poetry

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clod and the pebble

  • the clod is conveyed to be a malleable, slefless kind of love that will seak to please the pebble which represents selfish love and how it is very stubborn 
  • The pebble will see joy in the downfall of the clod and will see delight in the downfall of the clod
  • There is a hint of vulnerability with the selfless love as they are pushed aside and it is invetiable that the clod will be pushed aside
  • As the clod is 'little' which suggests a weak and child like nature
  • The pebble shows a domination in the final stanza
  • the pebble is hard and resistant and will build'Hell in Heaven's despite'
  • The two types of love co-exist and what the selfish love takes the selfless love gives so although the selfless love is pushed aside the selfless love might stand up and be bolder for the selfless love
1 of 15

Song

  • love is personified as a difficult child 'love a child'
  • it can be seen as a beautiful thing a child or it could be seen as a warning and that love is bad for this
  • the poem shows men to be fickle and a bitter thing about love
  • A/A/B/B rhyme scheme shows a nursery rhyme and also shows to the reader that the poet is mocking men
  • it is trochaic( stresses the first syllable in each line)
  • parental love becomes more problematic in the second stanza and the hyperpole 'folly' is 'endless' 
  • there seems to be harsh judgements to make of a poem where it is actually about adult love
  • there is a decieving nature to the third stanza 'he vows nothing but false matter'
  • in the fourth stanza there is a turning point in which the fickleness of men becomes prominent 'vows' and 'false matter'
  • This is ambigous as it could be not letting you have a dominant lover or the fear that he will become fickle
  • Love is then shown to be a 'ravening beast' ready to consume nad destroy
2 of 15

father returning home

  • Very personal. as 'home' means warmth and safety it is not what is expected as he seems alienated from his working life and his only escape from this is to slep
  • his commute home is very dull and the station is connoted in a way that makes it seem very dull, boring and old which perhaps is a metaphor for the fathers age
  • there is also a sense that his life is 'falling apart' as he 'trembles at the sink and has 'greying hairs on his wrists.'
  • when he goes to eat the 'stale' chapati and 'weak' tea represent the washed out man and the ageing father(tragic figure)
  • his dreams are way of escaping from his boring life
3 of 15

for my grandmother knitting

  • the grandmother is ageing which shows how she is not needed any more and she is seen as the formal 'grandmother' and not granny which suggest emotional distance between her and her relatives
  • as she is constantly knitting there is no need for this and her grandchildren would happily buy clothes
  • there is real sympathy for the grandmother as she is worthless, ageing and fading figure in the poem
  • the quote 'needles still move their rhythms' suggests knitting is melodic and reminds her of her younger days of 'hard work'
  • the transition she made from bride, wife and mother are now in the past and her life is now coming to a close
  • she used to scrub the back of her husband who worked and toiled in the mines and now that she does not do this shows distance on her part
  • her awareness of her family is confused and eratic 'grasp of things'
4 of 15

coming home

  • This is a poem about change and how relationships change as people get older
  • The happy homecoming idea from the title juxtaposes what actually happens in the poem as the homecoming is shown to be cold and distant
  • the mothers hug is 'awkward' shows the distance
  • this regular visit home'each year' shows to the reader that this is a visit that he only makes because it is christmas and the fact that the father 'works on a hole that reappears every winter' 
  • the asterisk shows the distance as it is a metaphor for distance
  • the ' dough' represents what the son used to be when he was perhaps younger and this is backed up by the fact that the dough 'makes her over,' shows the connection
  • The father leaves the house when the son arrives so this to is a sign of distance
  • there is a clear idea that the son has left the house when nobody was wanting him to so there is a hint of resentment
  • the grandfather too is showing age as he hits the neck of the wine bottle against the wine glass and it is a 'tune' 'he plays faster each year' showing that the grandfather is ageing
5 of 15

stabat matter

  • An ambigous poem that tends to hide the true feelings and emotions
  • The fact that the mother married a lover older than her 'her father's elder') shows that there could be a distance there 
  • the sescond stanza has 9 syllables on the second line and a rather awkward rhythm and this also shows an imperfect marriage
  • There is a sign that the husband can be a powerful and dominant character
  • we see that the father needs support as he needs help from his wife 
  •  
6 of 15

passion

  •   It is about someone wallowing in their heartbreak induced misery
  • this laments the fact that they feel this way
  • There is a A/A/A/B/B/B rhyme scheme which constructs the poem as a chant
  • she lacks tranquility and calm that the 'trees' have
7 of 15

the lost woman

  • death is approached obliquely in the title 
  • the verb 'went' turns out in the . end to be a euphemism for death
  • there is the idea of a barrier to the daughter
  • the poem is mainly about death and the loss of her mother at age 14
  • this asks a more questions than awnsered 'Frustrated no more by a dull marriage',
  • there is then the exploration of the nature of imagining 'A corpse they need never to get to know'.
  • the phrase 'has acquired' makes it sound like something that just happens to heroes and poets. 
  • There is the idea of haunting 'Haunt' suggests the unceasing presence of the ghost and has darker connotations
  • There is a hint of gentleness of light at dawn'soft and crepuscular in rabbit-light she comes out.'
8 of 15

Love3

  • this highlights gods loving nature and 
  • gods loving nature is highlighted by the use of 'love'
  • love invites the speaker to enjoy the hospitality
9 of 15

lovers' infiniteness

  • The structure of the poem is intrinsic to exploring love.
  • it refers to love as solving a puzzle
  • it convey how true love can be experienced when there is no constraints 
  • liberty is given to each other's hearts
10 of 15

she was a phantom of delight

  • he speaks about her wife and when he first saw her
  • it is about his initial feelings towards his wife
  • expression of love for his wife
  • throughout the poem the poet uses a 'gushing' tone to show his appreciation
  • he sees her as perfection
11 of 15

tiger in the menagerie

  • the tiger stands for the suppressed feelings and wild nature of humans
  • The violance comes at night which ends up withthe deaths of other animals
  • The amilas are afraid of the tiger because it reflects the wild side of human nature
12 of 15

lion heart

  • this poem is about the tranformation of singapore due to the arrival of the mythical merlion
  • the poet conveys a very strong sense of patriotism and love for the people of her country throughout the poem using a very rich and developed vocabulary for a 16 year old
  • the poem depicts the magnificence of the island of the powerful east that became the emblem of the city state
13 of 15

heart and mind

  • The poem develops the argument that the heart and the mind are very different.The first stanza had a conversation between a lion and a lioness
  • The lion tells the lioness that the glory of their existence should be remebered even when they are dead. The heart and the body are one and the same according to the lion. The heart is compared to strong heroes like hercules and samson who wre brought to dust y the heart and its affairs. The sun tells the moon that even till the end of time the heart and the mind are SEPARATED
14 of 15

last sonnet

  • The speaker would rather spend eternity with his lover than see all the beauty the world has to offer
  • the bright star represents his love for her
15 of 15

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