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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. Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 1 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. Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 2 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 Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 3 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 6 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 Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 4 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 Copyright © poetryessay.co.uk 5 own identity – pulling himself together – so to speak.

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