Song For A Spent 100W Bulb Flashcards
(7 cards)
poetic linguistics
-one stanza 16 lines, forming indentation of a bulb like shape
- free verse, idea of freedom of self expression and the train of thought
- enjambment to mimic the unending nature of his creativity
-caesura marking the volta between life of the bulb and the death of the bulb, placement midline perhaps to present how unexpected life and death can be
other linguistics
-anaphora quantifiers ‘too bright to live long too costly’ idea of limitation, that talent and freedom has to be quantified.
-euphony ‘memory milky glass shell’ a pleasant tribute to all that the bulb represented and provided to the boy
-semantic field of end ‘after-image’, ‘dying’, ‘dark’
-juxtaposition of ‘sun’ and ‘dark’
contexts
- idea of intergenerational conflict, his mothers financial realism and limits vs his ambition and unlimited creativity
- idea of life and death, the fragility of life and the impact of death
- idea of finding a voice
themes
ambition, voice, finance, conflict, life, death, limitation and creativity
quotes
‘too bright to live long, too costly my mother feared’
‘guzzling the mains, little sun’
‘searing fistful of feverish light’
‘after image, of dying memory, milky glass shell.’
phonetic linguistics
homophone ‘little sun’ sounds endearing like ‘little son’ both provide light/ a place to feel safe
assonance ‘suDDenly emptieD plinkeD out’ creates a phonetic vigour, like a brutal death.
fricatives ‘fistful of feverish light’- endurance of hard work and the danger of pushing limits (personal and financial)
- volta in length of sound long ‘i’ sounds that transition into short ‘i’ sounds.
title analysis
‘song’- means of self expression
‘for’- idea of an ode and a dedication connotations of death
‘spent’- idea of extinction of life and death
‘100w’- idea of limitation of life and existence, maximum wattage, mothers financial limits, trying to make it last
‘bulb’- circular like the nature of life and difficulty
