Owen Sheers – 'Skirrid Hill' – Poems Analysed

Owen Sheers – ‘Skirrid Hill’ – Poems Analysed

Title Content / Topic Theme(s) Imagery / Diction Tone / Irony Grammatical Structure Sound Features Devices

Introducing the poems; Revealing. The poet is aware of gaps in his Reminiscing The first Free verse. Choice of revealing his true self, his communication in various sentence lists One stanza. words: experiences. The poems Honest. relationships: Irony - the time qualities in his Before the mouthin express what he has not gaps like missing teeth, silent it has taken to speech/poetry contents g O been able to say in everyday Dedication to mouthing O, stuck record of my write these mainly their page. speech and experience. whoever the poet tongue, the zero of the word failing poems only now inadequacy to Teeth is addressing – the to catch to be revealed. tell the whole He addresses the reader in a reader / lover(s). story: familiar way, almost NB images from the theatre. They It takes poetry

apologetically. He seems to are scenes stacked in the wings to fill in the 4 sentences.

ct be saying that the poems gaps. A 1 help him to express in those And the parts we’ve played Listing of images

Last Last thoughts and feelings that suggests that relationships - Gaps are inexpressible in real life involved performance. - Record experiences and In presenting his poems, he is - Countdown relationships. By publishing bowing as himself, like an actor at - Stage the collection, he presents the end of a play. Each poem is an - Bow the poems / scenes from his experience / a scene from his life. life as himself. Poetry allows Publishing the collection is like that him to express his realities final bow of the actor being himself and, perhaps, to interpret his for the first time all night. experience.

Mametz Wood - the scene of The waste of war. China plate. That dead men Accumulation of Three line Some terrible fighting in the Battle should be so images and stanzas alliterati

of the Somme - (WW1) is still The effects down Relic of a finger. audible now… body parts. control the on. e.g.

2 throwing up the bodies of through decades rhythm in a broken the young slain soldiers. on other Eggshell skull. Blue flint pieces Missing finite poem where bone.

Only now are we realising generations. mimics the verbs in all is ruin and Mametz Wood Mametz Nesting machine guns. destruction.

the cost, the waste, the Unresolved parting The earth as a sentinel. shape of the sentences 2,3, tragedy. from the earth and white bones. 5. from community. A wound. Create the Their war songs effect of The horror of war. Mosaic of bone. are audible, yet brokenness. their mouths Dance macabre. and skulls are empty. Socketed heads.

A farrier (blacksmith) re- They are Almost a holy relationship: This is an Well-formed Three line Wonderf shoes a mare. She accepts inextricably linked. - Blessing. uncomfortable complex stanzas, lots ul range his presence and seems to This is his work for - The wind’s fingers. experience for sentences of of words, understand that they have her and the shoes the horse, yet it suggesting a enjambment both this unique relationship. It is always remind her Romantic: does not calm, measured and caesura; monosyll a coming together that both of him – at least - She knows his smells - woodbine, interfere with pace and stanza 6, abic and manage with dignity. They she accepts his metal and hoof. their atmosphere. creates a polysylla understand each other. presence and - He folds her back leg. relationship. measured bic. accommodates his - Cups her fetlock. There is a Nice contrast - tone - a movements as he - A romantic lead dropping from gentleness and his steel, her leisurely Indicatin

pares her hooves the lips of his lover. acceptance of teeth. feeling like g a deep and hammers on - Moon-silver clippings. the shoeing. the mare human/b

3 new shoes. - Gives her a slap. The last line – who walks east Then they part and - The sound of his steel biting at not a complete unhurried to relations The Farrier The go their separate her heels. sentence - and from the hip. ways marks a unique farrier’s NB the farrier is wearing part of a relationship: shop. Onomato horse - his apron /The leather black the life of the poeic and tan of a rain-beaten bay. blacksmith and “Slap” the mare are with its Gentleness is suggested in the inextricably suggestio seamstress image. Suggestion that linked. The n of he thinks she is beautiful and he shoes are like an familiarit wants to do the job perfectly. irritating dog! y.

The poem lists the features, Inheritance The stammer Like a stick in the He is so A list of Stanza 1 Seemingl habits, qualities of his spokes… inextricably inherited Dad. y simple; parents, which he has The desire to bonded with his qualities / inherited. He desires to capture the deep Eye’s blue ore. parents and features etc. Stanza 2 Loaded capture in his life that which values acquired what they have Mum. with they “Forged” in their years through thick and The joiner’s lathe. passed on that Incomplete Stanza 3 own images in together. thin, and to replay his desire is to sentences world. the word / test these in a A “forged” life. replay that suggest that he choice modern context. relationship and has only part of Poet “I want and The year’s hard hammer. not seek some each parent and some of metapho unknown way he will have to that”. rical A world red hot in the centre and of life, despite live his own full language

cold on the outside. its attractive life - his full . freedoms. sentence!

4 The The poem sound Inheritance sounds like an feeds answer to a into the question: “What notion of have you two inherited from parents; your parents?” one life. It is not a conversational answer; the images elevate the style to poetry

The poet’s lover acquired a The scars of love Marking time – an idiom. Here Assured. Three sentences Controlled Alliterate burn mark in the small of remain even when with a metaphorical meaning. grammatically by two d “finally

her, from a carpet when they love changes, or Hopeful. complex and stanzas / to fading”.

5 were making love one night. lovers forget their Scar / memory / fading. Lust much poetic in the This mark binds them passion / personified? Realistic and licence with the relationship. Flags

Marking Time Marking together forever. Even if it is relationship. resigned to the syntax, flying. no longer visible on the

surface, it will lie deep in the Ship image – flags on the mast (the inevitability of extended with Note the tissue under the skin. two scars. change. images in a silence of her variety voice. This is A brand burn (marking her out as subordinate the poet’s his forever. phrases and voice. Scar = marks on trees hearts and clauses; arrows, etc. that alter with time Is he clinging but never fade. “I trace…again” to something This is his which has Skin/the bark of the tree. evidence that vanished? scars remain. It seems to spark old feelings. Certainly he remembers their passion. Does he want to cling to this memory.

The couple attend a fashion How passion is lit The models: The models and Controlled Parallel parts Surprisin show and meet afterwards by images of Curlews. the woman are sentence and as g images in the bar. The poet is beauty. Stalking. mere mortals. structure. mentioned, carried in enchanted with the beauty Slow motion tennis match. parallel the of his lover / partner wooed Surrendered – he is Featherless wings. Clothes, Sentence 1 grammatical diction by the make-up and dress. helpless in the Crocodile pit of cameras flashing jewellery and simple. sentences. and the

powerful feelings their teeth. makeup create Sentence 2 sound of

the sight of her illusions. complex. The models. the

Show generates. The woman: Sentence 3 words. Like a pianist. Yet the public simple. The woman. How we create A painter. and the poet Sentence 4 images of people. Jewels /stars. believe in this complex. The magic. Magic: spell artful hocus-pocus. magical world if Enchantment. only briefly. Part 1 and part Note the 2 reflect/ models have three-line

parallel each narrow other: stanzas - same magic (reflecting - same their enchantment. superficial existence.)

The woman is living, not perfect, more wholesome and fulsome.

A lover (the poet?) recalls a Love / Water is used negatively. Paris, a Note that not Three-line Repetitio fractured relationship where disappointment & romantic city, a one sentence is structure n not even lovemaking can pain. Paris. symbol of complete. Each favoured by of repair the feelings of loss romance, is missing - the Owen Sheers refrain. and alienation. Suggestion Pain / pleasure Painful uncertainty. cannot generate vital finite verb + refrain. that the relationship has Uncertainty. or restore the in the 3-line No ended but the persona Metaphors: relationship. stanzas to make Like a ballad. rhyme treasures the last Alienation. Water torture. a simple (which is lovemaking as a Valentine. Sharp clicking heels. Valentine, a sentence or Snapshots. a He clings to the memory of Evacuated. romantic date in main clause. unifying

the physical. Wrecked. the calendar, Even factor

7 Washed up on a beach. gives more pain enjambment usually in

Valentine than pleasure. cannot mend poetry.) the incomplete sentences.

The refrains are simple sentences – indicating that the poet is reasserting his

own identity – pulling himself together – so to speak.

Acts as a parallel to the fractured relationship.

The couple walk along the Alienation. Personification of “clouds had Ironic that Complex The stanzas The edge of the lake. They are given their all” (not like the lovers). humans have to sentences follow an sounds disenchanted with each Separation. learn human reflecting the order: of the other “silent and apart”, but Personification of the earth lessons from complexities of words, observing the swans. The The power of “Gulping for breath”. nature – the the relationship. The sky. images woman remarks on the fact nature to teach environment and that swans mate for life. The and inspire and They “skirt the lake” as they skirt and its animals Direct speech – The earth. sentence swan mates seem to remind restore us important issues in their – before they an s convey them of love and by the end spiritually and relationship. can be truly acknowledgeme The birds. the they have re-established a emotionally. human. nt of patterns in turmoil

link with each other by The swans show them how it’s nature. The water. of the holding hands. done: “tipping in unison”. The poet says, minds

“the swans This honesty The lovers. and

8 Effort involved “rolling weights came and helps restore hearts of down their bodies to their heads/ stopped us” the bonds. the Winter Swans Winter they halved themselves in the dark being apart and lovers water.” Effort and sharing involved alienated. Is the woman and the in a love relationship. searching for a quietnes permanency - a s and Uncomfortable too - “icebergs of life-long control white water”. relationship? of the birds. Sorting out imbalances “like boats Has he been righting in rough weather”. reluctant to commit?

They are perfect “like porcelain” statues over the “stilling water”.

The swans teach the human couple how to negotiate troubles in their relationship.

The water becomes a symbol of calm and restored unity “our hands had, somehow, swum the distance between us.”

They become like the swans doing the same actions; hands “folded, one over the other like a pair of wings settling after flight.”

A couple’s sexual Sex and physicality. Impressionist through thin white “That night we Reads like a S1 that night Enjambm relationship / a couple Isolation. drapes. Check out the technique of turned some of recollection. they tried to ent. alienated from one another Passion. the impressionists (Monet, Manet, them off” etc. – The poet is be more “...hall who find understanding Separation. etc.) a familiar tone, addressing the private bulb through sex. Certainly, they Togetherness. “curves of a distant landscape” as if the reader lover possibly or leaving only bright” – are aware that they may be Mystery? “back arching like a bow” knows exactly just recounting one light on. alliterati

watched by neighbours “drawn by an invisible tendon” what’s being the experience S2 the on. across the street, which of “night windows opposite said - a for the reader. woman course meant they could performed” – personification dialogue/addres lowers “side

9 (see) too. The title isn’t “like lightning...” s? Enjambment herself to swipes” – about ideal lovemaking, but “the dress of your shadow” 7 stanzas him. NB the alliterati

about the windows which “curves”, “performed”, “arching” “body slick and 4 lines each distant on. Night Windows Night suggests something now Almost a continued metaphor of valleyed in the 7th stanza 3 landscape quite satisfying about the dance or movement, a fluidity. August heat” – lines. image. love-making itself and could intense/passion S3 the account for her sigh. Note the use of light and shadow: ate valleyed bar of light; body; the Trailing the shadow or your dress NB the parts arching back. behind you. and shapes of

She is almost insubstantial. the human body S4 the are used by invisible Sheers tendon interchangeably image of . Sometimes it intensity and is that body that physically is compared to charged the place; at action. other times, the S5 Sudden place is cut to the personified. windows See Skirrid opposite and Fawr. the Morse code image implying secrecy and voyeuristic peeping. S6 contrast of the police car strobe.

The poet and his lover are Loss. Dominant images: the key and Very obvious. The poet’s S1 Sets the Repetitio standing in a locksmith’s Grief. keyways. See: words are scene and n of shop waiting for him to cut a Alienation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(l Here they are addressed to the awful words set of keys. The relationship An ending with an ock) getting keys cut her the “you” of reality of the and is over, so the poet needs immanent when she is the relationship. split. phrases

keys to get into her flat and beginning for both S1 standing in the locksmiths changing the Enjambment collect his things while she is of them – divided in heart and purpose lock, most between S2 Heat light, Strange, 10 out. He recalls how he felt separately. waiting for a set of your keys to be likely; they stanzas and the memory keys,

Keyways when they first met. He cut. don’t fit caesuras of how he keyways describes how close they S2 the hot day presses (he feels together any emphasise a was charmed and all were in a chapel, listening to oppressed). more. broken in the the parts the Messiah. He would lie Lights uncut keys like lucky charms relationship. beginning of keys moulded into her sleeping along a bracelet. She does not and and shape like a key that fits a respond. He locks.

lock perfectly. Their keyways Poet remembers initial charm Sad and pours out his inexperience would fit. He realises it is enchantment. oppressive grief and d too. Unanswe useless now to track back S3 He was an uncut key then tone. puzzlement in a red through events to the first waiting your impression. The poet feels brilliantly S3 A magical question time when one of us made a Experiences would be milling and emotional pain sustained set of moment of s. turn that failed to dock. Just groves in time until our keyways intensely. metaphors, oneness as they changing the locks, would fit. relating to keys when they (are trying to find a new S4 Siamese twins sharing one lung and keyways. attended arrangement ) they are Our combinations matched, / our Handel’s making copies of the old tumblers aligned precisely to give Messiah in a keys. and roll perfectly/into the other’s chapel. empty spaces. S5 A master key fit S4, 5 He felt When did the bolt slip? convinced The blade break in the mouth? they were S6 A turn that failed to dock perfectly The expected click which never matched. came. S5 Ends the stanza wondering when it went go wrong.

S6 Realises it is useless to unpick the months.

cutting keys just when we‘re changing all the locks.

The adult poet returns (2nd Loss. Images of youth: Expectations, A number of 6 nine-line Read this visit?) to the quarry in/near Grief. Commas and apostrophes of dreams and regular and stanzas each poem Abergavenny (Gwent)? Searching for minnows and bullheads. hopes irregular with its aloud *(“Traditional Gateway to answers. Shouldering the kick of your unfulfilled. sentences theme. and you Wales” www) where he and Death. father’s shotgun. predominantly 1 return. will hear a childhood friend grew up. Playing war in the barn. Searching for complex 2 a specific the rich They fished, played among Dying (ironically again and again). the dead among sentences. The place – the music of the heaps of rusting cars, Gap-toothed roof (children often the living. poet is, after all quarry. the shouted. One-day tragedy lose teeth). searching for 3 actual vocabula struck and the poet is Identified with the buzzards The triumph of answers to one games. ry: propelled into adulthood. striking their cries. nature over of life’s most 4 where we Alliterati The poem is about lost man’s life and complex issues: lost on childhood and, it seems, the Images of death: achievements. death. ourselves in A death of his friend. Raised earth like the hummock of a the hours hummoc

ountry Certainly, there was a grave. The tragic irony Lists stanzas before dark k…a

11 C tragedy that provides the Headstone of trees. of dying young. 2,3,6. This hints at the headston typical poetic border country Wind-written epitaphs. builds up tragedy and e

Border Border – not just geographical, but Graveyard of cars. The tragedy of a images of the the boy’s Rusting that of the end of childhood Reading aloud the names of the father surviving wild irrational father to red and a life and the beginning dead. his deceased and finding him. Steel and of adulthood. The poet An accident when life put on the son. unpredictable 5 Another stone. visited the quarry sometime brakes and pitched you without play of the boys visit after the tragedy (1st visit?) notice through the windscreen of The ghost of the and in 6 gives an sometime Assonanc to find nature taking over your youth. boy still trying aerial view. after. e - the wrecks. An ascending The poppy – a symbol of the fallen to find his way Nature is again buzzard raises the poet’s WW1 young men. home. Fantastic variety beginning to and imagination to the spiritual The buzzard – in childhood and at of verbs and take over again. realm. Is the boy on the lane the end The poet extension and burry Holes in the ghost of his dead friend? Nature: spittle sheep inkdot cows returning home through simile the cars. the Is he the poet trying to windows

return home to find Personification – the tractor searching for metaphor and An indication + answers? Is the poet still writing etc. answers. personification. here that the The way wandering in the border poet returns the country of his emotions and The tone is sad Important in to find sentence thoughts? but not morbid. recounting past answers to s move It has a quiet times and deep and through dignity. We invites the troubling time and share in the fun reader to share questions. place and the shock. the many with emotions. 6 This stanza cinemato You feel the Elements of is almost graphic poet’s grief and colloquial mystical. We precision pain. speech: are invited to . I can’t help journey on standing at its “and on over edge. Sheers the lanes” – often stands at to look down the edge of on the scene. experiences and Note the revisits them to ambiguity of work through the boy. his emotions and thoughts. The poet recollects a Father son bonds. Images and the Skirrid: Tone of respect The poet uses The poet Alliterati particular 27th December the wood simplified by snow and an element first person - tells a story, on when he climbed Skirrid Hill The theme of the dry stone wall, its puzzle solved of sadness. possibly uses simplifie with his father. They took separation. by moss, addressing his chronologica d by the long way. They rested at the cleft of the earth Paradox (a form father in real life l snow an altar of rock, watched the the altar of rock of irony in: or at or in his organisation, Short

12 dog run ahead and then least a shallow imagination. but weaves and

Farther continued over broken rock. Images of nature: handhold in the in key sharp He pauses to look at his watching the dog shrink over the thought Sentences quite themes and Rock grey-haired father and felt hill that with every regular and imagery (See …rested keenly the age difference a blade of wind from the east step apart, I’m varied in type; imagery). Rubbed and change between them. the sky rubbed raw over the another closer simple, raw The dog returned. He took a mountain to you

photo of his father, realising Images of his father: Informal tone. compound and He builds up there was something special your bent head the colour of the complex. to the Assonanc in the moment. He realises rocks realisation - e that though they are your breath reaching me, short and the paradox Choosing growing apart, he feels sharp and solitary at the end. …wood closer to his father. Snow Images of time and space: stone I felt the tipping in the scales of us Shock…p shared the shock of a country ocket unrolled before us Shallow the intersection of our ages handhold …though Images of crossing a boundary: t me reaching for some kind of purchase Onomato or at least a shallow handhold in poeia the thought shock that with every step apart, I’m another closer to you Contrast Apart closer

The poet / persona is Time. The simple diction creates images Remember Conversational The poet Simplicity addressing his father (most Survival. of father, son, three trees and now irony permeates tone; directly does nearly ; likely), possibly his Maturity. a thin oak sapling that may one day the language, addressed to all the predomi grandfather or other Border country of mature into a vast oak tree. because we the father “You talking. nance of relative. Obviously the beginnings and have hopes and …I) monosyll

father has told him that he endings. A long bow reminds one of the age dreams that can The father abic

has planted “an oak tree /in of bows and arrows, of archery. be foiled and I realise I should merely says words. 13

Trees the middle of the top field.” The image focuses on an arrow destroyed have known “some time” The poet asks how long it being shot from a long bow and either by emphasising The most will take to mature and the landing at some future far away ourselves or by Two line stanzas that we can profound father answers “some time”. target. forces around emphasise that only hope to realities The poet understands what us. not much must see the are the father means and be said only trees/human grasped recollects that his father had lives mature. over a

planted a tree for each child Metaphor of the reddening sky And remember realised and lifetime in the family to the north with its suggestions of blood, birth that tragic irony contemplated. of south and west of the house. life and death life and death. is the ruin of life waiting The most recent sapling is dreams – death Words come quietly. delicate and finger-thick but You nod your head – image of being an near to failing in has the potential, like the silent understanding. The father inevitable this poem. children to mature. It is allows the son to reach a proper destruction. “loaded with promise and understanding of the fragility of silhouetted against a our lives. The father reddening sky.” The red knows this and could represent the hope of the son / poet a beginning or the death of realises it in the and end. course of the poem.

A sensuous poem about Tasting the Suggestion that he gets off the bus The tone is Narrative stanza Stanza 1 picking blackberries on the pleasures of life. at a certain point – perhaps a confessional but 1 is a compound The Read it way home from school. The different point each day? not guilty; sentence, but preparation aloud to quotation is from Chaucer’s Self-indulgence. honest. the remaining hear the The Pardoner’s tale. The Deliberately planned activity stanzas are Stanza 2 poet’s pardoner sells relics, Pleasure and self- Stanza 1 (freeing up both hands). Sheers is using mainly irregular The taste voice: his promising the buyer that awareness. Lesson – each time he learns the phrase to sentences rich their time in Purgatory will something new about the show that he reflecting, Stanza3 imagery, be shortened as a result. In Note the fact that blackberries; eating them in their learnt lessons perhaps, lack of Hoarding surprisin fact, he doesn’t care what the walk home “got various stages of development: the from nature and self-knowledge. them g diction,

14 happens to their souls. The longer”, suggesting bitterness of the unripe red; the his relationship assonanc money he receives should go he spent more and rain-bloated looseness of the older with the Stanzas 3-5 Stanza 4 e and

Hedge School Hedge to the church, but he keeps more time picking fruits. blackberries They show how Squeezing a alliterati it for himself. A modern blackberries and Simile: cobwebbed and dusty as a he went handful of on: translation reads: “When indulging in the Claret…cellar Consult: through a series them and they (the individuals) are sight, smells, www.irish- of sensory and experiencing Piling in dead, why should I be textures and tastes Held a coiled black pearl necklace society.org/Hed sensual in the hand the palm worrying / whether or not of the fruit and …hedgerow caviar …a sudden gemaster experiments. what the Cupped their souls have gone experimenting with symphony Archives/hedge mouth feels. and blackberrying.” The poem them. He learnt _schools.htm The coiled suggests that there is about himself and discovery of

something sinful (but so his pursuit of In his fist squeezing them and This and other Note the his inner Sudden enjoyable!) in blackberrying. pleasure. letting the skin on his hand websites on unusual verbs thoughts and symphon It describes the sheer excess, experience the mouthfeel of juice Hedge Schools and adjectives: desires. y self-indulgence and Dark has a and the eyes of the berries. will give you an …the bus bloodied wastefulness of his actions. suggestion of the interesting brief Diminish as a The boy discovers that there negative, the Simile: his hand as bloodied as a history of the Hoard butchers’ is something dark in his soul. immoral or butcher’s or a farmer’s at lambing. use of the term Cupped . It is immensely pleasurable unacceptable. in 18 and 19th Bloodied but he senses something century Ireland. Tracing their wrongful in this excess. variety Ironic that it Unripe red takes a simple Rainbloated innocent Hedgerow activity while he Caviar is alone and in a Sudden beautiful spot Symphony to learn that Blue-black red there are forces Dark. within that are undisciplined, that show his potential for excess and selfish pursuits.

The poem is a response to a Identity built on Joseph ’s dedication to body image: Despite his hard Scraps of Unusual The lists question: Do you remember the pursuit of Fifty press-ups before a night out work memory arrangement and Joseph Jones? The poet image. hair sheened with gel maintaining his presented in of lines for fragment remembers him well as the air dead with scent image, Joseph lists: an unusual s serve to ultimate lad, much Failure to achieve Jones has not fellow. remind

15 preoccupied with body long term skills. Claims to have been successful achieved any Appearance us of a image, pulling power and with the girls: lasting fame. Success with the shallow

Joseph Jones Joseph making a name for himself Got his red wings over the The poet girls fellow among his mates and the bandstand railings remembers his Drinking with girls. He owned a fast Ford as he was. Had sessions shallow car, which used to be he achieved values.

popular with youths. He was His girlfriend is a Marilyn Munroe anything A trial once (an Entertain known to have been in late image: worthwhile, he ambiguous ing, all night fights. There was “a Her skirt, an umbrella blown inside would be well phrase). the trial once”. Was this for out known. same. membership of a football white tights shed to high heels club? Or was it a court trial Conversational for bad behaviour. Among his mates totally confident tone. Whatever. He didn’t achieve and full of machismo at the bar: much. Stroking his chest with one hand Drinking with the other

Sees celebrity as inevitable: The making of a small town myth XR2 suggests popular Ford ‘boy racer’ car. Did he crash it? Late night fights – fuelled by drink A trial once – his one attempt of making something of himself . Cardiff youth – possibly in a sports club.

The poet recalls how he felt Identity. A hard orange O-rings. The poet feels Sentences are S1 & 2 the Alliterati like a man when he helped Becoming a man. he is becoming organised in an poet feels on his grandfather castrate the Man and nature. Made-to-purpose-tool heavy and a man whereas informal way like a man Picking … lambs and dock their tails. Learning the harsh steel-hard in the sun the lamb is speech-like. preparing plastic He would stretch the O-rings realities of animal Grandfather played (the lamb) like being deprived the O-rings …made-

across a castrating tool and husbandry. a cello of his male Enjambment on the pliars. to while his grandfather would functions. gives a feeling …purpos

16 position the lambs like a wax them up of a shared task S3 a shift to e cello. The grandfather Like a man milking and of one the Late Spring Late would coax the testicles into action followed grandfather’ Stretchin the lambs’ sack/scrotum and The testicles two soaped beans systematically s ease as he g …steel- then using the tool tie a into a delicate purse by another. positions the hard band around the base of it. lamb and Pliars The scrotum, containing the Silent concentration prepares it …passed testicles, would fall off in a

week. They would tie a band while gesturing with his other for a for Stand around the tail, too, and it tool, a pliars in reverse castration. …stare would fall off in a week. See http://media.animalnetwork The poet is fascinated S4, 5 and 6 Assonanc .com/channelmedia/hobbyfa which I’d pass to him then stand the actual e rms/Castrating.wmv and stare procedure Like…mil done with king A week later ease and the tails scattered like catkins without Conversa a windfall of our morning’s work violence. tional a strange harvest of the seeds we’d vocabula sown. S7 , S8 ry. Docking tails and counting A both in the number field a week of later. surprisin g similes.

An equation is a A man in harmony A classroom image: waving away The poet He told me is S1 First job Alliterati mathematical statement, in with nature. There the blackboard’s hieroglyphics conveys the the main clause on symbols, that two things are is the suggestion calm, balanced stated in the S2, S3 & S4 exactly the same (or that both forms of Sweet methane not usually a world of the first sentence 2nd job Dug deep equivalent). work are equally pleasant smell sensation teacher. Like an and implied in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki worthwhile and equation, he S2 and S3. Reports this /Equation interesting to him. Before scattering the grain does both jobs interesting In this poem a teacher tells He fills his fist but som2 of the with the ease of Singles out the life style to

17 the poet how he spends the grain falls out leaks a magician. one egg like the the reader. afternoons teaching answer to an

The Equation The logarithms, but in the As the grain falls in a circular equation afternoon when goes home movement it looks like a sail of he changes into his overalls, grain feeds the hens and collect an A gentle theft is done while the egg later. hen sleeps. Under the sleeping weight of a hen, to bring out,

Like a magician whose tricks are just the way of things

One egg, warm and bald in his brown palm

He is not greedy; he takes just what he needs.

The poet marvels at the How seamless the Personification. Admiration S1 the way The swallows and how they ending of one The way the swallows fly is like the swallows surprisin breed in a flawless way. He generation and the italic writing fly around g writing sees them as writers writing beginning of Like a sky-jive images in italic style as they fly another is among The birds all seem to be similar in S2 add across “the page of the sky”. swallows. size and skill regeneration charm to Regeneration is a the 18 yearly event. They swoop in descent as if dipping S3 signatures sound of

Swallows their pens (themselves) in ink and the then flying around the sky as if simple signing their signatures across the stanza page of the sky structure s

Title - On (the business of Separating. Medical instruments: Grieving. Enjambment set S1 focuses Alliterati Going (dying) Windows into the soul’s Sad. S1 and S2. on medical on Ending of a life. temperature Bereft. instruments measure In this poem Owen Sheers And between S3 but these are and

seems to be saying goodbye Grief. Image of age: Note how a and S4. no longer monitor. to his grandmother? an ancient child/ fragile gesture speaks useful.

19 Going ancient child Jean Sheers is Death. breathe working at the skin of your eloquently. Trying to make a Blustery

dying and surrounded by cheek connection. S2focuses on …blind. On medical instruments to like a blustery wind at a blind the dying measure, record and paper temple woman. Sleep monitor. But she is near the …slow- final sleep and medicine A measurement of connection with S3 the kiss. closing. cannot do any more for her. the dying woman

He is interested in the triggered by the connection of my S4 the emotional connection only. kiss response She responds to his kiss with and closure. a flicker of her eyes and this and he power of a small movement provides for him a closure to communicate: more important than any registered in the flicker open of medical record or statement. your eyes

the half-second of recorded understanding

Closeness to death: …they disengaged and you slipped back Into the sleep of their slow closing

The poet rides on his horse Sheers sees nature Image of the ring of gorse shows Irony that man’s One simple See Rememb to a (possibly) ancient fort as a mysterious that nature triumphs over man’s work and sentence stating grammatical er all on a high position and force, stronger and constructions. experiences what can be features poems surveys the horizon – a 360◦ more satisfying eventually seen now. and all of view. He feels close to even than the bond Sown yellow in winter – a symbol succumb to Again three each nature and the heart of life. between lovers. of endurance sown in the worst nature’s power. Stanza 3, 4 and line stanzas poem is a Here is where he can find He returns to season, yet surviving even thriving 5 move from with two sound answers, he thinks. He can places in nature as more in winter than summer, when Irony that man the dead stones long experien

understand why a grieving if drawn by a its lights will be diminished. is helpless to past, to a living sentences ce. Every father visits this spot so magnet. Nature prevent death horse now in a starting with part of 20

harsh wild and exposed to seems to mirror Powerful images in the diction: and the complex Stanza 2, the Y Y Gaer suffer the extremes of the human experience trench, rampart, serving only one destruction of sentence. reflecting structure weather in protest against not only in purpose – opening the view (and his dreams, yet perhaps the of a the loss of his son. Here the beginnings and the inner vision) not warding off an it is his bonds In stanzas 6, 7, 8 accumulatio poem man takes on the suffering births but in death, enemy. with nature that the poet n of thoughts contribut of ages and of the separation, loss. heals him and transfigures the and feelings. es to that extremities of endurance. Note: Skirrid comes Images of energy, life, animal force helps him to scent into a vast Some sound. Here he fights the elements, from a Welsh word in the veins mapping move on. panorama, density shout, can blames violent for divorce / twitching muscle round like the created with Whateve forces of nature. The separation. world and listing of r you

primeval ferocity of the the memory of smoke possibly Nature allows encompassing things e.g. hear will forces of nature is the This idea is the from the poet’s camp fire. man to blame all experience. stanza 4 and contribut counterpart of his own overriding theme 360◦ fantastically panoramic, vast what should not stanzas 5 e to the extreme grief, rage, of the book. But it landscape and mindscape, a quilt be blamed? and 6. tone and desolation. is not all morbid. Stitched with silver threads of convey He finds something rivers. Reflective tone; that magnificent in this the poet attitude greater power. It is Here the man takes on a foe meditates on of the also the source of leaning full tilt, getting beaten by the man’s poet to restoration and the rain, actions. the topic. new beginnings. shot by hail, shouting his grief and The Welsh title anger. The poet Note the shows his feeling of acknowledges onomato connectedness the power of poeic with this hard and nature as words, flinty place. source of pain beating, and death but pepper- also of life and shot and new beginnings. shout in the final stanza.

Note the English title. Accepting loss. Image of a lively highly energetic There is a tone Similar to Y Gaer 1, a scene Narrative What does this suggest Separation. boy: simile – charging the hill as of acceptance of in the three-line from the style On about the father’s grief? Death. wild as the long-maned ponies resignation to pattern. past. a clear The poet tells us how the Grief. The ponies are interested in this the tragedy of day…

man used to take his son (9?) frisky young thing; they watch a losing his son. Note the 2, 3, getting to the hill fort. The son was Handing over to moment He seeks beginning of the boys Unusual energetic, wild like the nature the course Beautiful image of the father comfort in the sentence 1 in attention. imagery 21 ponies, and full of life. The of a life. bending down to the child’s eye idea that his line 1 and the creates

father would calm him level and protective hand on his young son left a beginning of 4, pointing to surprisin The Hill Fort The down, put his hand on the Calm acceptance of back. strong sentence 2 the places g sounds small of his son’s back and change. Check Tretower with its 12th impression (putting a brake where the …9, 19 or point out the lands, towns century castle; Raglan with its 15th (presence, on the boy?) in ancestors 90 years. and villages where the century castle; vitality, identity) stanza 2. lived. ancestors lived. The poet on the earth. Of

give voice to the words the A boundary place Bredwardine which is surrounded course, this is Then follows a 5-7 Wisdom The man never uttered but between death and by castles. All emphasise history the poet’s idea long complex acquired epigram meant: that it is not the full restoration. and the bonds felt by those with but he feels an sentence through matic length of our earthly sojourn ancestral links. empathy with stanzas 3-7 an suffering saying it that matter but the quality Resignation. the bereaved outpouring of attributed by isn’t the of our lives. Scattered grains suggest great man. deep emotion the poet to number numbers, potential growth and a and wisdom. the man’s of steps The poet concludes with a harvest to come. Survival is a mind. that will statement that that is the matter of luck like the germinating The father The final matter reason the man returns to of a seed. keeps returning sentence is 8 The poet but the the hill fort regularly: “to tip to the hill fort compound uses death depth of these ashes” these thoughts Note the wisdom in the image of even though his almost NB the and ashes to the and realisations into the the number of steps and the son is not And … and show the impressi tongue of the wind. It is a impression. physically with construction man trying on. kind of laying to rest of his him. suggesting to work son’s short but precious life. Note the personification of the continuation. through the Direct wind – an inverted communion final phase speech image? of grief and gives the feelings poignanc These ashes – are they the boy’s of chaos and y and ashes or his memories of him? the search immedia Spindrift – a lonely image of space for meaning cy; helps and darkness of being lost. in the loss of us to a young life. identify with a man seeking comfort in the midst of intense pain. We hear his voice, though imagined

by the poet.

There is a power cut. An The fragility of long “Intermission” generally associated Ironic that it Stanzas 1-3. See Note the easterly wind has blown a term dreams and with a break in a theatrical takes the Note the list grammatical simpler chestnut tree against the ambitions? performance. What does this unsettling following this. structure. vocabula power lines and has altered suggest about their relationship? experience of a ry the experience of light and (Again, nature acts power cut to Stanza 4 Three line suitable dark in the house. The poet as a parable The power cut creates a mysterious disturb a uncertainty stanzas – for the hears the other person say teaching the poet atmosphere in the “stilled house” relationship and created by 3 basically free uneasy that all she/he hopes for is more reliable wells of darkness; doors opening make the poet fragments. verse which atmosph to live long enough to be values – in this case onto mineshafts of night re-evaluate his Sheers ere. good at the oboe. He aiming at small view of life in Stanza 5-6 +line generally remembers the effort of a fly victories.) Stanza 2 particular the 1 of St. 7 show favours Many trying to escape into the air And us shifts the focus plans we make. the poet more despite the monosyll outside realises that big Alienation from the focussed on the frequent use abic ambitions matter less than other person? A cosy image He sees achievement of of the three- words small everyday ambition in the fly than on line stanza adding to achievements (like the fly’s). Stanza 3 another light. the hopes and structure. the

22 ambition of the poet’s rooms shrunken the halo of He is all too other person Note the preferen

Intermission candlelight controls the amount wary of the way contrasts ce for that can be seen dreams can be The last 2 lines between the simpler the world lessened unfulfilled. are a kind of real and the ambition punch line – a surreal; s, The person speaks from the shore realisation. between the smaller of a chair suggesting the poet is in man and the aims etc. another place that is not safe (the woman sea, another shore) between the light and the the fly’s buzzing is like a tattooist’s dark; needle between large scale plans and humbler ones.

Haiku snapshots of the Passing of time The tone is gentle, light and Nouns used as HAIKU 5 7 5. Spare and The seasons. The year generally pleasant. In the fourth verbs (crochet disciplined variety of Seasonal images haiku “infection” carries threat but and minim). The 4 haiku Relying on words it is a passing threat. single out the diction and Images: crochet & Haiku simplicity memorable, and imagery images minim (music) – finely drawn typical events to portray bring Wires / musical images in a associated with the season. about stave single sentence. each season. constant

Volts (electricity) in each haiku. surprise.

23 Lips of foxgloves

Lovers (simile) Calendar

Dancing spider Web = fingerprint

Branches = veins Nests = like blood clot Rooks = infection

The poet is reflecting on the The power of a flag Seeing the country from different Pride. Some regularity S1 & 2 where Exciting ubiquitous Welsh flag with to represent a positions in the train: the country Honesty. of sentence the flag can variety of its bright red dragon. He whole nation, on rewind or fast forward Is the dragon construction or be seen as nouns. describes the various places separating it from The flag: Hung like wet washing in ironic? part sentences. you travel by it can be seen when on a other nations. backyards train to the Epithets train journey, or in the city Looking like the repetitions of an Races through sea (west). e.g.

or on the motorway where it image down the terraces’ hall of examples of A

24 flaps on a SNAX caravan mirrors places where S3 in the city. Chinese Flag pole. He sees the dragon as The flag painted on the Swansea the flag can be burn of a symbol of a country rooted gym where the occasional sun has seen. S4 on the white, in legends of the past, but ghosted the paint to a bad motorway. red and longing to be young. He sees photocopy Lists; use of the green how it symbolises the people The flag on the pole of a SNAX conjunction or S5 the themselves preoccupied by caravan flapping madly in the wind legendary Verbs. their nationality and grieving the beast of it struggling to exist. dragon.

for their unfulfilled Alliterati aspirations past and present. The Dragon currency of S6 symbol of on legend…truer in its fiction than an old Fast facts can ever be. country forward desiring Tale Wales, an old country, blessed with youth. truer a blind spot bigger than itself. Flower…f S7 in bare lourishes The flag spawning itself…a strange places; flower… above the Assonanc Wrapped up in itself… town hall. e A Chinese burn (dragon = symbol Ghosted of power in China) S8 …photog A tourniquet, a bandage tight on a staunching raphy wound staunching the dreams of dreams Pole… what might have been inexorable motorwa tied up with y the dreams of the nation. An epithet is a character izing word or phrase firmly associate d with a person or thing and often used in place of an actual name, Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 23

title, or the like, as “man's best friend” for “dog.”

The Steelworks, except that Loss of Bleak images in S1 a S2. Man replaces A variety of Stanzas 1 Contrast it doesn’t any more. employment. the world of sentences and 2 Ambiguous start using the Loss of community A deserted mothership becalmed nature of (iron, construction describe the Rolling a title as part of the first line. and common on the valley’s floor steel, grey skies and caesura in scene of ruin bicep up The steelworks are silent. purpose. The sheep and birds in unnatural and rain) for a the form of the and and arm Ambiguity too in the and unhealthy places. gym with steel dash. disintegratio with the description of the man at Separation from equipment and n. rain work. Are they in a community and Elsewhere suggests that the bodybuilding Rolling steelworks? More likely, in a nature. community has moved away. At that would Stanzas 3-5 off the gym pumping iron. least the men have shifted their happen describe the clouds in attention elsewhere. naturally workouts in sheets through hard the gym. Phrases and images of a work out work. 25 in the gym: The final Mournful. stanza

The Steelworks The S 3 & 4 Pressing and dipping in the reminds you lifting bays/locking our Satirical. of ever elbows/rolling a bicep …lateral pull. present nature. It is a far removed from the hard physical demands of the steelworks and from nature.

S5Pumping iron …strip lights… screwed tight eyes…pneumatic sighs

The world of nature is ever dominant and present: still the rain, rolling off the clouds in sheets/across a brushed - metal.

The poet imagines himself Faithful, All the images are of the magpies Earnest and Words and S1 and 2 sets and his lover as two unchanging love. and of his protection of his trapped loving. phrases sustain up the Constant magpies. He asks her to mate: the imagery of personal use of imagine what would happen the trapped story. bird if she were attracted by a Spread my wings in the rain lover and the related bright bait and were Perch above you self-sacrificing S4 ,5, and 6 vocabula trapped. He declares that he Fan you with my feathers in the devotion of the considers his ry. would guard her and care for sun mate. attitude to her to save her from harm. Emphasises her beauty: the other others who Alliterati He would be faithful and magpies would be drawn by the oil Addresses his would also on: true. He would watch other spill of her plumage lover in a be trapped Bright magpies get trapped in the The darkness of your eye conversational (indifference bait same way as his love, style, but !) Fan…feat attracted by her beautiful He is indifferent to their plight: I’d transforms it hers

feathers. He’d listen all night watch them strut in squawking with the S7 about Drawn

26 to their panic and in the …doom trapped. metaphor of the how he …darknes Song morning see the farmer kill magpies. would care s them. Eventually the farmer He would feed her dropping the for her in Wing on would recognise true love mites like kisses to your beak Sentences are winter and wire .. and release her to him and Tough my wings to yours generally spring. he would help her fly again. regular and Assonanc The final stanza is liberation where complex with a S8 about e: the farmer would number waiting for open the door to your cage covering 2 or the farmer to open the and let your walk out to me. more stanzas. realise the door love is all You Sustains the bird image to prove there is to …your the sincerity of his love. save.

S9 how he would help

her to fly again.

Two lovers have been lying The illusions of Afterwards (strongly suggests They believe Descriptive and S1 The Note the on the grass. Obviously, love. lovemaking). their love will sensuous aftermath of use of they were not talking last for ever. vocabulary and love-making adjective philosophy. They dress, Reading the signs. It had made them feel transported sentences - all s and gather up their things. As beyond time they were timeless All the signs in regular. S2 They their they leave the spot, they The setting is beautiful white- nature suggest return to power to turn and look at the place blossomed branches of the it will not. normality. evoke where they were lying. Their blackthorn tree. images bodies have left an imprint Their landmark S3 and more. more (a landmark) in the grass. Gradually the world returns: his is shallow and intensely They feel as if their love will watch, her earrings, their clumsy will not imprint S4 They look .

last for ever. However, the shoes. itself for long. back at the imprint is shallow and an Their awareness is heightened and place which

27 inference can be drawn that they notice the telephone wires Nature does not is their their love won’t last. It, too, the time, a long-dead sheep folded need them. landmark. Landmark is shallow; it will die hence (see Wake). the sarcophagus image. S5 All the They look at the place holding each imagery other as if to let go would mean suggests this forever. landmark will fade Dark portents in the imagery in the soon. final stanza: a double shadow …a sarcophagus, shallow among the long stems/ and complete without them.

Robert Capa was a famous Loss but something Powerful D-Day images. That the From line two See The combat photo journalist of can be salvaged. damage to the onwards the Grammatical diction is the 20th century. He took The ramps were lowered and the photos should sentences (all Features. a mix of 28

photos in conflicts in Europe air turned to lead bring out the incomplete) war Happy Happy

Accidents and in the East. His horror and answer the Question words photographs of the question “And (line 1) and

Normandy landings are And the marines before him confusion of the Robert Capa, photogra iconic. He died in 1954 dropped into the water D-Day. how was her to Implied phic Read: know?” answer “That terms all http://www.skylighters.org/ The image of the chaos and the most of powerfull photos/robertcapa.html pressure: Note how many these photos y No time to set aperture or sentences begin would be evocative A darkroom technician was exposure, just shoot and shoot - with “that”, a destroyed of the almost as anxious to see the conjunction that but that chaos, invasion images as Capa The accident: a lad barely 16-year- introduces a those that the risks himself. In his haste, the old dried the film too quickly noun clause were saved and the technician dried the film too destroyed most of the frames. See object to “was would tell media quickly. The excess heat green print. to know”. In the world supercha melted the emulsion on all That he’d overheat the negative effect answers the truth rged with but 10 of the frames. Those strips, blister the silver, /melt the in the form of about the anxiety that remained were blurred, emulsion, until their frozen fires noun clauses. landing on and surreal shots, which caught /and smoked from under Omaha. In interest. succinctly conveyed the the dark room doors Note the fact one of chaos and confusion of the parenthesis in them has Repetitio day. Damage to the pictures brought S2. become the n and out the confusion of that day definitive internal Parenthesis is a image of the rhyme As a result, the pictures have skies term that Normandy Shoot heat blurred, …starbursts of light describes extra landings. and and their surfaces grazed. information shoot added for The damages describe so perfectly particular Alliterati the confusion of that day when a effects. on generation fall headlong through Frozen the trapdoor of war fires Dark …door

Owen Sheers spent time in How tyranny Wears power like an aftershave Condemning Controlled S1 Hunzvi’s Onomato

Zimbabwe researching and isolates and A heavy, overwhelming smell that tone. The poet complex aura of poeia?

29 ith W

writingHitler about the missionary alienates people. covers up; just slaps it on as a despises this sentences. power flounder, Drinking Drinking work of one of his ancestors. matter of course monster and scorched

In this poem, he seems to Women flounder in it (power); it can see the S2 ready Tension have had an encounter with threatens to overcome and kill behind the smile and conveyed a Hitler type of ZanuPF them. show is a brute chit chat in the leader. He is known as Dr Unsure eyes = a transferred as inhuman as discipline “Hitler” Hunzvi with good epithet. They not their eyes are Hitler and his S3 beatings of the reason. unsure. henchmen. and four-line atrocities; his stanzas He is in the bar of a hotel His own (smiles) slide into place – a A game of guilt and the and observes the way Hunzvi CD selected with play pressed appearances is detail of carries with him an aura of across the lips being played S4 the the ferocity and power – the here and Zambian scene power of cruelty and S3 the mindless cruelty of the man everyone is businesswo and the oppression. He makes the & his brutal followers who commit aware that man people in women fearful and mindless cruelties on Hunzvi is not a it. submissive without even the men who cradle the fruit of man to be S5 leaves saying a word. He is a their bruises crossed even in with a show manipulator conducting … the slightest of cards asked for laughter from the beat the first two hundred instead way. bar. Everything he does is an the scorched huts like cauterised S6 the act and others act a part for wounds woman their own safety. washes him The Zambian businesswoman – a away He touches a woman’s leg pretty, dark and quiet and when she is gone she washes him away with a He leaves in a flourish of (credit?) slow blink of her blue- cards painted eyes. It is as if he has contaminated her and the Lives in affluence in a desperately atmosphere in the bar. poor country Into his world = into his depravity, cruelty and inhuman actions.

st Ambiguous title – musical Loss. Images in Part 1: 1 person: Expectations Series of regular 4 parts. Wonderf metaphor Alienation. NB great musical works like and dreams not and irregular ul rich

30 Four Four

nts in nts Separation. symphonies generally have 4 fulfilled. sentences. A musical range of

of Two of Moveme the Scale Scale the An end of a love. movements. composition words

I – Pages the two lovers are Filming Cut to us, an overhead Lists of images. would have and lying back to back, naked, in shot, early morning fore images. bed. Opposing bass clefs Narrative & movements Draw a second bass clef beside the Description. but this Sudden II– Still life one given but draw it in the relationship breaks The poet/persona sits up opposite direction. Some direct has only two between and the woman draws her The elegant scars on the hips of a speech before it is the body up to and against his cello Speak he said broken. parts. back. He feels alive intensely Scale in because of touch. Butterflies wings Speech hurts; music is a Onomato Double heart in a secret fruit reveals the range of 8 poeia: III Eastern Promise Open book with blank pages break in the notes and cracking She speaks but her words (nothing achieved together) only relationship. has infinite snapping are cold and like ice in water. sleep and dreams possibilities for the 1V Line-Break Part 2 Images from art 1st person: composer, Something breaks between but these 2 them and leaves them My naked back lovers don’t puzzles. It has caused hurt. A canvas on which you paint have a future Palette of touches; shading, to develop brushstrokes of your hear their motif Depth with the impression of your so to speak. breasts Texture of your tongue Note the poet reverts to a writer’s imagery his medium the sentence of my spine Unpleasant image of your tongue crackling close in my ear

Part III Eastern promise 3rd person: suggesting distance between them. Speak he said and she did.

But her words are cold Summoning the Steppe and Siberian snow to their bed She cracked her consonants over her tongue Before dropping them to him Simile like the shock of new ice in cold water

Part IV Line-break (a writer’s term): Caesura = a break in a line of poetry symbol of a break in their relationship the breaking of a glass in the washing water showing as the only evidence the slow smoke signal of blood uncurling from below

American WWII army The power of Military imagery. The belief that Direct speech. A The recruits are moved into a nature. everything was straightforw reader valley to train and prepare S1 We’ve got this one covered. under control Variety of ard narrative hears the for D-Day the Normandy Failure to recognise S6 but it wasn’t. sentence following the voice of invasion (6 June 1944). the power of Sweeping in a line rains fusillade constructions. chronology the nature. and the artillery of thunder A seemingly of events. major, A farmer warns the major safe place was Ballad like the that the valley is “Liable to Arrogance of man. S9 the raised the alarm as treacherous narrative about warning 31 floods”, but the Major as the Utah or a disaster. of the believes everything is under Unrecognised Personification of nature. Omaha farmer

Liable to Floods to Liable control. forces of nature. S8 the river, arming herself with beaches. Military and the When the recruits are rifles, / flushing out the latrines, vocabulary silence of pitching their tents the pegs swallowing the jeeps, / gathered Leaders thinking Sweeping in a the reach underlying shale them all and ushered them off. everything was line rains stealthy quickly. This tells them that under control fusillade and the river. there is hardly any topsoil; it but not

has been washed away in S6 the river pulled herself up accepting artillery of The earlier floods. Two nights …spread her wings…bleeding expert opinion thunder sound of later a storm breaks and through the camp like ink from a and experience. the swept them and the broken cartridge storm: encampment away. They S4 Moel Siabod’s shoulder slept to Here nature is a quiet but the powerful “enemy”. S10 the weather acts as a cunning sound/ enemy. of the rain’s This being taken at night without fusillade any say, and the This being borne, this being swept artillery away. of thunder.

The poet is telling the reader Nature is full of Images constantly transform The poet shows A series of Simple 4-line The poet to study the history of the marvels against conventional study practices and how by studying commands stanzas tells you Lleder Valley in North Wales which our book materials into a natural geological the slate and starting with the housing the to listen not through books, but by learning is dwarfed. version. opening its negative Don’t imperatives properly visiting its slate quarry and “book” can you try to learnt his and an to the experiencing through all the This is a poem Simile S2 the water lies still/and acquire a true place / in the abundance blackbird senses the physicality of about seeing and black as oil knowledge of pages of history of images ’s song. slate. hearing properly at the valley and (see imagery

first hand, not You hear the chiselling and drilling its people. Then positives and diction). You are (NB slate separates out into through the of the blackbirds song. Go instead up to not given 32 thin layers that are like the medium of print. We are so the/disused a choice. History pages of a book.) Image of how to open a book of alphabetised quarry … He is slate today that we saying: This physical world is in the Then with your fingertips/ at its can be alienated Pick yourself a bones and heart of everyone leaves, gently/prize it apart from nature blade of slate … Do it if who has lived there and Read the story in stone. itself – the best you want studied it so. teacher some Tap it with your to learn Understand that this knowledge is would say. heal… the true written in every head, across every history of Prise it apart…

heart / and down the marrow of This is a poem the every bone about seeing And see how it valley. Of the people who live in the and hearing becomes valley. properly at first hand, not A book of slate… through the medium of print. And see means And understand Ironically, it is through the printed poem that we learn about books of slate and a bird’s song.

Amazons first emerge in Courage, bravery. Section 1 Note the graceful, gently Ironic that the It begins – The first Section 1 Greek myth. They were a feminine metaphor of one arm woman has to Narrative by a section is The poet nation of warrior women Fighting and ballerinaed high and the water of lose a breast – a third person. about two is and renowned for valiant overcoming a her own flesh; also the cyst or symbol of A variety of beginnings: surmising military exploits. Even the threat / an enemy / tumour is very small, a mere mote. femininity and sentences in the woman , Romans wrote about them cancer. It settles like an alien, uninvited, motherhood in free verse with discovering suggestin and included women (from unwelcome. order to qualify much of the the lump in g the

the Danube area) in their Changed as an Amazon – irregularity of her breast; situation

irregular army. The word has awareness of self. Section 2 images of concern and a a woman of conversational the second, when the

33 been used even in modern suggestion that the doctor has to mythical speech. the woman

Amazon times to denote a woman of play a part; keeping the end of greatness and beginning of found prowess, strength and what he has to say at arm’s length. courage. The shift from 3 the lump the bravery in war or life. In Vividness of flowering dustbins – 2-3 lines itself. This lump/cys 1917 Russia, a group of shoes on a street stall and buses compresses the section is in t. Amazons – women fighters redding story. The three-line were formed. The woman course of the stanzas. Section 2 the Sheers’ poem shows Section 3 fireworks All of us disease, the she another type of warrior masked in the flame’s hot soul operation etc., The second knows battling cancer and are hinted at in section is in what is

overcoming it. We read Champagne celebration (single- the 3rd and 4th couplets, coming about her discovery of the serving size/personal and special stanzas, but not suggesting allows us lump, the doctor’s diagnosis, for her from her youngest & most described. some kind of to share the fireworks and the threatened by the cancer.) disturbance her recovery after a He holds the cork soft but hard as if Note the perhaps observati mastectomy. it is her cancerous cyst. Feels he absence of panic. ons has some power over it. She medical jargon. about knows: She watches his fingers Just the horror the work around it.) of the C of doctor’s Mother and son understand each cancer. behaviou other. r: offering Stanza 4 the seat, Simile: Her life like old clothes fits his her again. practised Metaphor: Her mind still faceted look of still thinking & dreaming of her concern, breast removed (the invisible twin) slow in a partial mastectomy; dreaming pace of of entering a pool at night, an his voice Amazon, / able to draw her bow Focus on further and deeper than other the women. She has endured and sound of been brave in the face of this hard C - enemy. cruelty soft C - NB images of the past (photos); uncertain the present: with its illusion of the ty. breast still there; the future: of Like the swimming naked but now stronger, lump a survivor – a true Amazon. She walks into her new world, yet it is Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 33

the same (oxymor on). Surprise of buses redding past (Poet has changed the function of the word red)

Section 3 three lines again, slowing the pace ellipsis – her first outing since… Onomato poeic tac sparks. Inclusive all of us.

This poem celebrates the How every human Do look at the website to see Mac Admiration. Three-line Simple. The Some genius of an artist who uses being and thing Adam’s works. stanzas. poet first repetitio 34

Man his palette to say something exists with others The darkness focuses on n of light. Shadow Shadow profound about human behind his eyes the artist’s

beings and how art can in a challenging His palette is light needs to be read is an ironic way Lists several palette and And the express meaning beyond our shadowy way. literally, I think. of talking about examples of the then gives internal thoughts and words. The Check: insight. Usually artist’s work. examples. rhyme of poet is able to show that the http://macadamsst Magic of conjuring with bulb, intelligence is matter. artist, through his use of udio.com/photogra fruit…. associated with The insight is light and shadow, shows the phs.html light. stated in the Assonanc effect of the presence of one For an example Karl Marx head born from pebble penultimate e thing or person on another from his series of and stone into an absence of light and last shadows or on others…the shadows photographs called stanza. they they throw against the lives “Shadows” 1985- throw of others. 2008. The last single line I do not think the emphasises artist is making difference. claims about inter- relationships – just that every person and thing throws a shadow on other persons and things.

Superstition Mountains are a Suggestion that Images of heat. Nature is alive A series of The poet is Alliterati

range of mountains in man is in an alien The Mustang absorbing the heat and awake sentences of musing on on Arizona. The poet is sitting environment, into its mock leather seats. while man regular what he in a mustang at the side of therefore sleeps. constructions: senses but Marriage

the road reading a poem alienated. Little comfort in the line from simple has difficulty …monot Mountains called “To speak of woe that Lowell’s poem. A man kitted compound and feeling onous is in marriage” by Robert Sleep and missing out in a complex. comfortable meannes

35 Lowell, an American poet: opportunities in Suggestion of decline in the city; no tracksuit is very about his s http://www.poets.org/view the natural world. youth only the old are allowed to unhealthy. Enjambment surroundings A

Superstition media.php/prmMID/15282 live between the suburb- The photographer is It is a world where And the neighbours keep check on In this holiday three-line S1 the car. still sleeping. They are on a humans are each other’s houses. city, the poet is stanzas. S2 the poet street in street to the west of Sun City overwhelmed by The man with his oxygen tanks reading about reads. Sun City Under the the Under – a kind of holiday city. They the heat and out of an appalling The poet is West kilter with the husband and musing on what

are parked in a suburb natural world. Here you experience things, but marriage (See he senses but S3 the place deep and street. While they sleep, their remains a space between poem), an has difficulty and its dry the rattlesnake is sense and knowing abusive feeling inhabitants. A man is walking carrying waking from its relationship. comfortable S4 an ill oxygen tanks (suffering from hibernation. The photographer’s breath is deep about his jogger. emphysema?) A bird hits a and dry surroundings. S5 a bird note but it is impossible to The snake is heard but identify it. moving from The mountains tear an edge off the unidentified, inaction to action; sky unrecognisa The photographer seems man, from action ble sound. sedated by heat. He seems to inaction. Wonderful natural events e.g. the S6,7,8 the to be dead, but the poet can rattlesnake uncoils from Winter go sleeping hear his breath so he knows There is little to unnoticed by the one who should photographe the man is alive. There is a suggest that the be capturing this magical event – r. vast sweep of blue sky but city is good for the photographer. S8, 9 the the Jagged mountains make body or soul. photographe it seem that they have torn r has not the sky and left it like a piece captured the of paper with a jagged edge. perfect shot. In the natural world, The poet unobserved, a rattle snake marvels at wakes up from its winter the sleep without knowing why. mountains tearing an The title places the event in edge off the America. The Superstition sky and Mountains saw many a imagines the ruined prospector. awakening rattlesnake – perfect shots.

Service was written during a Effort and S1 image of the theatre. Sheers Descriptive. Straightforward Structured What National Poetry Day excellence in compares restaurant with the invitation in the on a typical strikes 36 residency. The poet tracks a running a activities in preparing the back A different simple sentence day in HB’s the Service day in Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant. stage and front of house. (chefs, world not of line 1. kitchen. reader

kitchen. The poet writes waiters, cleaners / wardrobe always Thereafter Arrival of first is about the preparation of the managers, carpenters, Hoovers) appreciated or notice fewer food the pace, food, the cooking and the Food arrives at precise times. understood by complete timetable of: followed serving of different “covers”. S4 Image of the tables dressed like the patrons, sentences, but a by the It ends with the waiters prom girls. those who eat superabundanc arrival of the density smoking a fag outside. S5 the Sommelier (wine expert) in the e of lists to food of the tastes. Red wine like a “boxer’s restaurant. create a feeling preparing vocabula NB the feverish pace of mouthful of red”; holds the glass of fast starters ry, events; the clockwork like a carver – a woodturner. A frenetic tone clockwork main courses the organisation; the S9 new image – the kitchen a to match the efficiency and and desserts constant suggestions of high quality submarine. Words and lists pace of events. organisation. serving referenc cuisine, menu, service, etc. barrage the reader with foods in last fag es to the prep. No conversation, just the Shortening of last tasting time. The poet dwells on other radio. words e.g. prep. stories besides those of the S7 Images of time. 2, 4, 9 (S3 & 6) Many activities Surprisin patrons. See S30 the oysters. Image of lovers, matadors, (OS is grouped in g images. fascinated with blood and brutal stanzas on the things, I think) Hudini. prep, cook, The S7 quick fag serve themes. listing of S9 brutal images of score and foods unstitched with pliars Note the and The bass flesh – a pink blank page; reference to the actions waiting for nothing/ but heat and time the tongue The S10 a witches cauldron of onion To what is human puree; parcelled duck hams allowed S12 and voices …presents for the tree. 16 (radio on and issuing S12 salmon piled like deckle-edged off) orders (rough)leaves of a medieval To getting manuscript everything right The radio Transformation of the oyster: “Check!!” a which Bookmarks (thin fillets?) of command in you mackerel rolled and tied into inverted imagine Tigered ballotines (stripes of string) commas quiet S13 coins on the eyes of the dead tense S14 a canvas whitewashed – a Restaurant drone of metaphor to describe how language: “you Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 37

everything is cleaned, tidied and can go on Conversa looks perfect. those”. tion S14 The waiters move around the among tables like sharks through a coral the reef. patrons S15 gold = image of excellence, wealth, cutting edge food and Read this service. aloud S17 the ticket machine personified and try pokes out its white tongue… to hear The order hangs like a photograph internal drying in a dark room. rhyme. S18 two images - submarine dives, assonanc dives…woven walking e, S20 the fat man merely referred to alliterati a suit; his stomach, a globe on and (represents the overfed world?); onomato his serviette, a sail tackling tight poeia. above his belt. S21 the waiter presents a bottle/like a new-born baby. S25 the chef - an author copy- editing the text; the boy’s hair like a book open at the centre page; the champagne bubbles threading the core; the conversation tense delicate carefully tuned Finely strung. S30 the story of the oysters and how they were captured in the wild sea; now presented on a plate, white as snow, smooth as marble, hard as bone. (Note the contrasts.) S31 the submarine slows ... the waiters shed their gold and the normality of them as they take a fag outside. Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 38

S32 the gestures of the Sommelier testing the wines compared to a dart player, weighting his arrow a gardener scenting his rose.

The focus of the poem is a Alienation / Punters = customers A sad tone A variety of S1 details Alliterati man to whom fish are separation from S2 comparison between the showing the sentences about the on commodities. He seems to nature. fishmonger selecting a carp and us psychological regular S1, 2, 3 fishmonger’s measurin be associated with a reaching for an apple in a bucket. and emotional and one appearance g their hardness and military culture damage of irregular and his moveme not the gentler, more honest S3 foil disk of the silver eye being alienated sentence in canny nts culture of the fisherman. He from nature. S4,5,6. understandin Smarting is able to read the The engine stroke of his heart g of the in the consumer’s body language He is finely tuned – a musical Note the Enjambment “punters”. salty and knows how much and image. customers, too, within and water. what to say according to the Cruel kindness (Oxymoron) seem to shape between three- S2/3 he customer’s responses. He suggests that the fish is alive. his responses as line stanzas. knows the Onomato

skilfully selects a carp from many of them fish well by poeia the water for a customer. S4 He knows the anatomy of the would find the touch and Slice His heart is hardened to the fish (see www in contents) its soft bloody deeds sight. pare

37 violence involved in killing spots near the heart. Note the disgusting / struck the fish possibly chopping off similes of slicing through butter repulsive. S3 gasps. it head. and cutting celery. suggestion The Fishmonger The Check: that he is www.aquatext.com/images/ Knows how much to say – image of affected by fish etc/intanat.htm to see how to pare his speech. Kills off the killing of the internal anatomy of a words as he might the enemy in the fish – carp. There is a suggestion war: as he might men/ were he even in his that he is damaged by this pushed to fight. heart rate. work and, like a fish gasping Simile of the lightning striking a for air, he is not in his tree suggests this work is killing S4 element killing the fish. him. His heart / humanity is like emphasises the wood in the tree unprotected, his just as a fish outside the water understandin would be biting the air for water. g of the fish’s anatomy.

S5 says little – just gets on with the job.

S5/6 emphasises that this work is destroying him and killing him at some level. He is like a fish out of his element.

A young man (of Indo-Fijian Perseverance. Garden Island of Taveuni. Admiration. Narrative style A biography Rhyming descent) has returned alone with a variety of of the from Gujerat (India) having Separation. Moved about the dummy’s baste sentence S1 return couplets married a 15-year old wife (Baste = tacking a garment with constructions from the illustrate there. He lives on the Fijian Beginning and end. loose stitches). and use of wedding. s his self- island of Taveuni - special Like a musician round his double metaphorical discipline because the 180°Meridian bass. extensions and S2 the discipline

runs down the island. He Worked into the night parenthesis. Garden ,

ime works as a tailor. He must be Hurricane lamp’s sepia… cutter, Island of imaginati T skilful because the chief coatmaker and sepia Listing. Taveuni. on and 38 orders a suit from him and in creativity return gives him an acre of Meticulous: checking again and S3-7 his . Stitch in in Stitch ground – his own piece of again his stab and pad stitch … tailoring land. Everything he does he trade. Repetitio does for his wife and the day Plans for his wife (he thinks of his n of when he can bring her wife, his wife) S8-11 he Meridian home. He understands the Seizes upon the fact that the plans to . Meridian pinstripe invisible Meridian passes through build immediately. Over ten years his land; appreciates lines and businesses he becomes rich (owns a stripes. inspired by

store a garage and a taxi Builds a fortune (Meridian store, the business). He fetches his Cinema, Garage) inspired by the Meridian. wife and they have 4 image of the imaginary line daughters and 1 son. the imaginary chalk mark where S12 brings here, tomorrow starts, and here his wife to Years later he goes to today is ending, he felt it in his Taveuni. London, walks one morning heart. to Greenwich to see the S13 16 original 0° the source, the The pinstripe of longitude, the shows her still point after the strife, the balance, the symmetry, bisecting what he has first stitch in the pattern to time and space, he understood it created. which he’d cut his life. immediately S17 his Even the sign was his, the arrow family now pointing each way grown up. Joints as stiff as his old scissors S18-20 visits 0° the first stitch in the pattern to Greenwich which he’d cut his life. like an explorer discovering the source.

A woman, a former Passing of time. LA well known City of angels Despite all her A number of S1 the Alliterati star/actress, goes through earlier fame, complex evening on the daily evening ritual of Loneliness. Centre of motion pictures, she is now sentences; arrives – the sirens…s looking at her photograph television and recorded music alone with an a listing of ritual un…sits collection. They show her Isolation. Youthful image rollerbladers audience that photos. revisiting the acting parts with famous Crime-ridden sirens does not even past in the Freeze

39 male actors (Olivier and Alienation. Has beens She sits to the screening know her. photos. frames Brandon), she in the role of of her photographs

L. A. Evening L. A. Ophelia and Sarah. She has The retired actress worked with After all the S2 the list of Faces … two with royalty - the Queen the great names: exposure, she photos. friends Mother in one and Queen Laurence Olivier, has become a Elizabeth 11 in the other. Marlon Brando recluse. S3 the sun Internal She is now alone, the famous performed Shakespeare’s Hamlet goes down – rhyme

names (Olivier, Brando) are Mixed with the best queen as does her screening dead. Others are now life. …Scenes performing the old roles in Freeze frames - perhaps she finds it new versions of the old impossible to look at modern S4 gets ready films, and imitating the facial actors as she considers her for bed. expressions of the great contemporaries as superior, the actors. They speak in the best. informal tones of the great ones, not in the polished She lives a lonely, fearful life. She voices that once belonged to is frozen in the past and has only professional acting. She three preoccupations: does not feel any interest in Dwelling on past glories, looking knowing the names of after her animals and guarding modern actors; she skips the herself and her property against credits. She dims the lights, intruders. sorts out the animals, checks the intruder light.

An elegy to singing men - Loss. Singing to swallow the moon Elegiac. Conversational Two-line Repeated those who have lost Sad. to some extent - stanzas. use of everything but continue to The power of song The tendons in their necks making Admiring. just for the hell S1 What song, sing. All over the world. to retain humanity. valleys in their stubble of it. they do in singing every city. humming Not much money earned or They’d squeeze a little music in, Listing of places S2 corners. and much to eat or drink, but the between the lovers the kids the where you will S3 energetic vocabula remarkable luxury of one wives hear them sing. singing. ry to do gold can of Extra S4 from with 40 But now it’s just the songs that are memory. singing. left to keep them threaded to the S5 their past

The Singing Men Singing The earth. lives. List all S6 only these Image of poverty and age songs left in words Beard scribbled over his chin, dirt the memory and be like grain in the wood. S7 They sing able to in USA GB suggest and Russia how the

Despite the singer’s losses his song S8 in Balham diction is welcoming commuters home. tube station says in south somethin London g about S9 the sound the past travels; his of these costume ( men and reduced to their clown motivatio status??) n to S10 dirty but continue welcoming singing.

Referenc es to global phenome non.

Title: Wake - a lamentation Grief. The grandfather is folded into his Ironic that the Note the use of Like a film. Alliterati (sometimes a party) after Loss. favourite chair old man should the present S1 sets the on: the death of someone. Separation. Doesn’t want the doctor to plumb die of the same tense. It is as if scene. Also, the track left on the Death. into his scarred lungs. disease which the poet is living folded…f water’s surface by a moving Ending and He knows the storms gathering he had through the S2 reports avourite ship. beginning. there…the squalls and depressions diagnosed, experience or the old Ship…sho

His lungs are two pale oceans/ treated and commenting on man’s ws The poet visits his ninety- rising and falling in the rib cage’s operated upon it in the way you unhappiness Stern

41 year-old dying grandfather. hull in his would comment at having to strangely The old man tells him he His medical knowledge is professional on photographs die this way. Settled The Wake The doesn’t want to die this way. driftwood/collected on the shore career. or a film of an sea He has been a doctor or of the century experience. S3, 4 & 5 the surgeon and studied the X- The poet’s words mean little to the Even as we live poet focuses rays of countless sufferers of dying man My words are spoken/ we are Complex on the old lung disease. Now he is a into a coastal wind long after the confronted with sentences man’s past sufferer and he knows too ship has sailed the ultimate spanning career and much about what is NB the sea imagery. irony: death. several stanzas the

happening in his lungs. The S8 the second image of wake. Poet senses a at a time knowledge poet tries to say calm and The water / life becomes new and newness, a emphasise the he gained. comforting things, but he the poet is reminded of the first beginning in the complexity of realises that his words are seas. passing of his the life / death S6 The poet lost on the old man. Both grandfather. issue. tries to make know the inevitable is There is the image of the sea / the normal happening there has already birth / death cycle going on for Use of conversation been a passing. He feels a ever. parenthesis as but he feels calm and newness – a kind the poet uses at sea. of beginning. metaphorical images to S7 They part express his grief both and knowing the amazement. old man has moved on.

S8 The poet describes the passing as the wake of a moving ship.

S9 the restoration of normality – a newness.

S10 Final line focuses on the future.

Fawr is the Welsh for big. Nature nurtures, Simile: The poet returns for the Irony is in the All the S1, 2 finds a Alliterati (Rhymes with hour). shapes answers / to every question I have return to his sentences precedent in on 42

Fawr The poet returns to the consciousness and ever known, just like the farmers roots, for the except the first the ancient Scoop…s Skirrid Skirrid Skirrid again (a recurring sensibilities. It are irregular, farmers who car

theme in the collection), needs to be who in times past took soil from answers life unfinished, just would scoop Internal looking for answers, trying to understood and Skirrid Fawr’s scar. should provide. like all the handfuls of rhyme read the meaning of life in learnt if the poet is puzzles of life. soil from her part hill, the environment that to fulfil his identity. Her slopes are a sentence Whereas lovers holy scar. part field shaped his consciousness. Her borders, vernaculars disappoint and One This is a kind of love (indigenous language). relationships S3-7 dark, one relationship, much more fade, Skirrid description sunlit enduring than the various Her withers is an image taken from Fawr remains. of parts of Unspoke lovers he infers in several a horse’s anatomy (the highest the Skirrid n poems. As a poet, he point of its body just above its using a …unlearn translates / transforms the shoulders). variety of ed geology and relief of Skirrid personificati Fawr in metaphorical The blunt wind glancing from her on and language. Features of the withers personifies the wind metaphor. environment become She has a broken spine and a cleft identified with human palate, part hill, part field S8 Skirrid behaviour or speech. Fawr is Skirrid Fawr has a weight of Sheers compares Skirrid Fawr to a heavy with wisdom, but only the poet lonely hulk (a ruined ship) adrift meaning but can express it if he can through Wales cannot discover her answers to his express her questions. Another horse image in flanks Her identity her east-west flanks, one dark, one wisdom sunlit, her vernacular of borders. words, Opposition here implied. because she Welsh/English? She is big, weighty, has an full of the wisdom of time. unlearned tongue.

The poet can though, if only he can get answers from her.

unlearned tongue? He doesn’t even know the questions to ask I so I am still drawn to her back (lover image) for the answers /to every question I have never known

Is Skirrid Hill the wise one?