please hold, Lammas hireling, Materials Flashcards
(27 cards)
What is the meaning of the title
‘The lammas Hireling’
establishes how the poem is set during loafmass and set as irish folklore
light heart/ and heavy purse’
s’truck so cheap’
the antithesis highlights that something is amiss, creating suspicion to why the deal seems so favorable and generous.
however the harshness of the verb perhaps foreshadows the later violence against the hireling.
‘mine only dropped heffers as fat as cream’
The similie is reflective of the speaker’s rural environment with limited education, coincidental element to the arrival of the hireling and the immediate reward with the farmer focussed and relishing in the profit brought.
sf
‘cattle dotted’
‘fond of company’
lovely head
throughout their is a semantic field that details to farmer’s affection for the hireling which makes the act of his murder even more shocking
that knew when to shut up
despite never meeting their is a supernatural element as the hireling already knows the mannerisms of the speaker
then one night/
Disturbed from the dreams of my dear late wife’
the farmer relays the story as though a fairytale where their is a stark shift emphasised through the alitteration where the tone becomes more distressed.
‘light heart’
to ‘light from the dark latern’
the sack grew lighter.
The shift in light from a physical to visual form further stresses the disorientation and confusion.
I knew him a warlock, a cow with leather horns.’
Speaker’s tone is one of unwavering certainty signified by the caesurae
what is the intertextuality using ‘muckle care’
The intertextuality to the witchchant in the Allonsford persuit further represets the idea of history where the speaker is grounded in the history of folklore.
I levelled and blew a small hold in his heart
the moon came out.
The speaker’s calm and controlled manner whilst killing the Warlock with the moon a conventional gothic symbol of transformation and metamorphises both significant as the warlock and the farmer have both commited crimes of supernatural and muder respectively.
There was no// Splash.
The casurea solidifies the element of the supernatural due to the abscence of the expected sound
‘i don’t dream
but spend my night casting ball from half-crowns’
There is a contrast with the second stanza where the speaker was awoken from his ‘dreams’ now replaced with paranoia and a sense of restlessness no longer at peace and where once money brought joy and happiness now is used to fund his transgressive acts and preparation for violence.
Bless me father for I have sinned.
It has been an hour since my last confession.
The last stanza reveals the farmer is reporting to the priest with the poem told in the style of a dramatic monologue where the farmer continually attempts to justify the killing of the warlock with no remorse yet hopes for salvation but unwilling to relinquish bullets used for violence. The speaker’s confession becomes an almost ritual and continual cycle.
What is the significance of the title ‘Please Hold’
The false politeness masks the imperative and conveys the illusion of choice.
’ ‘This is the future’, my wife says.
we are already here and its the same as the present
There future is imposed on the speaker with certainty and without negotiation
however the speaker remains critical and signifies how the future is not progressive but stagnant adopting a cynical tone of the future.
‘the robot is giving me countless options // none of which suit my needs’
The speaker is presented with the illusion of having autonomy and having multiple options yet none are relevant
‘i give him my account number
i have a wonderful telephone number
there is a subversion in the role of technology with the speaker aiding the robot and complying with its demands rather than the other way round where the speaker does not obtain the same benefits a relationships that is not reciprocated
The speaker is able to articulate the disingenuous language of the robot yet lack agency to do anything about it
(which is really the robot’s account’)
name for multiple perspectives?
The parenthesis highlights the speaker’s private thoughts whilst able to articulate detailing his independence in autonomous contemplation the speaker is unable to act on his grievances
with the poem using heteroglossia of 4 different speakers the speaker’s internal and external thoughts, the wife and the robot.
but Im paying for it, I shout,’
The verb indicates the pointless nature of the call with the speaker not gaining but losing as the conversation draws on and only losing patience and control leading to a loss of temper where his aggression is futile with the robot replying in the same monotone controlled tone ‘wonderful, says the robot’
you can say yes, No, Repaeat or Menu.
despite the multiple choices they have been provided by the robot with the speaker unable to freely choose a decision off his own accord with the polysyndeton shortening the list of options.
I scream agent and i am cut off
Porgression in the speaker’s loss of control but the robot is revealed to hold true agency as the speaker is at the mercy of the robot.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Please hold.
Eine fucking Kleine Nachtmusik.
The use of the clasical music is used to placate the speaker in a rather condecending manner not directly responding to his irrate anger signified in the diacope. It is significant the music from highly regarded composer of Mozart is used symbolising how the greatest of human achievements have been made redundant by the age of technology now used in a call centre undermining the value of art.
transfers me to himself
the relentless cycle and lack of progression from the phone call where the speaker has no control over the outcome and provides a juxtaposition as the transfer is expected to bring change
and my wife says this is the future
The voice of the wife and the robot becomes blurred as they both are monotonous, automated and repetitve in tone where the herteroglossia provides how the speaker is overwhelmed and isolated in his criticism about the future where the majority rule and independence is unaccounted for.
