance. However, we also find a certain irony in the relationship of xenophobia and migration. There arguably exists a natural ebb and flow of immigrants, whereby people come and go carried by the global tide. To individuals that protest of the ruination of their nation by migrants: they are affronted by the futility of resisting this natural migratory phenomenon. All the while, Nagra emphasises the difficulty of immigrants who make these journeys for which they must forsake everything as their lives and past identities must be forged anew, abandoning the unfortunate circumstances of their native origin, with hopes towards opportunity in the future. Identity, in ‘History, ‘ is formed of having survived preceding global tragedies — the individual speaker must find harmony in the minutiae of the world, like ‘sifting wood’ and ‘dried weed’ in spite of the chaos of the global world occurring of the periphery. There exists a similar semantic field of the nautical push and pull of the tide in ‘History.’ The setting of the beach, between the land and sea, places the speaker in a liminal location of intemperance and transition; this comes to reveal the abstract intermesh of reality and philosophical introspection for the speaker to come to terms with their own self-conception. The ‘leuchars’ threaten the parent of ‘Lucas’ with the chaos and fear of modern progress that also promises tragedy, like that of 9/11. However, this contrasts with the purity fo his child who can find joy and satisfaction by interacting with nature, ‘gathering shells’ — to him, the memory of father and son will be immeasurably precious in the construction of his own identity. This influence is reflected structurally, replicating the gentle ebb of the tide. The sense of disorganisation disorganisation, without regular sentence length, illustrates the conflict between these forces: of past and present, nature and man, joy and tragedy within which the individual must reconcile their own presence. In having survived all historical tragedies before us, we can adopt these lessons to address the future. What of our history can we preserve so as to make progress and thrive? Both poets thus explore how identities are formed and hardened through survival, overcoming hardship posed to them despite mounting external conflicts.

In both poems, we explore the perpetual challenge in grasping a solid understanding of the self between contrasting ideas such as those of culture, reality, and security. In Dover, Nagra shows that regardless of formal nationalisation, the identities of immigrants will always be marred by the distrustful perceptions of natives. Knowing of this tension, those seeking refuge can never be fully integrated into the national identity of the UK. Whilst there is a sense of growth from ‘we reap inland,’ this is undercut by a sense of intimidation and fragile integration into Britain is threatened by potential ‘stabs’ in the back. Although they have been ‘unclocked by the National Eye,’ there is always the potential to be deported and thrust back to their countries of origin. We see hints of this threat as sentence lengths are cut short each stanza. These immigrants thus remain stuck in grey zone where they are neither British or of their native countries, resulting in a sense of alienation at the global scale. To Burnside’s ‘History,’ ‘What makes us who we are’ is our desire to find understanding; in knowledge, we find comfort. This security is expressed through the metaphor of the kite, where we find secure and dependable ‘lines,’ yet the winds always threaten us astray. In this sense, the kite comes to refer to reality. The enjambed rushing of sentences into another all form the opportunities for individuals to come to their own conclusions for freedom and understanding, as the kite is a symbol for liberation and freedom. As in Dover, there is always a prescient prospect for danger, but concentration upon this fear inevitably ostracises us. ‘We trade so much to know the virtual’ that we forsake the natural connections we could have forged. We lose the present of life itself, that we lose the beauty of nature. This paradox of reality is well-represented in Dover, because in the safeguarding of British culture, we ignore the other cultural influences that shaped English linguistically in ‘Alfresco’ and ‘diesel.’ Perhaps, the question that Nagra poses is why should we isolate Britain from other cultural identities when Britain itself is an accumulation and intermingling of national influences? This paradoxical futility is always present in ‘History’ for in philosophical introspection to better understand reality. we lose the present so ‘we scarcely apprehend the moment as it happens.’ Our efforts to justify the undefinable become futile. The in-concreteness of these philosophies are physically opposite the regularity of stanza structure. Therefore, we need not struggle fruitlessly to understand and appreciate the world around us, whilst fearful of the potential for chaos. In such a task, we lose only ourselves. Both poets choose to explore what it means to understand ourselves and the world, finding only endless futility rather than asking for an acceptance of reality.

Both poets hold hope towards the for the future for the individual pursuit to strive onwards in march for moral progress. The immigrant speaker seems to find optimism for a more progressive society, where their cultural heritage will be celebrated to a promising, broader spectrum of diversity. Admittedly this is undermined by their struggle to the present. Whilst ‘burdened and ennobled,’ they may take pride and responsibility in their economic independence, but the cost of this is that they are independent from any state. Only, one day however, may it be ‘human to hoick [themselves] bare-faced from the clear,’ when they will be integrated, nationalised and supported. Unfortunately, the speculative tone, couple with enjambed sentence and late appearance in the poem, imply this will not happen for a long time. Until then, they will be in a perpetual present tense of ‘coming’ to Dover — it cannot be their home. In ‘History,’ the speaker finally has their meaning in their self-purpose: ‘how to be alive in all this gazed-upon and cherished world and do no harm.’ All that he can do is be ‘attentive to the irredeemable,’ observing but not intervening in the forever beauty of nature. This idea is only foregrounded by the cyclical structure of the toddler upon the beach and it is this symbolised purity and goodness which fuels Burnside’s hope. ‘Patient; afraid’ is the oxymoron of human nature and a state in which the reader is suspended: ‘afraid’ of the dangers brought of man’s own hands (warfare, terror, eco-destruction), yet ‘patient’ that others will realise that we don’t need absolute certainties for the world. The tercet structure of the poem: past, present, and future ends with the future remaining indeterminable, but with us living in the present. What is humanity’s future if we disregard the potential in the present. These poems therefore suggest that some individuals have reconciled their identities of present and past, and although a difficult path are looking to a more equitable ‘cherished world.’

To conclude, in ‘History’ and ‘Dover,’ Nagra and Burnside study identity through largely different paradigms, suggesting the eternal condition of the individual being powerless to change the world in which they inhabit, whilst remaining hopeful. Through their poetry, they reconcile with the world. Burnside underlines the imperative to observe rather than intervene as the sole path to preventing global tragedies. Nagra asks for progress in a different form. If we are to aspire ourselves towards a more progressive, accepting society shouldn’t we discard nationalist identities to rather be inclusive of diversity in its entirety? For both poets, it is absolute that through all, we move onwards through hardship: never looking behind, but onwards.

— Tara Flynn

Explore the Presentation of Anxiety in ‘Either/Or’ and ‘History’

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Hello,

To compensate for the lack of posts in the last month, I figured I’d upload a variety of old essays to make up for the short hiatus. I previously posted Ellie Slade’s essay that had covered one question from our year 12 Poems of the decade assessment where she discussed the presentation of atrocity in John Burnside’s ‘History’ and C.K.William’s ‘Either/Or.’ The essay below covers the presentation of anxiety along with some tips for when faced with unseen poetry.

How to Survive Writing about an Unseen Poem?

  • Read through the poem at least twice in order to get a vague understanding of its general meaning and themes.
  • Employ your highlighters readily — I recommend using one highlighter per sub-argument in order to emphasise the quotes and techniques that will be used within each paragraph. This makes it much easier to substantiate your essay with quotations from the poems when they can be easily seen.
  • Pay attention to the precise techniques being used. Whilst each quote does not need to be precisely studied, it’s good to have a few examples of close analysis in each paragraph, picking out the potential ambiguities of words or their implications.
  • What structural techniques is the author employing? Look out for the obvious like line and stanza lengths, but it may alse be useful to review poetic structures, like ballads and sonnets.
  • Consider what the author’s intentions might be in writing the poem? What change are they suggesting in the individual reader? How is our society being criticised? Poetry is for upsetting the status quo, so what ideas are the author trying to criticise or highlight?
  • You may be uncertain on how to centre your analysis; remember the hook word in the question, like ‘atrocity’ or ‘guilt.’ You don’t need to fully understand the poem being presented to you, but try and pick apart a line of argument stemming from these key words.

Both poems present anxiety as a product if the duality inherent in tragedy and evil and the inherent goodness within each individual. The capacity to rationalise and philosophise this sense of anxiety about the world is shown to be an impossible task — an ironic paradox of attempting to find security within a raft of terrible events. Yet, we remain caught in a constant cycle of fear cannot be solved collectively. To ‘Either/Or,’ Williams presents themes through a dual paradox between the need to escape evil, whilst terror is present in all in a sense that asks the reader to reconcile with their own conception of morality — of goodness and evil — to cope with that lingering anxiety within us all. Similarly, ‘History’ follows a sense of crisis in the peril of simultaneously being anxious, yet awaiting hope in the need to not interfere or impose regularity upon the world to appease the stability that we seek in everyday life.

These poems highlight the irony of attempting to rationalise and define the tragedy of the wold by concrete ideals. It is this fruitless pursuit that produces the anxiety that haunts us as individuals. Both poets immediately reference manmade atrocities of war and terrorism. In ‘History,’ Burnside contextualises his poem in reference to 9/11, yet the location of St Andrews distinguishes the speaker from this event to create a globalised sense of conflict and fear of attack. Williams employs this global atmosphere to demonstrate in ‘my dream after the dream of more war’ how the conflict between existence and that of understanding events beyond our control, caused by man. ‘History’ continues this ideas of analysis and observing the very minutiae of the world in listing the ‘small shells; shreds of razorfish; smudges of weed,’ that demonstrate this idea of the need to understand the material world around us, whilst structurally we learn of the irony in attempting to order our immediate understanding of the world in the loss of a regular structure. The reader themselves becomes lost in intangible concepts in the pull and tug of varying line lengths. It is this conflict between the abstract and concrete that reveals the paradox of reconciling this sense of anxiety. Burnside questions this human inevitability in the pursuit of ideas of progress through scientific rationalisation, in the ‘leuchars’ that form a looming backdrop to the terror of our own inhumanity, such as war, that can only be retaliated through further material creations of ‘war planes.’ Williams also pursues these ideas of analysis upon evil to appease the terror within us. The speaker appears obsessive in a semantic field of observation, as they ‘looked closely, through at my world,’ wherein they attempt to find something palpable, like ‘History,’ through scientific advances. Using the simile ‘like carbon dioxide or ash that bleeds,’ we find the insidious effect of implementing these ideas upon evil for ironically, they only produce ‘terror, confusion and hatred,’ as the unnatural image of ‘ash that bleeds’ portrays. Similar to ‘History,’ the regularity of stanza length show how disorder is forced to conform to manmade creation; evil will remain regardless. Both poems again reinforce this paradox of rationalisation that is a reaction to the anxiety at the the intersection between human good and evil. It is this ambiguity between the ‘virtual’ and ‘general’ that produces the inevitable forces of terror.

Both poets explore how societal anxieties are the fruit of a cyclical process that we cannot escape as individuals. Williams follows this juxtaposition the in ideas of evil and goodness in order to showcase the dual nature of these two states. The religious imagery of the devils (being ‘hairy, scaly, slimy’) recalls a fictionality to a prescient force of evil that undermines perhaps the reality of prior mentioned ‘war.’ The danger of which is perhaps emphasised by the caesura upon ‘sharp’ that calls for the endless potential for violence and loss of life, whereby our anxieties threaten the stability of our own society. However, we find a juxtaposition within the extended metaphors of “bees” as bearers of the inherent goodness and purity in humanity. Here, Williams calls upon concrete ideals of the natural purity of childhood as emblems of virtue, like the figure of ‘Lucas’ in ‘History.’ In rejecting the religious imagery of ‘guardian angels,’ Williams may be alluding to the human attempt to fictionalise these internal concepts in external persons. The final line highlights the question of ‘who in this cruel strew matter will save us.’ The task of salvation must belong to individuals, referencing the simile ‘like old men. like me.’ Still, the return to ‘they’ of ‘angels’ and ‘bees’ form a signifier of the inevitability of human suffering in allowing others to save us; the paradox of passivity and progress serves to highlight a cyclical idea of anxiety and evil society. In ‘History,’ there is a similar dichotomy in ‘how to be alive in this gazed-upon and cherished world and do no harm.’ The ‘cherished world’ that the speaker seeks can best be found in the eyes of the child in ‘sifting wood’ and ‘dried weed.’ The precious moment of engaging with the natural world, but neither endangering or attempting to conform is what the speaker learns. The dichotomy present in the oxymoron ‘patient; afraid’ of the duality of human nature to wait upon the natural world. Here, Burnside may be asking us to reflect upon our own relation to the world, born out of the anxieties of progress. Can we only observe the world and do no harm? We are again left to the established cycle in the ambiguity in being ‘attentive to the irredeemable.” The title of ‘Either/Or’ emphasises the paradox of wanting to escape from evil, whist vulnerable to what we cannot escape. In ‘History,’ the only way of reconciling these ideals is to persist in the present. Both poets there find a cycle of anxiety and action that seems to produce a self-fulfilling prophecy of wanting ourselves to be saved from our own fears.

To conclude, both poets present anxiety as being born from ideals of goodness and evil. In these ambiguities, we are warned of inflicting the tangible upon the natural order by the forces of science and rationality. To a societal understanding, it is a matter of reconciling fear within a globalised state of panic with peace and patience. Therefore, in reading these poems, we must recognise these conflicting ideals, whilst pacified by the cyclical practice of preserving our own anxiety, learning to be both ‘patient; afraid’ to the evils of the world.

The above essay scored 26/30 for its critical evaluation, pulling together strands of analysis, terminology and expression in poetic judgement. Looking back, I find it to be overwritten at times, repetitive and lacking specific structural evaluation.

Guilt in ‘The Lammas Hireling’ and ‘Giuseppe’

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Hello all,

I haven’t been able to post often lately due to the increased workload of year 13. For this week’s post, I’m posting my first English essay for poems of the decade with additions within brackets.

Guilt is the natural punishment inflicted upon individuals for their transgressions – a view supported by both Giuseppe and the Lammas Hireling. These poems diverge for in the Lammas Hireling, the speaker’s guilt stems from his destruction of the hireling – a symbol for nature itself – in his attempt to impose control over him. Giuseppe, however, is haunted by his role in the murder of the ‘last captive mermaid’ which Ford uses as a symbol for the persecution of the marginalised. Here, the Jewish in WW2. Both poems express guilt as a tormenting force expressed by the mind, subjection to which causes sufferers to seek absolution from others. Guilt is equally the inability to admit the truth of our transgressions. Both poets warn that an inability to admit to the reality will only sink the guilty further into a moral pit of anxiety and remorse.

The punishment of sin as the mental suffering of guilt as reflected by both poets in aphoristic statements that bely the immorality of the speaker’s actions. In Lammas Hireling, the speaker is ‘disturbed by images of his dead wife,’ perhaps a punishment or symptomatic of the haunting guilt in the death of his wife. The alliterative (d) is suggestive of the restlessness inflicted upon his ‘disturbed’ sleep. Upon the death of the hireling, the speaker appears wholly consumed by the death of his wife in the cyclical juxtaposition of ‘I don’t dream,’ and he becomes aware of the guilt [Link back to the cyclical structure of guilt that his initial denial of potential crime in his wife death and the punishing guilt therefore will only worsen – punishment as main argument.] that no longer sits on the subconscious but overwhelms him. In a similar manner, the singular simile, ‘she screamed like a woman in terrible fear,’ breaks the consistency of the rawness of the poem but expresses a tormenting image of humanity, in ‘like a woman.’ Ford questions, here, in the massacre of the mermaid, who is evidently capable of fear, the pain inflicted upon such individuals for the collective or ‘soldiers,’ of Giuseppe. The persons who make such choices must suffer the guilt of having disregarded another’s humanity. This is the cyclical cycle of guilt from which humanity suffers. Aphorisms, to both poets, disguise the cruelty of one’s actions in common phrases. The action of murder in Lammas Hireling is counterpointed: ‘To go into the hare gets you muckle sorrow. The wisdom runs, take muckle care.’ This ‘wisdom’ places the burden of ‘care’ unto the hireling that serves to suppress the speaker’s mental guilt. We find in reading the Lammas Hireling that the root of sin’s punishment is in the individual themselves and the torment inflicted upon them, and the subconscious cycle of seeking denial [Significance in relation to the main argument should be referenced. Duhig ends his poem on the note that denial can not end guilt, but only worsen it. This punishment can only grow with time] breeds only further suffering. Giuseppe, although part of a collective that must all suffer the lasting effects of an atrocity that indicts an entire community, must struggle with the burden of guilt alone. The aphorism, ‘starvation forgives men many things,’ is subtly exclusive of Giuseppe himself for ‘starvation,’ cannot absolve him. Giuseppe remains undeniably aware of his sin against the mermaid, and then ‘God.’ [Link to main argument]

Both poets find that guilt causes the guilty to seek absolution to soothe guilt’s burden. In Lammas Hireling, the resolution to guilt appears to be found in God or the ‘father,’ as a religious emissary. Duhig, here, alludes to the Catholic tradition of confession: ‘bless me father for I have sinned,’ that situates the reader in Catholicism to discern the truth in the poem. The speaker’s obsession with his own sinfulness becomes evident in ‘hourly’ confessions as the sibilant whispers of a guilty conscience. However, the religious imagery of Giuseppe suggests the influence of God is nullified for a ‘priest’ hold the hands of the mermaid, whilst her ‘throat was cut.’ Giuseppe exposes a similar flaw in seeking religious absolution as Duhig’s Lammas Hireling in the guilt of sin having sufficient hold in the hearts of men which cannot be alleviated even by God. The ‘yellow witness,’ of the moon asserts a feminine judgement [Expand on this feminine judgement. Significance of having killed his wife and Hireling, associated with mother nature. Here, guilt is a punishment from a female perspective.] over the farmer’s violence – an observing deity. Giuseppe finds absolution in relaying his story, but in this action, he passes the burden of guilt that will permanently transmute their relationship, losing the connection of ‘uncle’ and nephew. Although Giuseppe cannot look [his nephew] in the eye,’ his guilt is ultimately relieving for his guilt also demonstrates that Giuseppe has retained some humanity and integrity for which he ‘thanks God.’ The frame narrative draws also the reader into making a moral judgement if only for the purpose of understanding the chaotic reality. However, the ease of such judgements is undermined in recognition of the external forces that starve men of their own morality [Link back to historical collective responsibility. Can we condemn our predecessors without recognising that such atrocities occur as a collective? We cannot condemn only Giuseppe.]

In both poems, guilt becomes a distortion of the reality as a method of coping with the burden of sin. Such ambiguity is noted in Lammas Hireling, enmeshing the truth of his transgression with references to folklore and the supernatural. The ease expressed in disposing of the hireling, ‘dropped him from the bridge. There was no splash,’ contrasts with his engulfing guilt. Ironically, the caesura of ‘no splash,’ whilst perhaps a method of the speaking convincing himself of the hireling as an evil supernatural entity, also emphasises the sound of the ‘splash,’ only making it louder [Therefore? It casts doubt on the hireling as a supernatural being, but of human form. The speaker must shadow his account with ambiguities]. Giuseppe sees equal ambiguity as the speaker attempts to exclude himself from the actions of the community, but he is undeniably involved. The participants of the ‘doctor,’ ‘fishmonger,’ and ‘priest,’ are all defined by their roles, but Giuseppe evades categorising himself. Only at the end of the poem does the nephew formally indict him of his role as the ‘aquarium keeper,’ but the extent of his guilt remains ambiguous. Even in the magical realism of Giuseppe, we note the symbol of the mermaid sanitises the brutality of the acts committed in history. We must, in reading Giuseppe, acknowledge the atrocities committed by preceding generations to put an end to the cycle of violence and tormenting guilt [Cautionary intent for future generations to not discard the marginalised for the collective, coming at a similar cost of coming guilt]. The punishment for refusing such admission is evident in Duhig’s Lammas Hireling. The speaker spends his nights, ‘casting ball from half-crowns,’ caught in a perpetual present of repeating behaviour. This may be interpreted as a lack of remorse in only regretting the loss of fortune born by the hireling. Equally, by not confessing the truth, he may never be absolved by Catholic tradition. [Unreliable narrator? We cannot rely on this account, underscore the distortion of reality to evade punishment]

The poets of both poems explore the enduring effects of guilt in similar methods, despite differing in resolution. Whilst Ford expresses genuine regret and remorse in Giuseppe, the speaker of Lammas Hireling is also struck by paranoia and fear to which end, the reader must infer if they are truly repentant. Reading these poems, we must acknowledge the wrongdoing of previous generations. In Giuseppe, we recognise perhaps the impossible conditions of war that strip man of moral choice. To Lammas Hireling, we may try to discern truth from lie, but must also recognise that only the speaker can truly relieve himself of guilt or he will be perpetually tormented, not by any physical being but by his mind’s own affliction.

It’s always a good exercise to review past essays for improvement. The above essay was marked as 23/30 and required a more coherent structure for better reading. Learning how to analyse language in tandem with structural analysis was something I’d yet learnt how to do at this point.

Relationships in The Gun and Eat Me

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Since the Year 12s will be beginning to write essays on the Poems of the Decade unit, I thought I’d upload my the first essay plan I produced at the start of the A-level. The following might provide a few ideas for essays or AO2 analysis. It’s important to highlight that you’d only need to mention one or two language or structural techniques within the poem. It’s key that you write in depth about their effects, rather than simply listing what techniques the poets employ.

Main Argument

Relationships are presented in both poems as a perpetual imbalance of power between the masculine and the feminine that progresses towards a shift in the scale towards either female dominance over the masculine or the continuation of the subjugation of the feminine.

Sub-Argument 1:

The course of relationships demonstrates a shift in the power imbalance between genders — the Gun and Eat Me diverge in the methods and success of the power of the feminine. Still, is the speaker of Eat Me more liberated than the speaker of the Gun? Extent of the liberation from the masculine? Extent of the original power imbalance?

Progression of time phrases:

Eat Me: ‘When I hit thirty,’ ‘Then,’ ‘The day I hit thirty-nine,’ ‘Soon you’ll be forty,’ A morbid counting of weight, ostensibly years, acts as a progressive impetus for a feminine increase of power.

The Gun: ‘At first,’ ‘Then,’ ‘Soon’ charts a destructive process of regaining masculine primitive power.

Shift of the male pronoun and reinstatement of the female — Autonomy:

Eat Me = ‘He asked me,’ ‘He’d say,’ ‘His pleasure,’ ‘He whispered,’ ‘I allowed him,’

The Gun = ‘Your hands reek,’ ‘You trample,’ ‘I join in the cooking,’ Second person address to a male persona. No defined person, involving the reader in the masculine. Pervasion of power and how that draws people?

Authorial ambiguity over the final consequences of a gender power shift:

Eat Me: ‘His eyes bulging with greed. There was nothing left in the house to eat.’ Ambiguity between cannibalism and murder that provokes a strong sense of repulsion in the reader. Confrontation of reader’s morality? Societal consequences of her liberation? Involved sexual pleasure for the male partner in ‘greed?’ Fulfillment of male desire? Thus, has she satisfied her role as the female partner? Societal victim = male, emotionally = female – open to interpretation? ‘Dying sentence,’ fateful societal consequences – replication of male violence to which she has been conditioned.

The Gun: ‘I join in the cooking,’ ‘King of Death has arrived to feast,’ Uncertainty in the level of female complicity in whether the female partner joins in a return to male power over nature. Intoxication allure over the power of death and her equally participating in that violence, ‘jointing and slicing,’ – coupled actions – and the couple are unified in their relationship with death with the willing participation of the feminine. ‘Sprouting golden crocuses’ to mean the unification of life and death – male and female.

Subjugated to the male partner who has become and wields the power of the ‘King of Death’ – masculine domination over the female nature. They are separated by defined domestic roles – cooking and hunting. ‘Sprouting golden crocuses,’ to mean the entrapment of natural beauty and life. Interpretation of first flower to break the snow?

Sub-Argument 2:

The power of the inanimate over living relationships and their influence as a third party, e.g., the gun or food, in charting the direction of the relationship. Acting as a third hand or tool of exerting power for the masculine. How does the female partner react to this object? What does the object symbolise?

Tripart Relationship

Eat Me: Tripart relationship represented in tercets of man, woman and food.

The Gun: Opening line of ‘Bringing a gun into a house changes it.’ Involvement of the house (domesticity = feminine), male partner in the action of bringing, and the gun (symbol of traditional masculine power).

Intrusion of the inanimate in power dynamics:

‘Stretched out like something dead itself,’ Physical intrusion into the relationship, emphasised by the reflexive pronoun, end stopped, to emphasise how the gun both bears and causes death. ‘Grainy polished wood stock,’ Long metal barrel,’ cyclical element of gothic destruction of nature. Is nature being destroyed or recrafted by man’s influence? ‘I join in,’ = involvement of the feminine

‘My only pleasure the rush of fast food, his pleasure to watch me swell like forbidden fruit.’ Ostensibly irony, but the fast food becomes interlinked with their sexual pleasure shared between them. The contrast between his and her pleasures to emphasise how her sexual desire stems from his – dependence. Further linked by the assonance between ‘food’ and ‘fruit.’ Similarity and interweaving – intermingling of sexual desires. Can we exonerate only her?

Sub-Argument 3:

The core of relationships in being sexual agreement in the alignment of sexual desires between partners. Power in the sexual that each partner offers. The reason that female partner agrees to the desire of the masculine. What is the course of action when the female partner does not agree sexually to the male proclivities?

Tonal shifts to reflect a realisation of sexual desire

The Gun: coinciding & separation: Eat Me

‘Your eyes gleam like when sex was fresh.’ The gun and the destruction of life meshes a refound sexuality and virility with the masculine persona – a new ‘spring’ that revives their ‘shadow’ of a relationship. By the sexual fulfilment of the male partner, the female speaker is equally enthralled by his reclamation of sexual potency in it ‘brings a house alive.’ Her role as a sexual partner is in turn replaced by the role of the gun. Unified desires of ‘excited as if the King of Death had arrived to feast,’ invoke a bright, celebratory mood.

Alternative reading: subjugated by her replacement with the gun and reverts to a further passive role as homemaker. Tacit compliance? Threat of violence in the ‘stalking?’

Reader must consider the compliance between male and female partner in gender roles, as well as the source of power within the relationship.

‘I allowed him to stroke my globe of a cheek.’ Growth in autonomy and imposing her own power within intercourse. Here, she actively searches for pleasure within their relationship of co-dependency in acknowledging the man’s desire of her fatness – she is the ‘globe’ to him.

‘His flesh, my flesh flowed.’ Intertwining of selves.

Role of free verse to show the shifting female perspective

Eat Me: Granted access to the female psyche, imitating the pattern of concealment and reveal, contributing to that purposeful ambiguity. Reader’s empathetical understanding of her emotional abuse helps to blur the line at her final act of violence.

The Gun: Unstructured and conversational feel to the free verse that evolves along with the speaker’s thoughts to demonstrate the shift within the relationship and psyche.

Role of rhyme in connecting ideas with power and desire

The Gun: Fricatives (‘Fridge fills,’ and ‘Fur and feathers.’) and sibilance (‘Stirring,’ ‘slicing,’ ‘stalking,’) similar to serpentine hissing, much like the snake in the Garden of Eden – seductive allure of power and control over life itself.

Eat Me: Use of assonance in the underlying emphasis on food and fatness as well as uncertainty and vagueness, such as ‘Open wide, poured olive oil down my throat,’ to create the sound of choking.

Conclusion

Vicki Feaver = A requestioning of the female role within modern domesticity, juxtaposed by the harsh violence of masculinity and reverting to traditional role against the threat or allure of power over death.

Patience Agbabi = Prompt a rethinking of the female victim as well as the methods, or lackof, in which the feminine can react to the sexual proclivities of the masculine – outlet for pleasure. To place the reader on tribunal under the difficulty of exonerating either of the partners.

In ‘Eat Me’ and ‘The Gun,’ Relationships are presented as built upon a perilous state of tacit complicity between male and female partners in which the feminine will be subjected to the greater will of the masculine, often to violent and destructive effect.

Atrocity

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Below is an essay contributed by the wonderful Ellie Slade. The following essay was given 21/30 marks, making it an A3. Please enjoy!

Both poems react to atrocities in a similar way for each poem the atrocity comes from war and as a result, both describe events through characters who aren’t seen as human whilst also turning to religion. These reactions can be seen as a way of coping with guilt and evil in the modern world. In ‘Giuseppe,’ we see the victim as a pregnant, vulnerable mermaid making her death more emotive and horrific whereas in ‘Either/Or’ the protagonists are the devil, the bees (which are seen to be angels), and the speaker himself; the contrast between man and the bees helps demonstrate evil vs. good and the idea of God vs. man and leaves the reader pondering about who will prevail inside their own heads.

In stanza 3 of ‘Either/Or,’ the simile ‘sharp as the blade that guts the goat’ shows how violent and evil our minds can be. At first, the ‘horns’ are described as ‘little’ showing little worry is given but only when the speaker acknowledges their danger it becomes too late to stop the act of killing the goat. This could reflect how as a society we delay our reactions until often its too late to help or stop a situation. A similar idea can be seen through ‘Giuseppe,’ Ford also uses the simile ‘butchered on the dry and dusty ground’ to show the violence of mankind against one another. The verb ‘butchered’ dehumanises the ‘mermaid’ possibly to make the guilt of committing such acts against an innocent victim seem just in Uncle Giuseppe’s mind. Williams, however, dehumanises the perpetrator in an attempt to feel less guilty about human actions. By having the devil seem like the one to kill with his horns, it almost makes reader forget that its society killing each other. The irony of the mermaid being ‘butchered on dry and dusty ground’ reinforces the reader’s pity and sympathy and her suffering is heightened by being in an unfamiliar place (land not sea). Both poems again feature end stops to emphasise guilt and the finality of their actions. In ‘Giuseppe,’ end-stops are used at the end of each stanza allowing the reader to pause briefly and reflect. However, in the single couplet, endstops are used twice to highlight the importance of the decision to use the mermaid as food, their reaction is to justify it calling her a ‘fish’ which again dehumanises her. ‘Either/Or’ follows the same pattern with the endstop finishing each stanza but it is the last lines where it becomes unexpected. The speaker asks, ‘who in this cruel strew of matter will save us’ yet doesn’t follow it up with a question mark like he has before. The ambiguity leaves the reader wondering if a final decision has been made already. The finality of the full stop would suggest the outcome isn’t positive and so the speaker reacts pessimistically.

Throughout both poems, we also see a religious theme come up. In ‘Either/Or,’ we see this idea through the ‘devil’ and the ‘bees’ who replace angels. Their descriptions contradict each other in the same way that heaven and hell does. The triadic feature ‘hairy, scaly or slimy’ is disgusting and repulsive compared to the bees who are described as ‘angels’ but they too have negative connotations such as ‘dragons’ comparisons and being called a ‘trapper’ suggesting that good can be corrupted. It’s interesting that Williams chose bees over angels which the reader would have expected. Bees can be seen as smaller, weaker and more easily overcome which seems to be William’s recurring ideas towards war: evil will prevail. In ‘Giuseppe,’ we have the irony of God and Christianity not being there to save her at her darkest moment. The ‘priest’ simply ‘held one of her hands’ did nothing to stop her death he just comforted himself more than he did the mermaid as he would have though he had sympathy and pity for her. When it came to disposing of her body ‘ the ring stayed put’ showing a reaction of guilt strong enough to leave her with her possessions — a symbol of love within religious connections. At the end of the poem, the nephew reacts by turning to God contradicting the poem’s idea that God doesn’t exist. He ‘thanks’ God for his uncle’s reaction of not even being able to look his nephew in the eyes showing that Giuseppe is overwhelmed with the consequences of his actions and therefore is almost living through personal hell already. The story-like narrative in both poems helps to disguise the real meaning and actual atrocities behind the poems. In ‘Giuseppe’ this narrative helps to conceal and shield the nephew from the true horror, whereas in ‘Either/Or’ the narrative is used to comfort the speaker himself so he doesn’t dwell on depressing events such as war. He reacts in such a way that he denies there’s a juxtaposing battle between good and bad, humankind and God until an ambiguous acceptance at the end of the poem.

In conclusion, reactions to atrocities are mostly seen through guilt, whether that be guilt of having the power to do something and choosing not to, as in ‘Giuseppe’ or being powerless and left to only imagine outcomes like in ‘Either/Or.’ Both poems also show that a strong reaction is to turn to God in times of need and when a person wants forgiveness and answers.

— I hope this comes in useful 🙂

Giuseppe: Poem Notes

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Hello everyone, this is my first post on the English blog as a member of the new editors. Below are some short and simple close analysis points for the poem “Giuseppe” by Roderick Ford which I hope will be useful for future essays 🙂

To My Nine-Year-Old Self

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Beneath is some close analysis on ‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ by Helen Dunmore. I hope that it comes in useful.

“You must forgive me. Don’t look so surprised,

perplexed, and eager to be gone,

balancing on your hands or on the tightrope.

You would rather run than walk, rather climb than run

rather leap from a height than anything.”

Stanza 1

Dunmore opens her poem pleading forgiveness from her younger self. In this way, the imperative modal verb ‘must’ introduces the loss of childishness and innocence in the poem, acting as a plea to regain the vibrancy of youth. However, if the modal verb is read as being demanding, one could argue that the narrator is forcibly trying to reconcile with a past that she sees as ambiguously better than her present. This view is further evidenced by the implied comparison in the last two lines of the stanza, which also introduce a sense of jealously between the present narrator and their younger self.

The younger self’s lack of response both might be highlighting the child’s rebellion against or ignorance of societal boundaries and the inevitabilities of growing up and growing old, whilst also alluding to the irony of her inability to respond because she is merely a memory. This view is enriched once the juxtaposition between the static narrator and her active, younger self is considered. Perhaps Dunmore uses this unachievable response to mimic the unobtainable pursuit of youth and innocence to educate her reader to come to terms with the passage of time and let go of the need to recapture the dynamism of our youth, a dynamism for whom over we must all ultimately chose experience. Whether or not the trade of knowledge for innocence is fair is explored later in the poem.

This stanza begins with a more definite, confessional tone. The declarative ‘I have spoiled’ might contrastingly be suggesting that the narrator has accepted aging, despite the inclusive pronoun ‘we’, which could be illustrating a sense of unison between the two. Note also the definite article ‘the’ (‘the scars’), arguably alluding to the final stanza’s ‘a ripe scab’. This may be highlighting the divide between the ‘spoiled’ narrator and the fleeting injuries picked up in youth, going without lasting ramification. However, the dual images of the injured adult and child together might be hinting that the quasi-self-destructive nature critiqued by the older narrator emerged in youth, and that their childhood was perhaps not as idyllic as the memory heavily implies.

“I have spoiled this body we once shared.

Look at the scars, and watch the way I move,

careful of a bad back or a bruised foot.

Do you remember how, three minutes after waking

we’d jump straight out of the ground floor window

into the summer morning?”

Stanza 2

In this way, Dunmore might be shedding light on the dangers of looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses because of the threat that behaviour holds to self-esteem.

One could also argue that the enjambment connecting the last three lines of the stanza connects to the unpredictability and spontaneity of youth, giving the childhood a palpable sense of adventure, in comparison with the endstopping in many of the lines containing the recent experience of the narrator. Has the older narrator conformed to societal norms, norms yet unregistered by the child?

“That dream we had, no doubt it’s as fresh in your mind

as the white paper to write it on.

We made a start – but something else came up –

a baby vole, or a bag of sherbet lemons –

and besides, that summer of ambition

created an ice-lolly factory, a wasp trap

and a den by the cesspit.”

Stanza 3

The longest of the poem, this stanza acts as the crowning moment of the narrator’s youth. However, the disjointed feeling enacted by the fragmented sentence structure, as well as the asyndetic listing, might reveal that the memory has already begun to fade and that she has not only lost her youth, but is starting also loose the ability to reminisce with the fullness once accessible to her. This speaks to the frailty and inadequacy of memory, a memory now only captured by fleeting images of ‘sherbet lemons’ and an ‘ice-lolly factory’. On the other hand, it could be considered that the narrator only discusses tangible parts of her youth because any previous emotional attachment would be too painful to excavate.

The absence of parental figures might be hinting at a debatably more difficult loss as the narrator has grown older, that of family. Additionally, the loss of innocence is furthered by the opening line (‘That dream we had’). This line could imply that the narrator, at one point, gave up her ambition for conformism, and that the memory is almost split (due to the inclusive pronoun) between her actual experience of childhood and an experience tainted by reflection. Evidencing again that she gave up dreams of youth for experience, the syndetic listing in the final line draws in a feeling of eventual ceasing. Again, Dunmore picks up on the unstoppably wavering vibrancy and freedom of youth.

In the first line of stanza 4, the conditional tense introduces the concept that reason has inhibited the narrator from carrying out her wishes, as her child self seems to. Perhaps Dumore suggests that part of adulthood is letting go of following impulse for the good of logic, argubably a constraining factor for the narrator. This notion is enforced by the third line’s ‘I won’t keep you then.’ Could it be that the narrator is rejecting the memory because of her logical argument, or that she is letting go of her child-self in order to maintain some of the innocence left in it. Perhaps the poet argues that the innocence of youth is primarily menaced by looking back on it following experience. Memory is corruptible.

“I’d like to say that we could be friends

but the truth is we have nothing in common

beyond a few shared years. I won’t keep you then.

Time to pick rosehips for tuppence a pound,

time to hide down scared lanes

for men in cars after girl-children,”

Stanza 4

Yet, it is not only memory that seems to be corrupting innocence in the poem, but also the introduction of money and sexuality in the last three lines. The narrator might be revealing the end of her childhood through the sinister, male presence. Here, childhood and innocence are presented as not only things that she chose to give up due to the allure of experience, but also things that were stolen from her by a premature sexual experience.

“or lunge out over the water

on a rope that swings over that tree

long buried in housing –

but no, I shan’t cloud your morning. God knows

I have fears enough for us both -“

Stanza 5

The narrator quickly skips passed the memory of ‘men in cars after girl-children’ and we notice that she continues to avoid delving too deeply into some of her past, skipping over the ‘rope… long buried in housing -‘. Perhaps the narrator is unable to face some of the harshest moments of childhood as she looks back, implying that Dunmore wants to investigate the imperfections of childhood and how we often underplay them in reflection to keep hold of an unstained past.

She also makes a parallel decision to her choosing of experience over innocence when she chooses to leave the now imperfect memory of childhood and return to her present. There also seems to be evidence that she wishes to leave it in order to stay ignorant of the darker truths that have begun to embed themselves into a half-told history (such as the introduction of money and sexual undertones). Here, the narrator begins to seem unreliable. Whilst she starts her poem believing that she must apologise to her past, there comes a hidden realisation that her childhood was just as bound to fear as her adulthood (underlined by the transferred epithet ‘scared lanes’ in the previous stanza). In this light, the final sentence of the stanza is given a protective, almost maternal feel as the narrator decides to cover up the full truth of her childhood. Again, she seeks to uphold the vision of a childhood that she never truly had.

Leaving her reader with the slowly decelerating stanza lengths, the narrator finally lets go of the longing to return to innocence, decides to leave to keep the full realisation of the memory unachieved, or understands that she cannot change the past to change her present.

“I leave you in an ecstasy of concentration

slowly peeling a ripe scab from your knee

to taste it on your tongue.”

Stanza 6

The final image of the ‘scab’ might therefore be foreshadowing the future’s ‘scars’, acting to show the reader that the passing of time is inevitable. The narrator relinquishes hold over the memory, and reconciles with it in allowing her past self to grow up and grow old, figuring life out for herself.

Alexander Stephenson

Societal Views in ‘To My Nine Year Old Self’

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Compare the ways poets present their views on society in ‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ and ‘c/o The Sea at Patea’

Hi everyone! This is my first post on the English blog as a contributor, and I have decided to share one of my Poems of the Decade essays with you all. I got 25/30 for this essay, and the things that I needed to improve were my conclusion and my sophisticated language as I tend to use contractions a lot. I have included my improved conclusion as well as my original one and have changed some of the contractions to be written correctly. I hope you find this essay useful for your revision, and I hope that you enjoy it!  

Both Drake and Dunmore present the view that society forces us to grow up too quickly and often leads to us feeling guilty or regretful when we reflect on the previous innocent times in our lives. Both poets reflect on better times in either their, or someone else’s, lives, and express their sadness that their outlooks on life and society have changed. In addition to this, both poems have a sad, regretful, and emotional tone as well as a sense of loss.

In both poems, Dunmore and Drake reflect on better times in the past and describe the sadness that they feel that society and the process of growing up have changed their outlooks on society. In ‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ by Helen Dunmore, the speaker is reflecting on the innocence of her childhood compared to the harsh reality of adulthood. Dunmore remembers when it was ‘time to hide down scared lanes from men in cars after girl-children’. For Dunmore’s nine-year-old self, the sense of danger was non-existent. It was like a game to her, and she did not realise the true reality of who she was hiding from. For the speaker, now older, the harshness of the situation is clear, and she is aware that the men after ‘girl-children’ just like herself. By describing the ‘lanes’ as ‘scared’, Dunmore seems to shift the sense of danger and fear out of her mind as the lanes are scared but she is not. This may suggest that when Dunmore was younger, she tried to make herself seem older and braver by not showing fear, which would protect her from the dangers of society and the ‘men in cars’. In a sense, she was forced to grow up and stay away from the harshness of society but did not realise it until she was older and was able to reflect on how her views on society have changed. Similarly, in ‘c/o The Sea at Patea’ by Nick Drake, Drake reflects on his life in relation to someone else’s, who has just passed away. The speaker reflects on his time with his friend and describes ‘an image of your ideal of a good life for all’. However, now that the man’s life has ended, all that is left is memories and objects. When the man was younger, he looked out at ‘balanced terraces of oranges, olives and white villages’. The use of listing shows how endless the possibilities seemed as they were young and full of life. The speaker then quotes the subject of the poem as he says ‘” a life,” as you once wrote, “seen as a whole – as much as there was ever going to be”’. The full stop is one of the only ones in the poem which emphasises the importance of this quotation. His friend is saying that there is only one life, and at the end of it, people look back on all of life. He may be suggesting that society does not always remember the little things that happened to people, such as everything that was described in the listing earlier in the poem. Drake’s view of society seems to be more positive than Dunmore’s, but he also expresses his sadness that our view of people and society alters when we look back on our, or other people’s, lives, and our outlook on society changes.

Both ‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ and ‘c/o The Sea at Patea’ explore loss and regret and have sad, emotional tones. In ‘c/o The Sea at Patea’, Drake is mourning the loss of an old, possibly childhood, friend. This is shown in the epigraph which says, ‘in memory of Paul Winstanley’. Drake’s feelings of sadness are because he is mourning a real person who has now passed away. Drake describes his friend’s life by listing items and experiences that he has lived through, such as ‘you packed yourself, your books, stones, recipes, and hundreds of tapes’. The use of listing shows the length of his friend’s life as well as all the experiences that he lived through and the effect that he had on society. ‘c/o The Sea at Patea’ has less of a mournful tone than ‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ but nevertheless, the speaker does seem to feel sad at the loss of his childhood friend and regretful that they did not stay as close later in life. Drake describes how they ‘lost touch – until your memorial’. The hyphen here, at the end of the line, leaves the reader with hope which is ruined when the speaker talks about the memorial. Loss is something which happens to everyone, and Drake is encouraging people to appreciate people before they are gone. Similarly, in ‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’, Dunmore is mourning the loss of her childhood. However, it is hard for Dunmore to be inspirational as it is unlikely that a child will be reading her poem, and children never believe people when they tell them that their childhood will fly by. Throughout her poem, Dunmore tells the child that she misses her younger self – she says, ‘you must forgive me’ as she has ‘spoiled this body we once shared’. The imperative ‘must’ exacerbates her desperation while the caesura shows the distance between her younger self and her older self. This sense of loss and guilt is further highlighted in the verb ‘spoiled’ as she feels regretful at what she has done to her body and how society and nature have forced her mind and body to change. Although Dunmore is not mourning the loss of a real person, her sadness and emotions seem stronger than Drake’s. this may be because she contrasts happiness with sadness and talks about experiences which she now views differently, such as ‘a den by the cesspit’. The ending stanza, which is shorter than the others, continues the poet’s internal monologue as her younger self is ‘peeling a ripe scab from your knee to taste it on your tongue’. The ‘ripe scab’ is a totemic image as it has connotations of pain but is evidence of the fun that she used to have, in contrast to her now more sombre view of the world as an adult. This almost macabre image shows how society has changed her as she has lost the delicateness of her childhood, but she does not want to forget about it.

(ORIGINAL) In conclusion, both Drake and Dunmore suggest that we are forced to grow up and push through tough times even if we feel regretful when we reflect on the more innocent and happy times in our lives. (IMPROVED) in conclusion, both Drake and Dunmore present the view that society forces us to grow up too quickly which can lead to feelings of guilt or regret later in life when we reflect on the previous, more innocent times in our lives. We are also forced, by society, to push through tough times, which causes