Nettles - A* Analysis Mr Bruff

Vernon Scanell
-Lived through the cold war and second world war.
-He desserted the milliatry twice
-One of his sons died as an infant and another dies in a motorcycle crash. 

Themes 
-War
-Danger 
-Violence
-Paranoia 

Structure
Rhyme scheme = ABAB
Written in Iambic Pentameter 

Nettles 

My son aged three fell in the nettle bed.
'Bed' seemed a curious name for those green spears,
That regiment of spite behind the shed: 

The use of puntuation here causes the reeader to slow down. The inverted commas on bed causes bed to seem ambigious to the reader. There is a meatphor of the military here in 'spears'. There is a consonance of T and D forces the reader to adopt an element of 'spite' and makes the sound of anger and resentment which reflects the poets issue with the nettles which is the surface meaing but furthermore it could suggest the poem as being an extended metaphor of his hate for the military but also the fear of his son getting hurt.

It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears
The boy came seeking comfort and I saw
White blisters beaded on histender skin.
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