Gooseberry Season

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  • Created by: ellierg
  • Created on: 22-01-15 18:09

Which reminds me. He appeared
at noon, asking for water. He’d walked from town
after losing his job, leaving a note for his wife and his brother
and locking his dog in the coal bunker.
We made him a bed

The 'which reminds me' starts as though the narrator is in mid conversation, it is casual an finforml which suggests he is commfortable with it.

'at noon' is a turning point in the day, the time is noted quite often, in the poem, to show that the stranger stayed for a long time.

the stranger is anonymous

the inclusive 'we made him a bed' this format is present many times, to show the family doing things for him

and he slept till Monday.
A week went by and he hung up his coat.
Then a month, and not a stroke of work, a word of thanks,
a farthing of rent or a sign of him leaving.
One evening he mentioned a recipe

It shows the time passing and ten uses a lidt to show that he gave nothing back and showed no sign of leaving.

for smooth, seedless gooseberry sorbet
but by then I was tired of him: taking pocket money
from my boy at cards, sucking up to my wife and on his last night
sizing up my daughter. He was smoking my pipe
as we stirred his supper.

The reciepe seems strange, gooseberries arn't smooth or seedless so it is a false appearence

The sibilance creates a hissing sound, like hissing resentment

The 'on his last night' suggests

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