The Lammas Hireling

Question 1

(1) ‘after the fair, I’d still a light heart’

Answer 1

initial tone of celebration and happiness

Question 2

(1) ‘heavy purse’ ‘yields doubled’

Answer 2

farmer initially presented as money obsessed

Question 3

(1) ‘cattle doted him’

Answer 3

hireling seems to have natural affinity for animals
FORESHADOWS his own animal identity

Question 4

(1) ‘I grew fond of company
That knew when to shut up’

Answer 4

JUXTAPOSITION - unreliability of farmer portrayed
- reiterates the shifting attitudes of the farmer

Question 5

(1+2) ‘Then one night,
Disturbed from dreams…’

Answer 5

CAESURA - shift in time
- night - time for transgression
- period of literal and metaphorical darkness

Question 6

(2) ‘Disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife’

Answer 6

PLOSIVE ALLITERATION (D’s)
- introduces a darker and more violent tone

Question 7

(2) ‘in the light from the dark lantern’

Answer 7

CONTRASTING LIGHT IMAGERY -
- aids broader ambiguity and uncertainty of the realness and the concealment of the death

Question 8

(3) ‘By its yellow witness’

Answer 8

PERSONIFICATION - of moon
- moon judging narrator
- committing crime against nature

Question 9

(3) ‘I saw him fur over like a stone mossing’

Answer 9

SIMILE -
- ‘stone’ lacks life just like the hierling now does

Question 10

(4) ‘I don’t dream
But spend my nights casting call from half crowns’

Answer 10

Paranoia and worry forces him out of a money fixated mindset

Question 11

(4) ‘It has been an hour since my last confession’

Answer 11

cycle of seeking forgiveness (frantic)
Once carefree now ridden with worry and paranoia.