moon on the tides

poem notes from moon on the tides relationships section
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Hour

  • extended metaphors - depicts time and money as enemies
  • "love's time's beggar" - love is at the mercy of time, time represented as harsh on love, we are slaves to time
  • "makes love rich" - time is so special that it is like being rich, rather have time than money
  • "spend it not on flowers" - materialistic objects of love don't matter, they just want time together
  • "we are millionaires" - feels rich just for spending time with the person they love
  • similie - "bright as a dropped coin" - even the smallest of things can be precious (Love)
  • "no jewel hold a candle to the cuckoo spit"- dew on grass, something natural is much more beautiful than any jewel
  • short sentences - "Now.", they come back into reality and time becomes a problem again
  • personification - "Time hates love", to have feelings of hatred
  • repetition - "gold, gold, gold" - echoing everything in the poem
  • "backhanding the night" - paying off the night to stay away for as long as possible
  • Structure - a sonnet (represents love), uses enjambment - shows time is unpredictable, have no control over it
  • myth - "midas light" - king Midas, greedy king, made wish that everything would turn to gold, eventually died as nothing to eat, the midas touch - things turning to gold
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In Paris with you

  • title - "In Paris With You" - "Paris" could be a metaphor for love, he is trying to convince himself he is in love with this girl, city of love - you instantly think it will be about romance
  • coloquial language - "I've had an earful" - lots of arguments, had a bad relationship in past
  • extended metaphor- war/battle, "walking wounded" - not dead but very hurt,"I'm a hostage" - held against your will, alone, vulnerable,metaphhor of what love has done to him
  • "I'm maroonded" - stretching of word emphasizes rythm but also shows he is drunk
  • "Yes I'm angry" - continues conversation with himself, being miserable and in love makes him selfish character
  • "resentful" - bitter, regretful, can't believe he gave up time for that person, doesn't talk about any good times they had
  • "don't care where are we bound" - doesn't care where new relationship goes, just wants someone else there
  • next stanza - "do you mind if we..." - stops talking about old relationship, talking to the girl he is with now
  • "sleazy" - not at all romantic
  • "doing this and that to what and whom" - sexual references, past relationship left him in such a bad state that he doesn't care about anything anymore
  • symbolism - "a crack across the ceiling" - room a metaphor for his life, falling apart, so why not spend time with this girl
  • Repetition - "I'm in Paris with..." - If change "Paris" for "love" it gives a whole different meaning, can't bring himself to say he loves her because he doesn't but feels he has to as about to have a physical relationship
  • "Am I embarrassing you?" - could also be addressing reader, we're watching their intimate moments, could also be embarrassed as it is quite sad, he can talk to the reader because this isn't an intimate moment
  • rhyming throughout is inconsistant showing inconsitancy of love
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quickdraw

  • symbolism - associated with gun fight, represents the  struggle of love
  • free verse - showing the mess their relationship is in
  • enjambment - don't know where the relationship will go
  • punctuation - makes you stop and think, represents what's happening in the poem
  • present tense - shows it may not last, makes it seem more unpredictable
  • she is prepared to have argument over the phone - makes it more difficult for them to interact
  • similie - "like guns"- phones can be a powerful weapon
  • "I'm all alone." - she is vulnerable, isolated, a short tumble weed moment before the fighting begins
  • "you ring, quickdraw, your voice a pellet in my ear," - action happens very quickly, what person says emotionally hurts her
  • "next time, you speak after the tone." - wont pick up, doesn't want to be hurt again
  • "squeeze the trigger of my tongue" - plans to speak harsh words
  • "wide of the mark" - words didn't work/can't get words out
  • "I show the mobile to the sheriff; in my boot, another one's concealed" - she is up for a fight but still loves the perso and wants something to be saved
  • "I reel" - other person is saying it's her decision to decide what happens in relationship
  • "down on my knees" - shows she wants them to be together
  • "silver bullets of your kiss" - kiss represents saving the love
  • "take this... and this... and this... and this... and this..." - kisses, have made up
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Ghazal

  • symbolism - nature represents their love, an ongoing circle, the love is natural, not forced/fake, it is real
  • about love but there is a sense of confusion
  • couplets throughout - makes poem seem playful but also quite intense, two lines represent to people together
  • imagery - "you the breeze" - calm image, "I am the rose and you the bird" - love birds
  • repetition - throughout poem, "me", posessive, shows relationship with sense of attatchment
  • "If I am" - introduces the fact that she will keep bringing new things into each stanza
  • "don't hang on my lips" - just want to come out and say it, truthful relationship
  • "when you cue me" - she's reliant on him
  • metaphor - "iron fist in the velvet glove" - something tough, with love the deeper you go the more flaws you find
  • "when the arrow flies" - cupid, few opposite references to nature (manmade things) could symbolise obstacles of love
  • "the venemous tongue, the serpent's tail" - adam +eve, she doesn't think she's perfect/trustworthy, has had problems in the past
  • "use your charm, weave a spell" - man has control, snake charmer, can't get away from love
  • "oh if I were that bark!" - bark has no feelings, just an object
  • "so old and still in leaf" - wise like and old person but wants to look young and have lots of time
  • "moth to my flame - pursue me?" - he goes to her, sense of confusion
  • "I rise in the east as you die in the west" - sun+moon, in a cycle together but far away, opposites
  • "every night renew me" - feels like she is new person when with him, sexual reference
  • "I'll be twice the me I am, if only half the world you are to me" - you're everything to me, I want to be better for you
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The manhunt

  • Speaker is searching for man her husband used to be (before war)
  • Were once very close to eachother
  • enjambment - stresses effects of his injury showing it is continuous / she physically traces his injuries, link to how the lines just carries on
  • Repetition - "only then" throughout poem, shows how its taken a long time for him to let her tough him
  • Metaphors - "the frozen river" - refering to scars, she relates him to objects to show lack of connection between them now - all emotion in his face has frozen up
  • "the blown hinge of his lower jaw" - like a puppet, emphasizes lack of emotion/disconnected
  • "handle and hold" - similarity to marriage vows (to have and to hold) - she wants to love and care for him
  • "could I bind the struts" - build a house, provide him with a foundation/protection, she is supporting him
  • "feel the hurt of his grazed heart" - hasn't got a whole heart anymore but she is getting closer to him - she is at his heart even though it is broken
  • "a sweating unexploded mine" - fear + panick, waking up in the middle of the night, time bomb, he can't shake off war
  • "then, and only then, did I come close" - getting better but she will never fully understand how bad it was
  • couplets - show the two of them together but is not quite working, could represent bullets, listing all the things that have happened to him
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Brothers

  • "saddled with you" - stuck, stops you being free, heavy burden, drags you down
  • "ambled" - casually walked, not paying much attention
  • "threadbare field" - dry, bare, hot summer, weeks of doing nothing
  • "you skipped beside us" - happy, doesn't realise he is not wanted, skipping suggests can't keep up in pace or life
  • "spouting" - random, upredictable, unwanted, not clear ideas
  • "Rotherham United" - typical boys
  • "suddenly you froze"- not involved in what older brother is doing
  • "go and ask mum"  - younger one has to rely on mother
  • "windmilled home" - running, clumsy, arms flying, makes him seem even younger
  • "doing what grown-ups do" - older brother and Paul are at same stage in life
  • "we chased olympic gold" - racing to get bus, childish, now little brother's gone don't feel the need to act older
  • "Looking back" - start of a mature person
  • "spring" - still happy
  • "unable to close the distance I'd set in motion" - won't be able to make them close again, little brother won't want to spend as much time with him
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Praise Song For My Mother

  • Repetition - "you were", mother passed away, emphasizing how she is no longer here, holding back some of her emotion
  • Extended metaphor - nature, was a natural and pure relationship, unstopable, we abuse nature but also respect it, it is the same with parents
  • "water" - precious, you need water/mothers to survive
  • Lack of punctuation/enjambment - idea of continuous cycle of water and love
  • Imagery - "moon's eye to me pull and grained and mantling", moon causes tide to change, always has an impact, always looking down on you/ looking after you, always letting you take centre stage, has holes in it/arguing but are still always together
  • "sunrise to me" - a new start/new day, she will always be there because the sun will always rise
  • "rise and warm and streaming" - strong, kind hearted, giving
  • "the fishes red gill to me" - connected by blood, important colour, love, fish can't breath without gills
  • "the crab's leg/the fried plantain smell" - her favourite things from Caribbean, thinking about childhood
  • "replenishing replenishing" - giving new life, thinking about being with her mother makes her feel better
  • "Go to your futures, you said" - mothers last words, make the most of your life, think about what's all around you
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Harmonium

  • "was gathering dust" - sad imagery, grand organ with sophistocated name but it's gathering dust, like age, you're all fresh and new and suddenly become old
  • "Shadowy" - old, dark dismal
  • "bundled off to the skip" - undignified image for a grand organ, not wanted
  • "or was mine" - more personal
  • "for a song" - have that for a song(cheap),pun
  • "sunlight through stained glass...had aged the harmonium's softwood case" - church looks beautiful in sun + gives a positive image, but that has damaged the organ
  • Personification - "yellowed the fingernails" "had lost its tongue", links to talk about father at the end, makes you sympathise for organ
  • repetition - "pedalled and pedalled", overused, aged, past it's prime, all relate to father
  • "where father and son" - watched everything that has gone on for 100 years, a family place, unity, being close - has experienced all of this
  • "gilded finches" - covered in gold, shows power of father + son's voice, god-like, rich sound, rich with love
  • "his" - informal relationship with dad
  • "cart it away" - lack of regard for it
  • imagery - "flat, laid on it's back" - like carrying a coffin, death imagery, personified
  • "he being him" - knows him well and is quite critical
  • "some shallow or sorry phrase or word" - lack of understanding, finds it hard to know what to say, doesn't know how to deal with it
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Sonnet 116

  • "Let me not" - no problems can get in the way of serious, true love
  • "marriage of true minds" - not literal marriage, just joining together, serious/important, considered love
  • "which alters when it alteration finds" - always be yourself/don't change for anyone
  • "ever-fixed mark" - a lighthouse, strong, guides people, never moves
  • extended metaphor - love is a lighthouse, constantly faced with troubles but never moves
  • "the star" - Northstar guides sailors, love can guide you through tough times
  • "love's not time's fool" - used in hour, time can't stop love, opposite meaning to hour
  • "rosy lips and cheeks" - physical beauty fades but love doesn't
  • "even to the edge of doom" - will only end when everything ends
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To his coy mistress

  • metaphysical poetry - comparisons of a spiritual quality to a concrete object
  • "coy" - shy, suggests she is sort of lady society suggests, doesn't want sex before marriage
  • "were no crime" - suggests her behaviour is wrong
  • "pass our long love's day" - spend so much time together
  • "shouldst rubies find" - metaphor for finding new things/experiences
  • "before the flood" - Noah's ark, B.C, uses biblical references even though he believes in sex before marriage
  • "my vegetable love should grow" - metaphor for love is constantly growing
  • "time's wingéd chariot" - fast moving, suggests death, comes to take you away
  • "quaint honour" - virtue, virginity not important
  • "into ashes all my lust" - just be ashes
  • "none, i think, do there embrace" - mocking
  • "sits on thy skin like morning dew" - while you look so beautiful, dew can look precious and beautiful, similie
  • "instant fires" - lust, passion, sexual reference
  • "amorous birds of prey" - quaint love birds with dominance of a hawk
  • "all our strength and all our sweetnes" - roles of men and women
  • "iron gates of life" - going to heaven
  • "sun stand still" - stop time
  • carpe diem - seizing the day, life's to short, making the most of life
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The Farmer's Bride

  • Wife links to nature - suggests immaturity/purity, feels more comfortable around nature than people, marriage is suppost to be very natural but she goes against that
  • farmer slightly uneducated because of the way he speaks
  • "but there's more to do" - doesn't have time for her
  • Similie - "like the shut of a winter's day" - icy, cold, not approachable
  • "frightened fay" - fairy or elf
  • "we chased her, flying like a hare" - link to nature, fast, scared
  • "turned the key upon her" - locks her up like he would do to an animal
  • she is isolated/trapped in the marriage
  • "he...tree...she...me" - erratic rhyme, unpredictable, unpredictable characters
  • "white rime" - frost
  • "some other in the house than we" - he feels alone,wants children and a normal marriage
  • each stanza ends with a rhyming couplet apart from last as he is getting sidetracked thinking about her
  • repetition - "her hair, her hair!" - fantasizes about her, despiration of her appearance
  • written from farmers point of view so maybe slightly biased
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Sister Maude

  • "my shame" - relationship
  • repetition - in first stanza, references to family
  • "as cold as stone" - similie
  • "clotted curls" - beauty in death
  • "worthy of a queen's embrace" - has a lot of respect
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Nettles

  • begins and ends with simple statement - like having an introduction and conclusion
  • iambic pentameter is the rhyme of poem - rhyme being same could suggest nettles always growing back + son going through same things in life
  • "bed" - seems rediculous as not a place of rest
  • "green spears" - reference to war, shape
  • extended metaphor of war and fighting
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Comments

Navi Kaurdashian

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Has been so helpful! Thank you 

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