Disabled Flashcards
“Disabled” (title)
Contrast to typical image of a soldier: someone in excellent physical health - indicates the harrowing effects of war
“He” (line 1)
Shows anonymity - universal story of many soldiers
“wheeled chair” (line 1)
Shows dependency on others
“dark” (line 1)
Is a euphemism for death
“shivered” (line 2)
Suggests weakness
“ghastly suit of grey” (line 2)
Plosives draw attention to ghostly imagery
”.” (line 3)
Caesura emphasises disability
“Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn” (line 4)
- Serves to emphasise his loneliness
- Positive connotations of boys playing contrasted with the melancholic tone of a hymn - he cannot see the joy in anything
“sleep had mothered” (line 6)
Metaphor - sleep brings comfort like a mother does to a child
“Town” (line 7)
Shows universality
“swing” (line 7)
Connotes playfulness and youth
“glow-lamps” (line 8)
Connotes hope
“budded” (line 8)
Metaphor - young life of a soldier
“girls glanced” (line 9)
Alliteration - playfulness / flirtatious
”-“ (line 9)
Transition
“In the old times” (line 10)
Depicts the young veteran as an old man
“he threw away” (line 10)
Phrasal verb = bitter tone - not worth the sacrifice
“never” (line 11)
Adverb - definitive - hopelessness
“feel again how slim Girls’ waists are[…]All of them touch him like some queer disease” (lines 11-13)
Contrast from romantic imagery to harsh rejection
“queer” (line 13)
Shows otherness
“silly” (line 14)
Shallowness, ignorance, naivety
“last year.” (line 15)
War has aged him
“old;” (line 16)
Effect of war
“will never” (line 16)
Hopelessness
