poems; 3/poem quotes + context Flashcards
[walking away]
“It is _______ _____ ___, almost to ___ ___ / A _____ ___ with leaves____ _______,”
[walking away]
“It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day / A sunny day with leaves just turning,”
- pathetic fallacy
- leaves just turning is a metaphor for his son being like a new person
- highlights the change in his son
[walking away]
“like a _______ / _______ from its _____, go ________ ____”
[walking away]
“like a satellite / Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away”
- wrenched is very abrupt language, shows the father wasn’t ready
- simile, like a satellite
[walking away]
“a ___________ _____ set free / Into _ _________, the ____ of one / Who _____ __ ____ where ___ ____ should be”
[walking away]
“a half-fledged thing set free / Into a wilderness, the gait of one / Who finds no path where the path should be”
- animalistic language, imagery of a bird being prematurely sent out
- hyperbole of wilderness
- religious allusion, the way people seek guidance from religion, the son is making his own path (context link)
[walking away]
“I have had _____ ________, but ____ that so / _____ __ __ ____ _____.”
[walking away]
“I have had worse partings, but none that so / Gnaws at my mind still.”
- caesura puts emphasis on how he is still thinking about it
- connotes the father may be lying to himself “love is proved in the letting go” but he’s still thinking about it
[walking away]
give 2 context points
- about his father
- about where the child is going
[walking away]
cecil day-lewis
- father was very religious
- child is going to boarding school
[walking away]
give 2 structure points
- rhyme scheme
- stanza amount + line amount
structure
- abaca rhyme scheme
- four stanzas with 5 lines each
[mother, any distance]
early in stanza:
“Mother, any ________ ________ than a _____ ____”
later in stanza:
“the _____ __ ___ _____, the ______ __ ___ floors.”
[mother, any distance]
“Mother, any distance greater than a single span
“the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.”
- distance increases throughout the first stanza
- metaphor for how the son is drifting away from the mother
- how the mother is becoming less important in the sons life
[mother, any distance]
“You at ___ ________, me with the _____ __ ____, recording / ______, _________ meters, __________ ____ __ base”
[mother, any distance]
“You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording / length, reporting meters, centimetres back to base”
- as he gets older, no matter how far away he gest he always has to come back
- spool of tape is the umbilicle cord
[mother, any distance]
“to ________ point, where ________ / ___ __ ____;”
[mother, any distance]
“to breaking point, where something / has to give;”
- spool of tape is becoming less strong as he floats away
- something has to give, tape may break as he is floating too far away
[mother, any distance]
“_______ _ ______ that opens on an _______ ___ / to ____ __ ___.”
[mother, any distance]
“towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky / to fall or fly.”
- so far that he has broken the tape, it gave
- he’s breaking free not knowing if he will fail or succeed (fall or fly)
[mother, any distance]
give 2 context points
- who was the poem written about
- what is it about
[mother, any distance]
simon armitage
- autobiographical, himself
- about when he moved a few doors down from his parents
[mother, any distance]
give 2 structure points
- rhyme scheme
- stanza amount + line amount
[mother, any distance]
structure
- loose rhyming scheme, unpredictable reflecting his feeling on his future
- almost sonnet, two 4 line stanzas, then a 7 line stanza
[winter swans]
“the ______ had given _____ ___ / two days of rain and then a break”
[winter swans]
“the clouds had given their all / two days of rain and then a break”
- pathetic fallacy reflecting how their relationship is going
- further presented through personification
- shows how winter is unforgiving
[winter swans]
“_______ of white feather, ______ before ________ _____”
and
“________ over the _______ _____. I _____ reply”
[winter swans]
“icebergs of white feather, paused before returning again”
“porcelain over the stilling water. I didn’t reply”
- both white creating imagery of purity
- although right now is a tough time, below the surface of the iceberg it’ll get better
- relationship will improve
[winter swans]
“____ a pair of ______ settling _____ ______”
[winter swans]
“like a pair of wings settling after flight”
- metaphor to show how the “flight” hard times of the relationship are over
- pair of wings are their hands holding
