V Revision

Question 1

Where did Tony Harrison visit before writing the poem V?

Answer 1

Beeston Cemetery

Question 2

What was happening in 1984 when Harrison wrote V?

Answer 2

The Miner’s strike

Question 3

In what year was the poem V written?

Answer 3

1984

Question 4

What is the name of a four-line stanza, like the one Harrison uses in V?

Answer 4

Quatrain

Question 5

What rhyme scheme does Harrison use in V?

Answer 5

ABAB

Question 6

What is the function of epigraph in V?

Answer 6

Highlights the importance of speech and articulation (similar to Marked with D)

Question 7

What meter does V use?

Answer 7

Iambic pentameter

Question 8

In the third line of the third stanza of V, Harrison uses what meter instead?

Answer 8

Trimeter

Question 9

Who was Aurthur Scargill?

Answer 9

A British trade unionist

Question 10

Which 18th century poem influence the writing of V?

Answer 10

Elegy in A County Churchyard by Thomas Gray

Question 11

The title V seems to stand for?

Answer 11

Versus. Harisson explores multiple ideas of divisions throughout the poem.

Question 12

In line 3 of V, why is their use of parenthesis ‘now me’ to break up the list of family occupations?

Answer 12

It symbolises the separation he feels from the employment of his family.

Question 13

Who are Byron and Wordsworth in the poem V?

Answer 13

They are the names of people buried there, not the famous poets.

Question 14

Analyse: ‘we’ll all be thrown together if the pit’

Answer 14

Presents death as equaliser, highliting the pointlessness of class difference compared to the concept of life, death and time.

Question 15

In line 13, Harisson describes the mines as ‘galleries’. Why?

Answer 15

He gives working-class life a meaningful value that perhaps his peers do not.

Question 16

What technique does Harisson use in line 16 to bring to life the descruction of industrial life?

Answer 16

Onomatopoeia - ‘crushed’ and ‘smashed’

Question 17

Wordsworth built church organs, Byron tanned luggage…and knew ____ _____’

Answer 17

their place

Question 18

____ in on the lowest worked out seam’

Answer 18

caves

Question 19

Employment in manufactuaring fell from 7.1 million in 1979 to what in 1993?

Answer 19

4.4 million

Question 20

Today, how many mining sites are left in operation?

Answer 20

Two

Question 21

in 1964, how many coal pits were in operation?

Answer 21

545

Question 22

In June 1984, 5000 miners faced 8000 police officers in what came to be known as?

Answer 22

The Battle of Orgreave

Question 23

by spraying words on tombstones, pissed on beer’ is similar to the disdain Harrison feels towards the working-class in which other poem?

Answer 23

Divisions

Question 24

On line 33, how does Harrison use setting to comment on the destruction of the working-class way of life?

Answer 24

The graveyard (a symbol of death) is ‘above the worked-out pit.’

Question 25

What technique does Harrison use by mentioning the 'graveyard ranges from a bit of Latin' and then writing 'CUNT, PISS'?

Answer 25

Juxtaposition

Question 26

What is the effect of 'the sprayed master of his flourished tool'?

Answer 26

It mocks the vandal by comparing to an artist but could also hint at the alter-ego revelation to come.

Question 27

What is Harisson critiquing when he states 'never marked his worked much with at school'?

Answer 27

The limited nature of working-class education compared to his grammar school one. He focuses on the limited expression again.

Question 28

In his list of different vs from line 70, why does he use enjambment to place class on a different stanza?

Answer 28

Because class v class is the main focus of the poem.

Question 29

What contextual event is references on line 77?

Answer 29

Sir Ian McGregor (National Coal Board) versuse the NUM (National Union of Miners)

Question 30

Why does Harrison focus on the time he hasn't spent tending to his parents' graves from lines 100-103?

Answer 30

To show this displacement he feels from the past/from his class.

Question 31

What is Harrison referring to in line 140?

Answer 31

Prince of Wales Colliery, Pontefract.

Question 32

let the people know who's _____ their ______'

Answer 32

forged/fetters

Question 33

Why do the advertisements and sings (like 'the big blue star') dwarf the lads?

Answer 33

It serves as a reminder of the imbalance of power in the world. Advertisments used to sell products that help keep the working-class down or from work.

Question 34

What is KRUPP?

Answer 34

A company that supplied weapons to the Nazis and used slave labour. It continued to trade in the post-war world, highliting corruption.

Question 35

According to Harisson on line 148/149 what keeps the 'British ruling class' up?

Answer 35

clandestine, genteel aggro'

Question 36

What does Harisson mean by 'clandestine, genteel aggro'?

Answer 36

He is referring to the suppresion of threats to the social order such as riots, strikes and protests.

Question 37

Between lines 153 and 155, the speaker asks 3 questions. Why?

Answer 37

It shows his conflicted nature. He fights for the right of the working-class to express themselves but is also disgusted by their chosen form of expression.

Question 38

When talking about the graffiti sprayed on 'the pitman's' and 'grocer Broadbent's' graves, what is Harrison trying to show?

Answer 38

The difference between the meaninful employment of the past versus the juvenile vandalism of the present.

Question 39

Who seeminly interrupts the speaker?

Answer 39

A skinhead

Question 40

The skinhead actually turns out to be?

Answer 40

His alter-ego.

Question 41

How does Harisson employ bathos to introduce the skinhead?

Answer 41

The intelligence of being bi-lingual 'cri-de-couer' is undercut by the vulgarity of the speech 'CUNT'

Question 42

What is the impact of 'fucking Greek'?

Answer 42

It establishes the difference betweent the two personas due to the humorous mistake made by the skinhead.

Question 43

How does 'fucking poetry obscene' link to one of Harisson's other poems?

Answer 43

It shows a similar disdain for his own work that we see in Working.

Question 44

Folk on t'fucking dole // ave got about as much scope to ____ // above the shit they're dumped in'

Answer 44

aspire

Question 45

What really riles a bloke. // Is reading on their graves the ____ they did -'

Answer 45

jobs

Question 46

been on t'dole all mi life in fucking ______'

Answer 46

Leeds

Question 47

The cunts who lieth 'ere wor _______'

Answer 47

unemployed

Question 48

Following 'Byron' with 'Tanner' in line 207 shows what?

Answer 48

The importance of work to working-class identity.

Question 49

Why does the skinhead suggest that 'poet' is 'a crude four letter word'?

Answer 49

It shows Harrison's critique of his employment compared to the manufacturing working-class of the past he admires.

Question 50

ungrateful cunts like you a ______!'

Answer 50

hearing

Question 51

Why does the skinhead not believe a book is 'worth a fuck'?

Answer 51

Because of his class, he has not been educated well enough to find value in it.

Question 52

Why does the skinhead swear so much?

Answer 52

To emphasise his limited form of expression.

Question 53

The skinhead's limited form of expression could link to which other poem in the collection?

Answer 53

His father in Marked for D

Question 54

What attitude is revealed in 'Don't fucking bother, cunt! Don't waste your breath!'?

Answer 54

The hopelessness of subject.

Question 55

What is the meaning behind the skinhead diminishing the speaker's anecdote about rebelion between lines 226 ad 249?

Answer 55

It solidifies the separation between the two. Harrison cannot pretend to be like them.

Question 56

Don't talk to me of fucking _______ // the class yer born into any more.'

Answer 56

representing

Question 57

it's not _____ we need in this class war.'

Answer 57

poetry

Question 58

Which quotation reveals the skinhead is the alter ego?

Answer 58

He aerosolled his name. And it was mine.'

Question 59

What technique does Harrison use to make the revelation of his alter ego more emphatic in 'He aerosolled his name. And it was mine.'

Answer 59

Caesura

Question 60

What is the skinhead meant to symbolise in the poem?

Answer 60

The unpoliticised, alienated young men of the 70s and 80s.

Question 61

Who is 'the enemies within' a reference to?

Answer 61

Margaret Thatcher

Question 62

Why does 'That UNITED that I'd wished onto the nation' 'recede'?

Answer 62

The speaker realises the impossibility of stopping the conflict between classes or bringing about loyalty.

Question 63

What does 'cavernous hollow' 'gravestones lean' 'matter of mere time' 'all the resters down' reveal?

Answer 63

The fragility of the old way of life that is slowly eroding away.

Question 64

still years away from being _____ or skin ______.'

Answer 64

skald/skin

Question 65

What does 'still years away from being skald or skin' suggest about the boys' future?

Answer 65

Their is hope for them perhaps to not turn into the skinhead. However, only two options reveals there are still limitations on them.

Question 66

goes by routes that I don't _______'

Answer 66

recognize

Question 67

House after house ___ _____'

Answer 67

FOR SALE

Question 68

What two things did a 1000 ages makes?

Answer 68

Coal-bearing seams' (the old generation) 'the hand that sprayed CUNT' (new generation)

Question 69

The 'Methodist and C of E billboards' reveal what?

Answer 69

Another historical conflict (a versus)

Question 70

The fact that the 'Methodist and C of E biloards' have become warehouses reveals what?

Answer 70

The death of the past way of life. Religion was often very important to working-class cultures previously.

Question 71

Between lines 395 and 399 which three conflicts are referenced?

Answer 71

The Gulf War, Miner's Strike and Northern Irish Troubles

Question 72

Why does the speaker desire one small v to be left on his grave?

Answer 72

He is desperate for victory or to be untied forever.