The Characteristics Of The Poem

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Poetry Project

Engels 2012-2013

6vc

Jolene Dam Wichers

Table of contents

I Romantic period 3

1. Daffodils 3

4. Ozymandias 3

II War Poetry 4

7. Does it matter? 4

III Civil rights movement 5

9. Incident 5

10.Nice Day for a lynching 6

IV Before 1950 8

11. Easter 1916 8

12. Do not go gentle into that good night 11

13. The road not taken 12

V After 1950 13

22. Funeral Blues 13

24. Good night Saigon 14

25. Education for Leisure 15

I Romantic

1. Daffodils by William Wordsworth

1. Micro analysis

The title of this poem makes you think about daffodils and the spring. The title makes you think that the whole poem is about the daffodils and it makes you think about the spring because that is their flowering season.

2. Macro analysis

The poem is about the narrator who seems to be floating above all these daffodils and the way these flowers made him feel. It is about how they were all flowering and how many there can be at one time.

3. Look at the characteristics of the poem

William Wordsworth is really praising the daffodils in this poem. He compares them with the milky way, he talks about how they are dancing and he tells us how he feels about them when he thinks about the daffodils. The title makes you think that the whole poem is about the daffodils and that is correct. The narrator is talking about the daffodils the whole poem.

4. Give your opinion on the poem

I really liked this poem. The way the narrator talks about the daffodils and how he compares them with the milky way I think is very realistic. I like it that this isn’t a poem that has a very deep meaning. The narrator talks about how the daffodils make him feel and doesn’t really mean something else with it.

4. Ozymandias by P. Shelley

Questions:

What ‘passions’ are meant in line 6?

The passions of mocking people, in line 8 you can read the statue had a hand that mocked.

And he talks about the heart that fed, so another passion from the king was to eat food.

"Those passions..which yet survive" What is it that the passions survive?

The passions were the only thing that survived because you will never lose your passions that you have. You can lose other things in life but your passions will remain.

Whose hand is meant in line 8 ?

The hand from the king from whom this statue was.

Who are the ‘mighty’ in line 11 and what should they despair of?

The ´mighty´ the other kings in other countries. The king from this poem is so powerful that the other kings have to despair because they aren´t that powerful.

"Nothing beside remains"(12) Nothing beside what ?

Nothing besides a new way to rule over your country. In this poem they mean that in Europe all kinds of dominated civilizations have collapsed. So the only thing that remains is the new way of civilization in Europe.

What is it that Shelley wants to tell us in this poem i.e. what is its message?

His message is that the way the people ruled over Europe was not the good way. The people did not rule it in a good way and that´s why there is now a new civilization.

How does the Romantic Period relate to this poem ?

The style of the poem relates to the romantic period. The poem is written with imagination and the poem is about how the country is in that period. The poem talks about how the country was ruled and how it all collapsed.

What type of poem is this ? consider rhyme scheme-type of verse.

Ozymandias is a poem in the form of a sonnet in iambic pentameter.

II War poetry

7. Does it matter by S. Sassoon

Who is the speaker in this poem? Where and when does he speak?

The speaker in this poem is Siegfried Sassoon. He is the one that answers the questions that are asked in this poem.

How would you characterize the tone of the poem? Can you illustrate your answer with examples from the text?

The tone in this poem is black cynicism. The narrator talks about this subject in a very breezy way. A example is ‘Does they matter? Thos dreams from the pit? You can drink and forget and be glad.’

The narrator just talks about how the other people who haven’t fought in the war would think about how you can solve this problem.

All the time the narrator talks about worse scenarios that can happen when you have fought in the war but he talks it away with the way that other people, who haven’t fought in the war, think about the soldiers.

What does the speaker want to make clear? In how far are we to take his words literally?

The speaker wants to make clear that the people who have fought in the war are hero’s but nobody seems to notice this. You can’t really take his words literally because he uses them in a cynicism way.

Who is the target for Sassoon’s anger in the last verse?

The people who live in the country that the soldiers have fought for. These people don’t show any affection for these people.

Which words in this poem do you find particularly well chosen? Explain why.

‘People will always be kind.’ The people who see the soldiers who have fought in the war will always be kind to them. Because they think that to be kind is the way to show the soldiers that they have sympathy for them, but after all this isn’t really what the soldiers need.

What is the effect of the repetition of the word people in this poem?

The word people is used to describe the people who haven’t fought in the war. It seems like the soldiers don’t belong to the other people. It seems like the soldiers are a different group and that they don’t really are people.

III Civil rights movement

9. Incident by Countee Cullen

We know that the poem is set in Baltimore, Maryland, which is in the South of the United States. We also know that the speaker of the poem looks back in time - "Once ..." - and that he refers to "old" Baltimore. Which other clues can you find inside but also outside the poem's text that could help us determine in which period of time it is set?

Inside the poem you can read that the little boy from Baltimorean is discriminating him, you can find out in which period there was a lot of discrimination in the United States. Outside the poem you can look up in what time Countee Cullen lived.

In the second line of the poem we find the word "glee", which means something like "a feeling of extreme happiness". Still, going for a carriage ride in a city is an everyday experience. Knowing as we do that the poet was brought up in New York, why is "riding in old Baltimore" such a very happy event for him?

He used to live in a big city, he doesn’t know the countryside very well, so he is very happy when he is away from the big city.

When you keep looking straight at someone, like the Baltimorean does in line 4, what are you actually doing and which word is normally used to describe this?

Instead of using the words keep looking straight at someone, you can use the word staring.

A poem needs tension and you get this from contrast. What contrasts are there in the first stanza?

The contrast in the first stanza is the positive feeling that the boy first have when he is riding through old Baltimore and the negative feeling the other boy has about him.

Why does the narrator point out the similarity between himself and the Baltimorean, i.e. they are both small and probably of the same age?

The narrator points out the similarity because for the boy who comes in old Baltimore all the kids look the same, he thinks he and the boy are the same because they are both small and they both have the same age. He doesn’t think he is different because his skin colour is different.

Clearly the Baltimorean, although only a little boy himself, is no stranger to racial prejudice. There is one word in the first stanza which indicates that the narrator, who is probably of the same age, still is. Which word is that and why?

The word is Baltimorean. The narrator uses this word to describe this boy but he doesn’t use something like a white boy. So he is a stranger to racial prejudice, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t use prejudices but he doesn’t use them in a racial way.

We know the poet was born and brought up in New York and all black people there originally came from the South or their parents did. What does this information tell us about the possible reason for the narrator's visit to Baltimore?

Baltimore lays south from New York, a possible reason could be that the poet was there to visit family who still lived there.

The word "Nigger" is such a bad, offensive word that it is not used, for example, on American TV - it is referred to as "the 'N' word". What does the use of this word by a very young white boy toward a black child of his own age tell us about racial prejudice in Baltimore at that time?

It tells us that the people in Baltimore had a very negative image about niggers and they also represented this to their children.

What would lead a young boy of eight to insult another young boy in this way? How is a child’s prejudice even more disturbing than an adult’s?

It would lead to that the other boy will feel really bad about himself, it is even more disturbing because the child doesn’t really know what he is talking about and he doesn’t know how he hurts the other young boy.

What exactly is racial prejudice? Do we have to use a word like "Nigger" to be guilty of racial prejudice?

Racial prejudice means that you judge someone on the base of his skin colour. You don’t have to be guilty of racial prejudice when you call someone a nigger, now we use the word for someone with a dark skin colour and it doesn’t really have an another prejudice about that person.

Why are we told that the narrator saw "the whole of Baltimore" and that he was there "from May until December"? Why this extensiveness?

He wants to show us that he was there for a long time and that he saw a lot of things but that one incident has made a big impact on him.

Why is the boy calling him "Nigger" the only thing he remembers?

Because he wasn’t used to it, he didn’t judge people on their skin colour. He thought he was the same as the other little boy but then found out that the boy didn’t think that way. It had made such a big impact on him that this was the only thing that he remembered.

The rhyme scheme of the poem causes a sing-song sound to it. How does this affect what you expect to come in the poem?

You expect that the poem is way more happier than it actually is. Because of the sing-song sound you think that there isn’t going to happen anything bad, but if you continue to read you can read that there is actually going to happen something bad to the narrator.

The dictionary tells us that "incident" means "minor event". Why do you think the poet chose this particular title?

Because to us it seems like a minor event. We don’t think that it is really a very big issue, but for the narrator it actually is. Because this event is the only event he remembers after this whole trip.

What is your opinion of the poem? Do you feel it is still relevant?

I think that this poem is very realistic and that it represent the things that happens to black people. I think that this poem is still relevant because this still happens every day and people still have problems with discrimination.

10. Nice Day for a Lynching by Kenneth Patchen

1. The first stanza of the poem sketches a situation. What is happening? Describe in your own words.

It sketches a situation about a black man who is hanging on a noose above a crowd of people who are all white. The white people are laughing because the black man is going to die.

2. The bloodhounds ( line 1) are compared to ‘sad old judges’. Other words in the first stanza continue this comparison. Can you find two more related words?

The Negro man is compared with the honorable men.

3. crow-like’ (line4) simply means ’like a crow’ reminding us of the way farmers sometimes hang dead birds in the fields to frighten off others to protect their crop. However," Jim Crow’ is also a popular nickname among some white Americans for a negro. Does this in any way change the meaning of line 4?

When you see crow-like you think about how the man is hanging there when he is a black man, so he is hanging there like Jim Crow. But when you think of ‘like a crow’, you can change the meaning of line 4, than it can mean that he is hanging there to scare of the other black man.

4. How, would you say, is the word ‘honourable’ (line5) used here?

Honorable is used as if the white man are the best man there. Like they have more rights instead of the black man. It is used here as if the honorable man are amazing and that they respect because they have a different skin color.

5. Who exactly is the narrator? Is he white or black? How do you know?

When you read the poem it sounds like this man is black, but he is also white because he has been accepted. You can read that the narrator feels bad for the black man but that he also wants to be a part of the laughing white men who are standing there.

6. Are any reasons given for the hanging of the Negro? Is this important?

There hasn’t been given a reason for the man hanging there. I think that the reason isn’t that important, the reason is probably that the man is black and that he doesn’t have the same rights. It isn’t a really important reason but the reason is more that the men want something to laugh at.

Return to the title of the poem and explain in what way it is related to the poem.

This title relates to the white side of the narrator. The title says that it is a nice day for a lynching, the title is cheerful and it doesn’t seem to bother the narrator that the man is going to be killed.

True or false: The main point of Kenneth Patchen’s poem is the way it protests against the way black people are treated in America.

True, when you read the poem you can read that it is a protest against the way that black people are treated, because you can read what Kenneth Patchen thinks about the way black people are treated and that he doesn’t agree with it.

Describe as carefully as you can what the poet tries to make clear to us in lines 8-13.

The poet describes that he feels white and black at the same time. He feels sorry for the man who is hanging there but he doesn’t want to fall out of the group. He knows that he belongs to both groups and that until those two groups can’t work together the white men will still be killing the black men and the black men will still be killed by the white men.

What, do you think, is’ it’ in line 12?

The it in line 12 means the way the black people are treated by the white people.

IV Before 1950

11. Easter 1916 by W.B. Yeats

Stanza 1

wie is I?

The ‘I’ in this poem is W.B. Yeats.

Wie is they/ them?

The ‘they’ in the First stanza are general people who W.B. Yeats meets at the street.

Neemt de I they/ them serieus? Waarom wel of waarom niet?

‘I’ doesn’t take the people serious. Because these people doesn’t mean anything for him. ‘I’ doesn’t know these people so that’s why he doesn’t take them serious.

Waarom gebruikt de verteller "politemeaninglesswords"?

The narrator uses polite meaningless words because he still wants to be polite to the people he meets on the street. But because these people doesn’t mean anything to him the words are meaningless.

Wat betekent "motley"?

‘Motley’ means varied or mixed.

"wheremotley is worn." Welke plaats is dit denk je?

It is a place where a lot of different people live. The people live mixed among each other, everybody is different from the each other.

"All is changed?" Wat is all?

The daily life of the people is changed. The life that the people were used to and which they lived for years all of a sudden changes because of the riots.

Waarom "a terrible beauty"? Wat is de beauty en wat is hier terrible aan?

With beauty the narrator means the freedom the people are fighting for. The terrible of this is the fight they have to do to get this freedom.

Stanza 2

Er worden 4 personen beschreven. Welke regels voor welke personen?

In line 1-7 it is‘thatwoman’

In line 8-9 it is ‘this man’

In line 10-14 it is ‘thisother his helper andfriend’

In line 15-24 it is ‘this other man’

Wat wordt er gezegd over de vrouw?

About this woman they say that she is ignorant. It seems like Yeats makes her look like someone who doesn’t know very much about everything. She also looks like someone who is very rich and from a high rank.

Wat zijn hariers?

Harriers are little dogs who were used for the hunt.

Wat is de tegenstelling in deze stanza?

The contrast in this stanza are the people who at first live a very normal life, which all of a sudden changes. In the second last line the narrator talks about ‘transformed utterly’. Because of all that has happened the people are really changed.

‘This man has kept a school" wat betekent dit? Wat zegt het over deze man?

It means that this man had a school, so the man had something to do with education and he took care of the kids who needed to go to school.

‘Thisother man’ hoe wordt deze man beschreven door de verteller? Wat wordt duidelijk over deze man?

W.B. Yeats makes him look like someone who isn’t nice and who did many bad things to people. He looks like someone who is bad, but he also is someone who took part in the fight.

"yet" wat geeft dit woordje aan?

‘Yet’ indicates a contrast. It means that the man did things to Yeats and did things to people who were very close to Yeats. But still he is called in this poem.

Wat wordt er bedoeld met casual comedy?

With ‘casual comedy’ they mean this whole occur. The people changed because of the fight, it seems like a casual story that happened to people who had to fight with the others.

"he too, has been changed in his turn,

Transformedutterly"

Wat is de verandering?

The change is that was happening in the country also changed the people. Their daily life changed and all the people were changed because of what was happening and what they were seeing.

Stanza 3

Wat is de living Stone?

‘The living stone’ is the unjustified to what happened to Ireland and the fight they had to give for it.

Waarom "totrouble"?

If you throw a rock into the streaming of the water it troubles the streaming. This also happened to Ireland. Everyone had a normal life until the whole fight.

Wat is de tegenstrijdigheid in deze stanza?

The contrast in this stanza is also the changing from good to bad. First the nature is in his normal way. But then the nature seems to change. After it changed it seems like the nature has a bad time.

Wat is het motief?

The motif is the nature. The changes that happens in the country is projected on the nature. Now we can see what happened in the country could have happened in the nature.

Waar staat het paard voor?

The horse are the people who invade the country. The horse is the one who disrupts the living habitat of the birds. It should be logic that the horse is the one that projects the people who disrupted Ireland.

Wat is de steen volgens jullie? Waarom staat die in het midden?

The Stone is the whole fight that happened. Life continued because of it, but it continued in a different way. The stone is in the river, but the river still flows but it flows in a different way. This also happened to the life of the people.

Stanza 4

Wat betekenen de eerste twee regels?

The first two Lines mean that if you sacrifice yourself too long for the fight, that your heart can turn into Stone. Because you get used to the violence so you don’t react the same as you did at first.

That has run wild… Wie of wat worden gesymboliseerd in dit stuk?

With ‘that has run wild’ W.B. Yeats means the fight. With sleep he means death, so the people can finally rest after the whole fight.

What is it but nightfall?

Was …

Dit lijkt op Hamlet. Wat wordt hier besproken?

W.B. Yeatstalksaboutnightfall. But in this stanza sleep is equalized to the death. So with nightfall he means the end of a person’s life.

For England may keep Faith.

For all that is done and said

Waarin is er vertrouwen? Wie hebben vertrouwen? Waarin zouden mensen vertrouwen moeten hebben?

The people have to keep faith in that England is going to leave and that the end of the fight is nearby. England has done enough and they are going to withdraw, that’s what the people have to believe in.

Wie zijn "we" in "knowtheirdream"? en van wie is deze droom?

With ‘we’ W.B. Yeats means himself in the third person and the people from Ireland. They know the dream of the people who have fought, the dream of freedom.

Wat betekent de vraag : and … died? Voor wie of wat is deze liefde?

This was the love for the people who have fought. The people about whom W.B. Yeats talks in the second stanza and also the love of the people who fought for their own country, the love that was fatal for them.

I write it out in … Welke zinsdelen kun je weglaten in deze laatste regels?

The names of the people could have been erased in the last lines.W.B. Yeats didn’t do that because he wants to show the people who were important in this fight. They are the heroes from this story so that’s why they are called again in this stanza.

Wherever green is worn. Waar is deze plaats?

With wherever green is worn, W.B. Yeats means the country that is now free.

Are changed; changedutterly". Wie zijn er veranderd?

The people in the country are changed. They changed because they have witnessed the fight. This fight has changed their lives.

12. Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas

1. What is "that good night"? What do you think the poet means by "Do not go gentle ..."?

With ‘that good night’ he means death. This poem is about aging and the death of Dylan Thomas his father. With ‘do not go gentle’ he means that he must not die without fighting for it.

2. What is the poet's attitude towards death? What do you think he means in lines 2-3?

The narrator has a negative attitude towards death. He thinks that you have to fight against the death. With lines 2-3 he means that if you get older you have to enjoy the day and you have to feel angry against the death.

3. Who is the poet talking to? What seems to be the matter with him? What is the poet

saying to him?

The narrator talks towards his dad. His dad is already old and is going to die, the narrator says to him that he has to fight against death.

4. The poem is about death. Although the word itself is only mentioned once the poet uses several images to represent death. Give examples.

‘Though wise men at their end know dark is right,’ The narrator talks about the darkness. The narrator equalizes darkness with death.

‘Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way.’

The narrator talks about people who are enjoying their lives and that they are now grieving because the end of their life is coming.

5. Why does the poet describe four different kinds of men to his father (11. 4-15)? What

have they all got in common?

The narrator talks about four different kinds of his father to show us how his father was and why he doesn’t deserve to die. The four kinds of his father have in common that the narrator is very positive about his father.

6. Try to say simply what the poet says about the four different kinds of men.

1. his father is very wise and he knows that the end of his life is coming very soon.

2. His father is a good person, he has done some good things but they weren’t very impressive.

3. His father is a very outspoken man, someone who loved his life and who was always a happy person, but he comes to the point where he is grieving because his is almost going to die.

4. His father at the end of his life, he has become blind and he is getting weaker. But he is also still a happy person.

7. What do you think is the "sad height" (1. 16)?

With sad height the narrator means that the things that his father has achieved aren’t very impressive and he hasn’t achieved very much so he that is why it is sad.

8. Why does the poet want his father to "curse" him, do you think?

Because he understands that his father is angry. He doesn’t mind that his dad is going to curse because he thinks that his that has to be angry because he is going to die. He has to express his anger.

9. What would you say is the mood of the poem?

The mood in this poem is actually a positive mood. Positive because the narrator wants his dad to keep fighting. Also the narrator is talking positive about his father and he talks about how good his father was.

10. How would you describe the imagery used in the poem? Give examples.

The imagery that is used in this poem is the nature. The dead is equalized with the end of the day and the narrator talks about his that is becoming blind and that blind eyes burn as meteorites.

11. The verse form that Thomas uses is unusual. It is a 19 line Villanette. How is it

constructed as far as rhyme and refrain are concerned? What is the effect of the

repetitions in the poem?

The rhyme scheme is: abaabaabaabaabaabaa.

The effect of the repetitions is that you keep up with the poem.

Reflection:

1. a) "The poem is a deeply felt and moving expression of grief and anger at the approaching death of a parent."

b) "The poet’s message is hidden too deeply in obscure language".

Give your own opinion on these comments by critics. What is your reaction to the poem?

a. I agree with the first critic. You can understand the thought of this poem very easy and you can understand what the narrator means with this poem. You can feel the anger of the narrator towards death.

b. I don’t have the feeling that there is a message hidden in this poem. I think that the narrator has made his point clear about this poem.

Personally I agree the most with the first critic. You can really understand this poem and you can feel the emotions in this poem.

13. The Road not taken by Robert Frost

Welk metrum tref je aan in dit gedicht?

This poem is a iambic poem.

Wat kun je mbv het stencil vertellen over het rijmschema dat Frost gebruikt?

The rhyme scheme that Frost used in this poem was a embracing rhyme. The rhyme scheme looks like this:a-b-a-a-b. It looks like the a’s are being embraced by the b’s.

Zet dit schema op papier voor de eerste stanza.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, a

And sorry i could not travel both b

And be one traveler, long I stood, a

And looked down one as far as I could a

To where it bent in the undergrowth; b

The rhyme scheme is : a-b-a-a-b

Waarom is het bos geel ?

The wood is yellow because this poem it is autumn in this poem. With the yellow wood the narrator means the yellow leaves. In this poem the yellow is used to represent the two different roads. On the one road you can see that a lot of people have walked there because the grass is destroyed and the leaves that are on the ground aren’t yellow anymore. The other road you can see that it still has grass and the yellow leaves on it.

Waarom ‘sorry’ wat is er aan de hand ?

The narrator uses sorry, because he wants to apologize that he could take both roads. He had a choice between the two roads and he chose one without knowing if he took the right one.

Wat is in jouw eigen woorden het doel en belangrijkste idee van dit gedicht.

The narrator wants to make clear that you have to make choices in your life. When you make a choice you have to listen to yourself and don’t have to listen to what other people have to say, although this doesn’t mean that this was the right choice.

V After 1950

22. Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden

Stanza 1:

Someone has died.

The poet is very sad. He wants everyone to share his grief.

The whole world should keep quiet. How is this said in the poem?

In the first two lines the narrator says to stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. The narrator says to stop the clocks so that it doesn’t tick anymore and everyone has to cut off the phone so that no one can call. Also the dog has to stop barking and has to be silent.

No one should enjoy life or be happy. What is line that expresses this in the poem?

In the last line the narrator says: let the mourners come. So everyone has to mourn when the coffin is brought in. As soon as the funeral starts everyone has to mourn and has to be sad.

Stanza 2:

This death is such a terrible loss, that something should happen. What exactly?

That everyone has to know about it and that everyone has to mourn about it. It is such a terrible loss that everyone has to be sad. Nobody can go on with their own lives, they just have to think about this death.

So, in other words, the poet asks for:

The poet asks for respect for the one that died. He wants recognition.

"He Is Dead" uses capitals. Why so?

Because the poet thinks that it is something so important that everyone has to know about it. As soon as you write something with capitals it means that it is important and that is doesn’t go by unnoticed. So when it is written in the sky everyone can see it.

What are the images used in this stanza? Explain.

The airplanes that have to moan when they fly over. The airplanes also have to be sad just like everyone else.

The traffic policemen has to wear black cotton gloves. Black is the colour of death so he has to wear something that is related to the death.

Stanza 3:

What idea does ‘my North, my South, my East and West’ express?

This expresses the idea of that the person that died was the one that was the big love of the other person who is the narrator in this poem. The person that died was the direction the person always wanted to go. When the narrator was with him or her, the person knew where to go and what to do.

Find examples of opposites in this stanza.

North - South

East - West

Working week - Sunday rest

Noon - midnight

Something that would last forever - something that didn’t last forever

What feeling towards the dead person is evoked in this stanza?

The person who died was someone who was very important to the narrator. The person was someone who was very dedicated to the narrator and who really loved the narrator. You can read that there was real love between them.

Stanza 4:

In stanza 4 it all goes one more step further. What should happen?

1 The stars have to be put out, so that they can’t shine anymore.

2 The moon has to be packed in and the sun has to be dismantled so that no one can ever see them and be happy because they can see them.

3 The ocean has to be poured away and the woods have to be moved away so that there isn’t any nature anymore. So that no one can enjoy the nature.

4 The whole world has to be disappeared so that no one can have luck anymore and that no one can be happy anymore.

In other words:

the poet wants that everyone know what he or she feels and that everyone has to sympathize with her.

24. Goodnight Saigon by Billy Joel

Who is ‘we’ in the song?

Who is ‘they’ in lines 19-20?

‘We’ in this song are the soldiers from the American army. They are the people who are supporting the army, the people who give things to the army like food and other supplies. In this line they were giving things to don’t get bored.

The words ‘soul mates’ (l .1) and ‘inmates’ ( l. 3) on the one hand, and ‘spastic’ ( l. 9) and ‘plastic’( l. 11) on the other hand, sound much alike. In fact, in war-time, they are much alike. Try to explain why.

The soldiers met each other and then became soul mates. But they left like they were inmates, like they were prisoners. So they left as very different people.

They came as people who looked like they were spastic, they had a lot energy and they were very active. But after the war they were like plastic, they were calm and they didn’t have the same amount of energy.

So both are very much alike, because they both came as a very active and positive people who taught they were going to win this war. But they left as people who had a trauma, they had seen so much that they now were very different. They weren’t that active anymore and they were inmates because they could never be free again and feel what they wanted to feel because of their trauma.

How did the soldiers at first feel about going to war in Vietnam? (l. 5-8).

They wanted to be the heroes of this war. They were determined to win this war and they wanted to give it all. They defended their country and they wanted to do everything to win this war.

What do lines 13-16 tell you about the soldiers?

The soldiers really wanted to give everything. They learned fast so that they could defend their country. Although they were already tired they still wanted to give it their all. They were like true heroes.

How did the American soldiers spend their days and nights when there wasn’t any fighting?

They were messing around with each other, playing games. They got stuff from other people so they wouldn’t get bored. But that wasn’t enough because it seems like the soldiers were still very bored.

Which two lines tell you something about the soldiers’ average age? Are they young or rather old?

‘Like brother to brother

We promised our mothers we’d write’

It sounds like the soldiers are rather young. They still write to their mother, so the soldiers can’t be that old when their mothers are still alive. Also they act like they are brothers, people who are young are rather acting like brothers. They were soul mates, so they were like brothers. Throughout the whole poem it sounds like the soldiers are still young, they still play games with each other.

Comment on the tone and the meaning of lines 39-40.

‘Remember Charlie

Remember baker’

The tone sounds very sad. It sounds like these people fought in this war with the other soldiers. But they didn’t survive. They gave their life to the war. They still have to be remembered by the other people so that’s why they are also mentioned in this poem.

25. Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy

A. First reading/ general understanding:

What does the title Education for leisure literally mean?

The person has an education but he doesn’t have a job. So he is educated to have spare time.

Who do you think the person speaking in the poem is?

I think that the person is a young person who just finished school but can’t find a job. I also think that the person has a psychic disorder because of the way he thinks.

Describe what you think this person’s life is like.

The person has a very boring life because he doesn’t have a job. He also thinks he is very famous and he thinks that everyone knows who he is but he doesn’t get any recognition.

Why do you think the persona seems to like killing living things?

Because he likes to play God, so he wants to have power over everyone. God is the one who decides over life and death, the narrator also wants to have this powers.

Why do you think the persona calls him/herself a genius?

Because he think that he is God. He compares himself with God and he thinks that God is genius.

Why do you think the persona says "They don’t appreciate my autograph?

An autograph is something that a famous people signs. He also thinks that he is famous but the other people don’t think that he is famous so they don’t want his autograph.

Explain what you think the persona was feeling:

at the start of the poem

The person is feeling aggression and he has the feeling that he is being ignored because no one wants to give him a job.

when he/she killed the fly and the goldfish

The person feels satisfaction, he finally admitted to his aggression and he feels good that he has completed his plan.

when he/she was signing on

He feels like he is being ignored, he thinks that he is a genius but no one wants to acknowledge that. He is ashamed because he has to get a payment instead of getting wages.

when he/she was talking to the DJ

He feels like a genius and like someone who is famous. But he doesn’t get the acknowledge so he is getting angry again.

when he/she was walking along the pavement

He is very angry now, now he wants to kill a person instead of an animal.

B. Second reading- Language and effects:

Duffy uses the quote:" I am going to play God". Explain exactly how the persona plays God. Use other quotes to back up your argument

The person wants to be able to decide about life and death, just like God does.

‘I see that it is good,’ this is a quote that God also used when he created the world.

How has the speaker mixed the weather with their feelings? What does this tell us about how they usually feel?

In the first stanza he uses ‘it is an ordinary day, a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets.’

It was a grey day, so the weather was rainy and it was cloudy. The person is also feeling down, just like the weathers seems to be. He also feels bored and sad, this is also something you can see in the weather that day.

The speaker says they killed flies at school. What does this suggest about their classes?

It suggest that he wasn’t paying any attention in the class. He was very bored so he didn’t do anything, he used to kill flies at school to kills some time.

The speaker is very confident of his abilities and says that "they breathe out talent on the glass". But what is ironic about writing their name on glass with their breath? Does it last? What does it suggest about the speaker’s supposed talent?

When you breathe on the glass, it doesn’t last very long. The person says that he breathe out his talent but it doesn’t last very long. The person has talent but he doesn’t get recognition for it because it doesn’t no one can see it.

How does the speaker in the third stanza narrow down or temper his/her initially wild claims? What is ‘signing on’?

In the third stanza the person is talking about how genius he is. He is narrowing down his temper by pretending that he is everything and that he is the greatest of all people. In the fourth stanza he narrows down his temper by killing his goldfish and then he tries to get acknowledge.

Singing on means that the person has to write his signature down to get a payment. The person doesn’t have a job but needs money so he gets a payment.

Why do you think the last stanza begins with the word ’there is nothing left to kill’ when they have only killed two things so far: a fly and a goldfish? Think of other English expressions about what people can kill.

The person means that there is nothing left to kill that doesn’t matter. The person has killed a goldfish and a fly, those animals doesn’t really matter when you kill them because there are also other people who kill those animals. But the person has nothing left to kill that isn’t that bad to kill. When you kill a fly or a goldfish it isn’t a bad thing, you don’t go to jail for it but when you kill a person it is a bad thing, so there is nothing left to kill for him without getting punished for it.

In what way is it more sinister for the speaker ‘to dial the radio’ than call a TV show? Consider the difference between the two media.

There aren’t that many people who listen to the radio, when you dial the radio you can stay anonymous. Also it is easier to dial the radio, there are always radio shows that pick up the phone and you can come in the show. But on the TV there aren’t really that much shows that you can dial and you can actually get on the show.

The pavements’ glitter suddenly’. Why? Do you think it is a literal statement or there is something of interest at last? Do you think it is a play on the idea of streets paved with gold (fairytales)? In what way can glitter be seen as menacing?

The person has a bread-knife when he goes out. When he goes out the pavement is suddenly glittering, it can also mean that the person already killed someone. The person has killed someone and on the pavement there is blood that is glittering.

The streets paved with gold can be a reference to the bible.

Why do you think Duffy has chosen not to reveal the gender of the persona?

Because the poet wants to make the people to think about this by themselves. Also the poet didn’t want to prejudices one of the genders. When the poet says that this person is a man, the whole world would say that she is discriminating the male gender. This would be the same when she would say that the person was a woman.

Now the people can decide by themselves who the person is and they can find out if they discriminate one of the genders or not.

There seems to be a mismatch between how the speaker regards himself/herself and how others regard him or her. What words show this?

‘I dial the radio and tell the man he’s talking to a superstar. He cuts me off.’

The person thinks that he is a great person and that he is a superstar while other people think that he isn’t that good and that he isn’t really a superstar.

Explain how the final sentence of the poem creates a disturbing image for the reader.

The whole poem, the narrator talked about himself. About his life and about how much it sucked. But in the last sentence of this poem the narrator is all of a sudden talking to the reader and the last sentence is the most disturbing of them all. In the last sentence it all of a sudden seems like he is behind you and that you are next. It seems like the person wants to kill you because when you read the poem you think that the person isn’t someone who is really doing something with his life. When you read the poem it seems like you have the opinion that the other people also have about the person. So the person also wants to kill you because the person know that you think the same about him.