The Bend in the Road Flashcards
Exact, precise, specific. Suggests it is a memory but not written in first person. Enjambment
This is the place where the child
Felt sick in the car and they pulled over
Alliteration. Simile. Personification. Description of a tree through a cat. A lot of nature.
A tall tree like a cat’s tail waited too.
Mysterious and tense. Dark atmosphere of anticipation.
waited in the shadow of a house.
Factual, no attached emotion. Short, clipped and to the point. The child was feeling better.
Then he was better.
Now it transforms into a memory. Less detached as it moves from ‘the child’ to ‘you’. Seems reflective and a fond memory. An annual trip that was taken.
Over twelve years it has become the place
Where you were sick one day on the way to the lake.
The idea of time passing by and things changing. Nature will take over everything if allowed to do so, it always wins in the end. Nice description of ivy.
The tree is taller, the house is quite covered in
With green creeper
Still quite tense, an undertone to this fond memory. Appealing to hearing.
the road is as silent as ever
The silence seems to be the one blemish in this place. It is the one odd thing out about this place of natural beauty, the eerie silence. Assonance, Simile, Alliteration.
Piled high, wrapped lightly, like one cumulus cloud
In a perfect sky
Memory of someone who passed away (her sister). Loss and grief still raw.
The faces never long absent from thought
Sibilance. It seemed to be a long death filled with illness. Illustrates the fragility of sick people and how it consumes them.
We saw them wrapped and sealed by sickness
The horrible feeling of knowing somebody will die and that the illness will get the better of them. Effective and harrowing line
We knew they could not carry for long
However, solace can be found in seeing them in the things around you. Seeing them in the good memories you have of them. Can sense the person is with you.
This is the place of their presence: in the tree, in the air.
