On Her Blindness Flashcards
Themes of On her Blindness
Illness
Honestly
Dark Humour
Society
Parent/Child Relationship
(1) ‘bear being blind’
PLOSIVE ALLITERATION - force communicated
- blunt/forceful tone
(1) to be honest ‘.’ One shouldn’t say it
CAESURA - establish immediately that the poem is a truthful account of serious illness
(1+2) ‘One’ X3
REPEATED PRONOUN - formal
- reflect the way we are told to approach illness quiet stoicism
(2) ‘handicaps are hell’
METAPHOR - suggests that catastrophic handicaps are perpetual endless suffering
(3) ‘like a Roman’
simile - usual portrayal of serious illness is one of stoic resilience
- test of strength and will
(4) in a ‘Paris’ restaurant
JUXTAPOSITION - place of romance contrasted with bleakness and dark humour
(5+6) ‘(try it in a pitch-black room)
ADDRESSES READER DIRECTLY - makes scenario real and personal
- wants the poem and illness to be seen as real
(6) ‘and whispered’
can’t be spoken about or openly discussed.
(8) ‘the locked-in son’
METAPHOR - trapped in role of attentive son by his inability to express his emotions
(13+14) ‘the long
slow slide’
LONG VOWEL ‘O’ SOUND - drawn out suffering
ENJAMBMENT - inevitable deterioration of her health - break emphasises the slowness of her deterioration
(14) ‘vision as black as stone’
SIMILE
‘light’ has left life and joy has gone
‘stone’ - her loss of sight is unchanging + takes a part of her humanity
(18) ‘the autumn trees’
METAPHOR - leaves die - approaching death
(22-23) ‘pretend
‘end’
RHYME - most of poem written in free verse
- tone of resolution
Name of 2 line stanza
Couplet
