Harmonium A* Analysis - Mr Bruff

Simon Armitage 
-Born in Marsden 

Themes 
-death
-everyday life
-sinister happenings 
-gritty observtions 

Structure 

- 2 shorter stnzas, 2 longer stanzzas
- this could reflect Armitage's age compared to his farther's.

Harmonium 

The Farrand Chapelette was gathering dust
in the shadowy porch of Marsden Church.
And was due to be bundled off to the skip.
Or was mine, for a song, if I wanted it.

Consonance is highlighted in red - empahsized the mood of the church- sounds hushed and quiet which furthermore gives the idea that the theme and conetxt of this moment he is having with hi frather is quite hushed as they are talking about the topic if his farthers passing in the future. However it could just be descripitveof the feeling of walking into the church. There is ambiguity within the line "it was mine, for a song" this is an xpression used to denote a bargain or the harmonium literally used for singing and songs. 

Sunlight, through stained glass, which day to day 
could beatify saints and raise the dead,
had aged the harmonium's softwood case
and yellowed the fingernails of its keys.
And one of its notes had lost its tongue,
and holes were worn in both the treadles
where the organist's feet, in grey, woollen socks
and leather-soled shoes, had pedalled and pedalled.

Beatify is the Roman Catholic process of declaring a deceased person's life as one which has livd a holy fashion thus preparing the deceased for sainthood. There is religious language throughout this poem to refect the context of the poem. There is also a lot of lagauge based around death "raise the deaad" "yellowed fingernails" could be a description of a deceaseds corpse. The harmonium…