BORDER COUNTRY - SHEERS

Explores growing up and deals SUBTEXTUALLY with the idea of rural decline

Speaker's friend's father (a depressed Farmer) took his life by shooting himself in a cornfield

His death is blamed for catapulting the friend into adulthood too quickly and leaving him forever mentally scarred

Wales in the late 90s and early 2000s was a tough place for Farmers because: 

- It was the wake of the BSE epidemic (mad cow disease)

- There were disputes within families over inheritance of land and farms because less and less children were taking on their parents Farm way of life and instead just wanting the money

- The outbreak of foot and mouth disease from cattle in 2001 and 2002

- Because of the diseases, incomes declined for Farmers

In June 2001, BBC Wales reported 3 seperate suicides that were linked through the fact they were by Farmers who died because of additional pressures faced as a consequence of the diseases

STRUCTURE

Border Country is given huge prominance because of its placement being right at the heart of the collection's first half

Sheers ununsually uses 9 line stanzas which allows him to fully elaborate on the extensive narrative of the poem (strongest narrative of all the poems in Skirrid Hill). It also allows him to create subtle structural effects which leads to the view of a CINEMATIC performance as the narrative moves

2nd Stanza: The narrative perspective shifts from that of first person singular to first person plural

In the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Stanza: we see the shared story of two friends which on the surface appears joyous and full of pleasant memories of abandoned cars and open air, but in reality hides hints of a more sinister nature of death and suffering

Last 2 stanzas (5 + 6): Sheers brings a greater significance to the story by shifting perspective yet again from first person plural to first person singular in the tale of the present day. The chronology moves forward.

The speaker returns to the site where he used to play but states how the magic has "diminished" and now there are "just cars in a quarry" where there used to be games and fun

IMAGERY

The opening image is set like an establishing shot as the reader sees the "car quarry" in the present time before cinematically dissolving into the image of the past - the "elephant's graveyeard of cars" which suggests the speaker's original view of it while he was small and a child. It holds 2 functions from this image:

1) EXPOSITORY (opening of narrative that introduces the characters and situation) reader is made aware of place in…