English Literature: Carol Ann Duffy Wintering

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Talk about the title "wintering"
Suggests cold/emotionless - in the present tense ongoing.
1 of 31
"All day, slow funerals have ploughed in the rain"
Sorrow - negative replicates life cycle - no end, mourning/break up of a relationship. Plants/flowers dying represents personas feelings
2 of 31
"We've done again"
Things not going well.
3 of 31
"Grey fades to black"
Symbolism - grey = boredom, black = death
4 of 31
"The stars begin their lies"
Inspiration - hopes comes to nothing, illusion
5 of 31
"I wear shroud of cold beneath my clothes"
Deathly connotations, 'beneath' preposition - can not get rid of it, 'shroud' represents sadness
6 of 31
"Night clenches in its fist the moon, a stone."
Discard night, alone, time to think
7 of 31
"I clutch the small stiff body of my phone"
Phone has emotion, missing them, lifeline, don't want to ring, replaces person.
8 of 31
"Dawn mocks me with gibberish of birds"
New day - no hope.
9 of 31
"They play inside my head like broken chords"
No comfort, sadness strikes a chord - brings a connection - affects the heart, mismatched, not complimentry
10 of 31
"*"
Change in time, shift in focus, looks like snowflake "wintering"
11 of 31
"The garden tenses, lies face down"
Emptiness
12 of 31
"...has wept its leaves"
Personification - lost everything
13 of 31
"all my mistakes"
Blaming herself
14 of 31
"are frozen in the tight lock of my face"
pretence - trying to look fine
15 of 31
"Bare trees hold out their arms, beseech, entreat"
'Bare' loneliness and seeking comfort 'beseech, entreat' begging, desperation, pleading
16 of 31
"The clouds sag with the burden of their weight"
Rain in clouds bring them down represents troubles tears and turns
17 of 31
"The wind screams at the house, bitter, betrayed"
Repetition of b sound - hard, heavy sound - plosive sound.
18 of 31
"The sky is flayed"
Destructive, torn apart
19 of 31
"...the moon a fingernail, bitten and frayed"
Getting angry, nervous and anxious atmosphere, placing blame on other person
20 of 31
"Another night, the smuggling in of snow"
Forbidden, love that shouldn't be there - secretive, non permanent, sibilance - s
21 of 31
"You come and go"
Affair/unequal relationship - dediciated and casual person
22 of 31
"your footprints like a lover letter below"
reminds - making feelings reoccur, same sex relationships - no acceptable? hidden?
23 of 31
"a hidden freight"
Something arrives - new person, new relationship or old person
24 of 31
"That morning brings in on a tide of light"
Morning has positive connotations, hope, not like other stanza
25 of 31
"The soil grows hesitant, it blurts in green"
Suggestion of green - hope.
26 of 31
'As pain turns back again to love"
Links to stanza one "turning love to pain"
27 of 31
"and winter thaws and melts, cannot resist"
going back
28 of 31
What is the whole poem?
An extended metaphor/personification
29 of 31
What does the fact that positiveness is only for a small part of the poem suggest?
Pain is greater than love
30 of 31
What does the fact the poem consists of half rhymes suggest?
Awkward - wrong, like the relationship
31 of 31

Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

"All day, slow funerals have ploughed in the rain"

Back

Sorrow - negative replicates life cycle - no end, mourning/break up of a relationship. Plants/flowers dying represents personas feelings

Card 3

Front

"We've done again"

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

"Grey fades to black"

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

"The stars begin their lies"

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
View more cards

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