Poetry of The Decade - The Gun, The Furthest Distances I've Travelled, Giuseppe

Question 1

Poet of The Gun?

Answer 1

Viki Feaver

Question 2

TG - Structure?

Answer 2

Stanza 1 and 5 shorter. Emphasiise dramatic and marked changes.

Question 3

TG - ‘Bringing a gun into a house // changes it.’

Answer 3

short stanza and end stop, marked tone shift contrasts the domestic setting.

Question 4

TG - ‘Kitchen table, stretched out like something dead’

Answer 4

domesticity contrasts with the death - taboo/dangerous nature of death and guns.

Question 5

TG - ‘casting a grey shadow on the green-checked cloth’

Answer 5

juxtaposed colour imagery shows the invasion of corruption which the gun provides - neutral setting is corrupted.

Question 6

TG - ‘orange string from trees in the garden. Then a rabbit shot clean through the head’

Answer 6

childish imagery contrasted with sudden, brutal violence. Destruction is a rapid process. Minimalist language - casual and brutal change.

Question 7

TG - ‘your hands reek’ ‘you trample’

Answer 7

Power the gun provides, makes a person brutal and cruel.

Question 8

TG - ‘eyes gleam like when sex was fresh’

Answer 8

Death also associated with excitement/procreation. It is thrilling and enticing.

Question 9

TG - ‘I join in the cooking: jointing and slicing, stirring and tasting’

Answer 9

Prounoun shift from ‘you’ to ‘I’ - she is tempted and becomes complicit in the violence (femininity).

Question 10

TG - ‘King of Death’ ‘winter woods’ ‘black mouth’

Answer 10

power, death and destruction

Question 11

TG - ‘sprouting golden crocuses’

Answer 11

link to something poisonous yet abundant (life and vitality). can the two coexist?

Question 12

TG - ‘A gun brings a house alive.’

Answer 12

single line stanza - sense of thrill and change.

Question 13

Poet of The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled?

Answer 13

Leontia Flynn

Question 14

TFDIT - Structure?

Answer 14

3 long thoughts vs concise sentences - Final quatrain concludes sense of youth and sentimentality (more typical structure and rhyme). Clarity comes with age.

Question 15

TFDIT - ‘- the way my spine curved under it like a meridian -‘

Answer 15

parenthesis - intrusion of the older voice, concern over damage which goes ignored by the youthful figure

Question 16

TFDIT - ‘I thought: yes. This is how to live.’

Answer 16

caesura - sense of certainty and self-assuredness found in youth.

Question 17

TFDIT - ‘some kind of destiny’

Answer 17

things seem more profound/significant, juxtaposes the monotony of adulthood

Question 18

TFDIT - ‘stuffing smalls hastily’ to ‘overdue laundry’

Answer 18

contrast between irresponsibility of youth and sobriety of adulthood.

Question 19

TFDIT - ‘alien pants, cinema stubs, the throwaway comment’

Answer 19

sentimentality of the insignificant - travel has emotional value

Question 20

TFDIT - ‘scare stories about Larium // - the threats of delerium’

Answer 20

caution and concern of the older speaker seeps into nostalgia

Question 21

TFDIT - ‘furthest distances I’ve travelled have been those between people’

Answer 21

the sentimental is more impactful than the physical

Question 22

TFDIT - ‘holidaying briefly in their lives’

Answer 22

brief nature of the past, fun and non-commital

Question 23

TFDIT - ‘anony // mity’

Answer 23

line break/uneven length demonstrates the lack of structure in youth and travels (contrast with the final quatrain)

Question 24

Poet of Giuseppe?

Answer 24

Roderick Ford

Question 25

G - Structure?

Answer 25

minimalist language/absence of figurative language for a magical realism poem and shortness of stanza 5, brutality of the truth

Question 26

G - 'my uncle Giuseppe told me'

Answer 26

second-hand monologue introduces the sense of doubt. How truly are events presented by the speaker?

Question 27

G - 'only captive mermaid' vs the 'doctor, a fishmonger, and certain others'

Answer 27

sense of her vulnerability, she is outnumbered by the use of listing. Threat against her is sizeable.

Question 28

G - 'but she screamed like a woman'

Answer 28

Argument marker introduces a sense of regret. Simile acts as a reminder of her humanity, doubt their own classification.

Question 29

G - 'never learned to speak // because she was simple, or so they'd said,' 'fish can't speak'

Answer 29

attempts to excuse the behaviour/justify cruelty with ignorance and desperation. parenthesis in first quote introduces doubt/propaganda.

Question 30

G - 'starvation forgives men many things'

Answer 30

Attempts to forgive/justify the cruelty of their behaviour (aware of brutality)

Question 31

G - 'butchered' 'her throat was cut'

Answer 31

cold and minimalist language dehumanises the mermaid. Attempt at justification/distancing their act from murder.

Question 32

G - 'She, it, had never learned to speak'

Answer 32

Parenthesis and caesura - reclassification through pronouns seems forced, can't convince himself of his own innocence.

Question 33

G - 'doctor' 'the priest' 'they cooked and fed the troops'

Answer 33

corruption of figures of morality and authority in their participation. Abuse of lower standing citizens, the authority make them complicit in their atrocities.

Question 34

G - 'in a box for burial' 'tried to take her wedding ring but the others stopped him'

Answer 34

Give her some level of humanity (not quite an animal). Do they understand their cruelty retrospecively?

Question 35

G - 'they said a large fish had been found on the beach'

Answer 35

Lies and shame shroud the activity, a need to be dishonest and decieve the masses.

Question 36

G - 'couldn't look me in the eye, // For which I thank God.'

Answer 36

gratitude that he at least feels shame for his actions, there is some hope left in the morality of man.

Question 37

G - 'my uncle, the aquarium keeper, said'

Answer 37

parentheses - labels him as her protector, is his crime worse for that? deceptive guise of safety for marginalised communities?