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Modern Poetry (An Ode to a Grayson Perry Urn (ending + structure, language…
Modern Poetry
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Genetics
Opening
- "Genetics" suggests something clinical and scientific, this is contrasted by the personal tone and nature of the poem.
- However it also suggests something inherently personal, connected to heritage and family.
- This is a very Romantic interpretation of genetics, love is an ineffable, everlasting force.
- "My father's in my fingers, but my mother's in my palms" - this metaphor is her projecting her connection to her family members into her physical features while still recognising the similarity between them.
- The semantic field of hands is used as a concrete symbol of the abstract idea of the bond with her family despite her parent's divorce.
- The imagery of her hands and the metaphors of her mother and father allow her to be a part of a cohesive family despite the split between her parents.
- The repeated line through the rest of the poem emphasises its importance to her identity.
Language
- "They may have been repelled to separate lands, to separate hemispheres" - this metaphor explains the difficult familial situation.
- "repelled" emotive adjective shows the very distant and non-amicable split. Reveals more about the nature of their relationship now, and the speakers desperation to reconcile them through herself. This appears to be more of a coping mechanism than anything, she needs them to maintain some kind of relationship, especially through herself.
- the correction of lands to hemispheres may imply the physical and metaphorical distance between them, may suggest that they drift further apart as the speaker ages, no longer any parental obligation to one another. Suggests they were torn apart.
- The speaker finds comfort in the fact that they remain connected through her, this poem seems to be a justification of her feelings and an exploration of their divorce and how it affected her.
- "my body is their marriage register" - this suggests something sacred about her- her existence is a manifestation of their love, she was sanctified by their love.
- The use of "my" is important as it shows understanding that she is her own person even if she sees her parents reflected in herself, may discuss the rootlessness of identity and childhood in children of divorce.
- Again a metaphor as she views herself as a symbol of their union, even if it exists no longer.
Ending + structure
- Villanelle structure- 19 lines with two repeated rhymes and two refrains. 5 tercets and 1 quatrain at the end. The two repeated rhymes and the two refrains may be reflective of her parents.
- Villanelles often concentrate on dissecting themes on love, less and challenge.
- Rhymes "palms, hands, demands" which seems tenuous as a half rhyme but may help to highlight that children are not carbon copies of their parents despite being a product of them.
- The rhyme is create by the 'a' sound.
- The interlacing of words and rhymes suggests the complete structure is reflective of the complete inheritance of genetics as revealed in the narrator's hands.
- A Villanelle is also a circle form, coming backing in the final complete to where it began. This forms a ring, perhaps like a wedding ring.
- "I'll bequeath my fingers; if you bequeath your palms. We know our parents make us by our hands" - this gives a nice sense of hope, she's talking to her future partner with a nice image of passing on her own genetics. Shows that the narrator is able to form good relationships despite all the difficulties she faced.
- Suggests she sees herself in the new role of a parent, perhaps suggests the dual nature of life, usually people are both children and parents.
- New hands are suggested where the cycle repeats, implies a constant connection to the past- may be comforting to her.
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Guiseppe
Opening
- Confessional tone
- Factual tone due to lack of figurative language throughout.
- This removes the ability for moral judgement to be held by the narrator and it makes the reader uncomfortable.
- An unreliable narrator puts the narrative into question, foreshadowed by the "told".
- "Guiseppe" - the name makes the reader understand the poem is likely to be focussed on one person and/or that experience.
- Slightly impersonal since it isn't 'Uncle Guiseppe' as it is in the first line, appears to put some distance between the narrator and this man.
- " in the courtyard behind he aquarium...the only captive mermaid in the world". The setting immediately suggests hiding or secrecy, leaves the reader on edge. The use of the adjective foreshadows the interpretation that this is not actually a mermaid, but a woman. The broad scope of "the world" only adds to the unreliability in the narrative interpretation of a mermaid.
- The mermaid can be seen as a symbol, in mythology, they are of unrivalled beauty and have alluring voices- a silent mermaid is odd, perhaps representative of the horrors and destruction of war.
Language
- "butchered on the dry and dusty ground/ by a doctor, a fishmonger and certain others"
- "butchered" dehumanises her further and changes her from being something human-like to something consumable and less significant. It's the wrong word for a fish, used for livestock or meat.
- The alliteration of "dry" and "dusty" may allude to how aquatic animals die out of water suggesting more suffering therefore garnering more sympathy from the reader. These adjectives are very visceral, not a clean or healthy environment, suggests savageness or desperation. Adds further fragility to the mermaid interpretation, however deeply unsettles the reader with such savage and barbarian connotations.
- doctors = humans, fishmonger = fish, the inherent duality induces problems in the interpretations. Sometimes there are no valid excuses to actions they're just immoral.
- The "certain others" suggests that they don't want to be associated with the act, immorality.
- "she, it, had never learned to speak" - the correction from "she" to "it" and the caesura suggests that perhaps the story is not so surface level. The attempt to be impersonal and distance himself may allude to the atrocities- dehumanises her as either a restrictive measure or a comfort measure.
- "she was only a fish, and fish can't speak./ But she screamed like a woman in terrible fear". - the constant dehumanisation feels to the reader like a desperate attempt to rationalise it and to not have to believe the truth.
- The sinister simile suggests that this is a woman, the emotive language and the human comparison with the pronoun "she" alludes to the meaning that it is actually a woman they're murdering and eating.
- The visceral hyperbole is highly emotive and causes the reader to react on a more subconscious level. It appeals to their humanity because she is frightened and scared of the brutalisation they're enacting, regardless of whether she is human or mermaid.
- This is the only simile in the entire poem, putting especial emphasis on it. The use of the "she" gives more of a human comparison and the 'like a woman' highlights the inconsistencies and suggests perhaps the darker truth behind the murder and atrocities.
- Since mermaids are mythological, they require description relating to things we already know, interesting that the persona chose woman rather than fish in order to describe her, only adds to the cannibalism interpretation.
Ending and structure
- Written in free verse- makes it easier to seem like a story. The lack of specific rhythm and rhyme makes it seem more conventional and therefore has more of a personal connection.
- Makes the poem seem more realistic therefore enforcing the dark subject matter. Also more confessional
- The caesura is used to perhaps show reluctance in sharing the story- perhaps hinting at guilt.
- The enjambment used similarly as it may be to connote the chaotic and continuing though process through a visual break in the story.
- Deliberate varying in line length and sentence length and stanza length in order to make the meaning even more confusing and unclear.
- "Starvation forgives men many things, my uncle, the aquarium keeper, said," This holds a degree of personal bias by the persona, they attempt to remain very detached but this almost quote here seems mocking or unbelieving.
- The uncle's job suggests a more personal connecting to the woman than originally thought- the greater horror of the situation. Perhaps a co-worker or wife?
- The uncle's words seem to make it worse, he justifies their actions through starvation and self preservation, despite the horrific connotations.
- "but couldn't look me int he eye, for which I thank God". - The negative modal verb shows how he mentally and physically couldn't bring himself to admit his actions to anyone specifically. deep down he is ashamed of himself and cannot excuse or compartmentalise his actions. The lying reintroduces guilt into the narrative despite the constant attempts at dehumanisation.
- The reintroduction of religion after the priest emphasises the inhumane acts but could also be a criticism of wars and violence of religious interpretation and motivation, and how they have claimed many lives in brutal ways. By ending on this image, it ma suggest that these are likely to continue into the future.
- The persona's use of this strong language may be relief at the slight signs of humanity after the horrifying story he just told.
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The Gun
Opening:
"the gun" - an ominous title = the reader's apprehension. It's already known to be such a controversial and dangerous symbol. Reflects the gun;s physical power to intimidate.
- The use of the definite article paint all guns as the same, showing how they can have nothing but negative effects.
- "the grainy polished woodstock jutting over the edge" - hard, plosive phonetics remove the softer feeling 's' for a more sinister sound ruining connotations that may previously have created empathy- emphasises the power of the gun.
- The loaded adjectives deeply describe the gun personify it, almost paint it as its own living entity. Compounded by the aggressive verb "jutting".
- "Bringing a gun into a house changes it"- ambiguity over what changes is interesting as it suggests the power of a gun in its ability to change a household/ the people in it. Or perhaps suggests that a gun is not inherently negative or positive, but the house/ people change it. Perhaps suggests that the owner's morality is forced upon the gun.
- "the long metal barrel casting a grey shadow on the green checked cloth" - colour imagery, grey = lifeless, death, nothingness. Green= lush, associated with nature etc, usually symbolising life. Could symbolise wealth, perhaps suggesting that guns aren't only for rich people, perhaps a commentary on the pervasive nature of gun crimes in all levels of society. The american symbol of domestic bliss.
- Foreshadows death in its colour imagery and the fact that it is merely a shadow, not yet fully realised, the gun's constant potential to be a weapon of death.
Language:
- "There's a spring in your step; your eyes gleam like when sex was fresh" - idiom for happiness or chipperness, the familiarity of the language makes the reader inherently uncomfortable due to the subject matter and the happiness of the description.
- "gleam"- loaded verb, implies happiness and leaves a bitter sense of unease with the reader, The joy evoked in the persona is unnerving.
- The simile associates sex with this perverted sense of happiness with killing, perhaps critiquing sex itself or the kind of obsession ad devotion that some people have towards weapons and the subsequent perverse gratification they get from murder.
- Subverts the usual connotations of sex- reproduction. Could perhaps be seen as a symbol of the psychopathic pleasure derived from murder.
- "At first it's just practice: perforating tins dangling on orange string from trees in the garden.Then a rabbit shot clean through the head" When it's practice, the words are mainly polysyllabic and then when it's real, the words are monosyllabic which speeds up the rhythm and makes it feel more fast pace and helpless.
- immediately enforces the negative tone and sense of apprehension, the colon has a sinister place making a suspenseful pause. Gives the sentence weight showing death is inevitable.
- Orange is symbolically a colour of warning, foreshadowing the more sinister turn of the poem.
- "clean" emotive adverb as a rabbit is a common pet, as well as the sick sense of precision.
- "A gun brings a house alive" - end stopping, ironic to end on the word alive. Very ominous. Irony generally of this statement, guns end lives.
- Ends the ambiguity of the beginning.
Ending + Structure:
- The gun enables power, the gun is a symbol of death but also the power it allows you to have. There's the sense that the persona will graduate from animals to humans, ideas that the power is addictive.
- "King of Death...stalking out of the winter woods, his black mouth, sprouting golden crocuses" - interesting twist with ideas of royalty and monarchy, criticism of class? that the rich and powerful control the deaths of those below them through the use of crude propaganda and weapons?
- The simile "as if the king of death had arrived" alludes to almost a relationship between them.
- "stalking out" very predatory, foreshadowing of later events of murder?
- Traditional view of masculine power combined with traditional indicators of institutional power = death and guns have an almost supernatural/unparalleled power.
- "winter woods" - spring = new life contrast. This spring brings death, turn of the seasons- change in mental state- flowers suggests moving towards a crescendo.
- "black...golden" juxtaposition of black and gold = black dominates therefore the power.
- "crocuses" = the earliest of all spring flowers = inevitability.
- varying between 6 and 7 lines in a stanza.
- Punctuation has an important role as it helps shape the rhythm and can be seen to create the sound of shooting bullets.
- The way it's presented adds to the challenging meaning.
- Occasional single lines for emphasis.
- 2nd person pov - odd perspective - puts us in that place, accusatory.
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