Time

Written by: Allen Curnow in christchurch
Type: Personification Poem
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBBCCCDDDEEEFFFGGG (rhyming triplets)

- Repetition of  'I am' throughout poem'

STANZA 1
- "Nor'west air nosing among the pines" --> nature on land and air
- "Water-race" --> nature in water
- "Mileage recorded on yellow signs"
- Tries to define time as something measurable (i.e with numbers)
- Yellow Signs are exclusive to New Zealand and Australia

STANZA 2
- Lupins: flower/plant that has grown wild in New Zealand
- "lupins", "sole-charge teachers", "cows" -->Describes the rural New Zealand 
- "sums" --> Number of children.investment of time towards new the new generation.

STANZA 3
- Describes the metropolitan cities of New Zealand
- "nine o'clock" --> Places time where nothing is happening.
- "Slap of the belt", "Smell of the machine" --> The industrialisation.
- "Where the lovers were seen" --> Time is love within a busy life.

STANZA 4
- Describes time as a collection of sounds  
- "recurrent music" --> implies happiness, laughter 

STANZA 5
- Stops repetition of 'I am' here.
- "I, Time, am all of these, yet these exist" --> implies that time omnipresent. It is measurable yet immeasurable.
- Enjambment between line 1 and 2.

STANZA 6
- make memories measurable 

STANZA 7
- "Father, farm and friend," --> internal alliteration.  
- Implies that time is everything.

BIG 5
1. AUDIENCE/PURPOSE: tries to answer the private and unanswerable  

2. CONTENT/THEME: In the poem time is being described through personification and imagery. Themes are time, strong memories, the metaphysical and nature 

3. TONE/MOOD: Quite a philosophical poem. 

4. STYLISTIC DEVICES: Repetition, alliteration, personification.

5. STRUCTURE: triplet rhymes.