she became a receptionist at a psychiatric hospital
war-time childhood
on the surface her poetry seems to encapsulate those traditional, stoic English values we associate with the period
England and Englishness are central themes of her work- but such reading misses the wit and sly debunking of national myth which mark Fanthorpe's sensibility
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Tile ' A Minor Role' and Verse One
poem's subject is ambigious , is she an ill person or suppporting someone who is ill
the whole poem is metaphorical
A Minor Role- suggest unimportance or irrelevant to actual play
Poet remains reader of Shakespeare's 'All the World's a Stage'
Verse One
'I am best observed on stage,' - theatre - first person/ direct talking
distance , objective perspection
'Propping a spear'- metaphorical , impendining weaponary
'endless ( next line), Exits and entrances' - enjambment
Phatic talk
'These midget moments'- alliteration -idea that job is more important than people think- idea of minor or small
'the monstrous fabric' -negative - people's reaction / people will notice if she makes a mistake
monstrous - frightening
'Shrinks to unwanted sniggers' - everyone will be horrible and judge her
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Verse Two and Verse Three
'But my heart's in the the unobtrusive'- passive/ supportive
'Veteran magazines '- linking to war / a magazine for older people
'asking pointed Questions politely' - trying to make a point - her experience
'Dates'- being on time
'Substaining the background music of civility' - illness is starting to show , langauge shows how she has dealt with the serious illness
musical stage metaphor
she is trying to maintain nomaility
covering up true meaning
Verse Three
Walking fast in case anyone stops' - physicial evasion
'O getting on, getting better my formula' - lingustical evasion
indirectness of politness in italics covering up true meaning
not wanting to interact- does not want to tell the truth
practising what to say - use of 'O' makes it more Shakesperean
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Verse Four and Verse Five
'Contrive meals for a hunger -striker' - symantic field of conflict- someone who is not eating
'Whimisical soft-centred happy-all -the -way through novels;' - reading to or books given to someone who is ill - of a superficial or unrealistic nature
'Find the cat ( mysteriously reassuring)' - a little thing -without languate -so cannot judge her
'Cancel things, tidy things ; pretend all's well,' - imperitives - giving orders to herself thoughout - ongoing list is not fluent
Verse Five
'Learn to conjugate all the genres of misery:' - change, linguistical change
For a simpler illness, like a broken leg.' - ironic also as maybe it is easier to portray a broken leg on stage and also the theatre saying 'don't break a leg' e.g a lucky break
suggests the illness is either mental or terminal
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Verse 5 and Verse 6
Enduring ceremonial delays.' - sense of ongoing state -things which are expected to be done - which are all meaningless
'saying Thank You' -very english trait ( to say it just for the sake of politeness )- civility- cynical
'For anything and everything' - suggests unsatisfactory- like playing a part -direct
'Not the star part.' - discarded
'I jettison the spear' - theatre props- war terminology
'the terrible drone of Chorus' - part of play - narrator in Greek plays
'Yet to my thinking this act was ill-advised it would have been better to die'- quoted from Oedipus Rex
'No it wouldn't!' - overall the person wants to live despite the repetative nature of the illness/situation they are in
the poet is rejecting the quotation
Final Line ' I am here to make you believe in life '- poet's thoughts on life suggests they have a purpose - they may be a helper
on its own it is a direct statement that contrasts to the euphemistic politeness seen elsewhere in the poem
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Thoughts on poem's ending
Odedipus Rex is a Greek play / a Freudian concept -of the mother/son relationship called the Odedipus Complex
the Chorus in this play laments that even a great man can be settled by fate and that it is better to die than to live in a physical or metaphorical blindness
the end of this play suggests the the women has a reason for being there and that life is a stage ( just like the Shakespeare text)
metaphorically the idea of not wanting to see the truth ( prophesy) can be interpreted from this poem
or that life is not literature or a metaphor to be lived
the concept of speaking truthfully instead of thorugh euphemisms - employing language to hid what is really happening
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