Poetry selection:

From Songs of Ourselves: The University of Cambridge International

Examinations Anthology of Poetry in English:
124 – The Bay, James Baxter
125 – Where Lies the Land?, Arthur Hugh Clough
127 – The Man With Night Sweats, Thom Gunn
128 – Night Sweat, Robert Lowell
129 – Rain, Edward Thomas
130 – Any Soul to Any Body, Cosmo Monkhouse
132 – From Long Distance, Tony Harrison
134 – Funeral Blues, W. H. Auden
136 - From Song of Myself, Walt Whitman
138 – The Telephone Call, Fleur Adcock
139 – A Consumer’s Report, Peter Porter
141 – On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book, Charles Tennyson Turner
142 – Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley
143 – Away, Melancholy, Stevie Smith

The Bay, by James Baxter

Background
James Baxter was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1926, and produced a
large number of poems in his short life (he died at the age of 46). He wrote
about New Zealand society and the landscape, about love, religion and
myth. Baxter described his own poems as ‘part of a large subconscious
corpus of personal myth’ and also commented that what ‘happens is either
meaningless to me, or else it is mythology’1.

Baxter struggled with alcoholism and yet continued to write. Religion was
an important influence on his life, and he was baptized as an Anglican, and
1
From an article by John Gillespie, accessed at http://www.poetseers.org/poets/james-
baxter/

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 then as a Catholic, before taking on the spiritual aspects of Maori life.
Although Baxter died early from a heart attack, he produced many poems of
note, and he is still well known in New Zealand. This poem, The Bay, is one
of his earlier published poems.

Structure and language

This poem is written in free verse, as there is no fixed metrical pattern, nor
are there rhyming lines. The only noticeable rhymes within the poem come
in the first stanza, in the middle of line 1 and at the end of line 3 (bay, say),
and in the last stanza, in the middle of line 19 and at the end of line 20. In
the first stanza, the word ‘say’ is followed by a colon to stop the reader and
introduce the next thought. Again Baxter uses ‘bay’ in the middle of line 19,
and then ‘away’ as the last word of the stanza. This has the effect of making
the sounds of ‘bay’ and ‘say’, or ‘bay’ and ‘away’ resonate a little longer in
the reader’s mind – perhaps an intentional emphasis of the poet.

The poem consists of six lines in the first two stanzas and then eight lines in
the last stanza. Baxter uses colons to abruptly stop a thought and introduce
a musing in lines 4 and 6; commas within a line also give the reader pause
for thought, and perhaps to take in the imagery that Baxter presents (see
lines 5, 11, 12, and 14). This shows a feature called caesura, and
enjambment (the running of one line to the next) is frequently found with
caesura.

Reading the poem as if someone was reminiscing about the past helps to
understand how Baxter might have written this or spoken the poem aloud.
It also makes it more obvious to see the transition in mood between the
three stanzas – the first introduces the bay and the child’s memories, as
well as hinting at a certain melancholy; the second stanza further describes
the child’s memories; and the last stanza jolts the reader and poet back to
the reality of the present time.

For effect, Baxter uses alliteration ‘cliffs with carved names’ (l.7), ‘boats
from the banks’ (l.9), ‘carved cliffs’ (l.11), ‘thousand times’ (l.13), ‘stand like
stone’ (l.20) – all examples can be used to emphasise the images, such as
the harsh ‘c’ sound of cut cliffs with carved names, or to emphasise the
words such as ‘thousand times’ (hyperbole - an exaggeration).

Baxter’s only simile in the poem, ‘stand like stone’ (l.20) can be felt from
either the child’s or grown man’s perspective. More important to Baxter
than personification, or other abstract forms of figurative language, it
appears important to the poet to make this childhood place vivid and true to
the reader (as it might have been to him). So, each stanza is peppered with
descriptive terms, such as:
‘a lake of rushes where we bathed’ (l.1-2)
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 ‘changed in the bamboos’ (l.2)
‘the alley overgrown’ (l.5)
‘cliffs with carved names’ (l.7)
‘beside the Maori ovens’ (l.8)
‘banks of the pumice creek’ (l.9)
and so on

Tone
To define this poem, it could be argued that it is a lyrical elegy. That is, it is
a songlike poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet, and is
elegiac as Baxter mourns something lost (his childhood perspective, simpler
pleasures, wasted time?).

At first glance, it seems to be a straightforward description of a childhood

playground, but there is a hint of conflict, or retrospect, as in ‘How many
roads we take that lead to Nowhere’ (l.4). This also has a similar theme to
Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, and Thomas Hood’s Past and Present.
Does Baxter feel that time has been wasted in childhood, or mistakes made
in the paths taken in his present life? This conflict is also presented in line
6, ‘Not that veritable garden where everything comes easy’. Is this a
reference to Eden, and the fact that he sees his Eden is as lost as his
childhood? The ambiguity that Baxter introduces in the stanza may be as
much for his own benefit as for the readers, who will draw their own
conclusions based off their particular experiences.

The second stanza also has conflicting tones – that of wistful memories of
racing boats or swimming, and of the physically colder memories of
‘autumnal shallows growing cold in amber water’ (l.10-11) or of the
menacing Maori ‘taniwha’ (l.12). It appears that Baxter cannot shake the
more sombre adult perspective from his childhood memories, as the third
stanza shows evidence of the ominous ‘little spiders’ (l. 13) that are in fact
‘poisonous and quick’ (l.14).

The third stanza also reveals that perhaps the bay ‘never was’ (l.19), but he
remembers it in this poem – perhaps Baxter remembers an idealised
childhood, or wants to remember and stay in that moment, as he ends the
stanza with a vision standing like stone and being unable to turn away.

Remember, tone is a very subjective aspect of a poem to analyse – my

personal interpretation is based on my life experiences, and may or may not
reflect the poet’s intention. Thus, one interpretation of Baxter’s poem may
be of happy childhood memories, whilst another interpretation may read far
more into the melancholy undertones of an Eden lost as the child grows up.

Themes
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 There are a few themes here that can be expanded upon by using the poem
to amplify meaning. Obvious themes include childhood memories, mourning
lost innocence, conflict between childhood and adulthood. Link themes in
with the way Baxter uses poetic form for meaning. For example, the first
stanza could be spoken in an easy tone up to the third line. After that, lines
3-6 can be read in a more mature and clipped way, to highlight the change
in thought from child to adult. Baxter’s words in lines 1-2 flow far easier off
the tongue than ‘Now it is rather to stand and say’ (l.3) as the use of
consonance slows speech.
The Bay
James Baxter

On the road to the bay was a lake of rushes

Where we bathed at times and changed in the bamboos.
Now it is rather to stand and say:
How many roads we take that lead to Nowhere,
The alley overgrown, no meaning now but loss:
Not that veritable garden where everything comes easy.

And by the bay itself were cliffs with carved names

And a hut on the shore beside the Maori ovens.
We raced boats from the banks on the pumice creek
Or swam in those autumnal shallows
Growing cold in amber water, riding the logs
Upstream, and waiting for the taniwha.

So now I remember the bay and the little spiders

On driftwood, so poisonous and quick.
The carved cliffs and the great outcrying surf
With currents round the rocks and the birds rising.
A thousand times an hour is torn across
And burned for the sake of going on living.
But I remember the bay that never was
And stand like stone and cannot turn away.
(1948 approx. date)

For further reading:

Thomas Hood, Past and Present
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Norman MacCaig, Summer Farm

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 Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

Where Lies the Land? by Arthur Hugh Clough

Background
Arthur Clough (pronounced ‘cluff’) was born in 1819 in Liverpool but moved
to the South Carolina, USA when he was a young boy. He travelled quite a
bit as he went back to England for his education (aged nine) but also went
to France, Italy, back to America and then back to England, as well as
visiting Greece and Turkey. Inspiration for this poem came from his sea
voyages as well as from a poem by William Wordsworth, as the first line to
the poem is ‘Where lies the Land to which yon Ship must go’.

Structure and Language

This lyrical poem has a recognisable structure, written in four quatrains
(4-lined stanzas) with a very rhythmic metre. The metre is in iambic
pentameter (favoured by Shakespeare and Chaucer), that is, five pairs of
syllables (unstressed and then stressed). Each pair of lines rhyme at the
end, and this is the particular style called heroic couplets.

Iambic pentameter is a common metre used in poetry, especially at the time

that Clough was writing – it also requires thought and discipline to create a
poem that follows such a structure. In this instance, using the rhythmic
pattern of stressed/unstressed iambs and rhymes, Clough could also be
subliminally mimicking the waves at sea on this voyage, thus doubling up
the purpose of the poem’s structure.

Not only is the pattern and rhythm an important strength to the poem,
Clough has used repetition to emphasise or reinforce meaning. You can
see this as the first and last stanzas are repeated, so ‘topping and tailing’
the poem, or introducing and reinforcing the main theme of travel to the
reader. In addition, each line is rhymed with the next, and such end rhymes
resonate longer in the mind as a result. Clough liked the ‘oh’ sound so he
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 repeats it in the second stanza (below, go) – different interpretations can be
given for his purpose.

Poetic devices used by Clough include plenty of alliteration in each stanza,

to create rhythm, and comfort in the repetition of sounds. This is to give an
upbeat attitude towards travelling to unknown places, rather than
introducing apprehension of the unknown. In addition, to add a more
natural rhythm to the lines, Clough uses caesura and enjambment for
effect. For example, ‘And where the land she travels from? Away’ uses
caesura to give a pause after the question. Enjambment, where the line
continues to the next line of verse with no pause in punctuation, is also used
– ‘watch below the foaming wake’ is an example of Clough’s desire to keep
the natural conversation going.

This poem can be interpreted at two levels, I believe, and as long as

examples from the poem support the interpretations, both can stand as
true. Firstly, this poem can simply be seen as a journey by sea from one
port to another – we know Clough travelled and that he would have
experiences as a result. So the first stanza is the start of the journey, with
the travelers going ‘far, far ahead’ with the seamen. By leaving everything
‘far, far behind’, the travelers are leaving the comforts of home behind. The
second stanza illustrates the good times on the ship with ‘sunny noons’,
friends being ‘linked arm in arm’, ‘reclining’ and watching the waves
‘foaming’. The third stanza introduces stormy weather, ‘stormy nights when
wild north-westers rave’ and shows how the seamen bravely face the
storms. Their delight at getting through the bad weather is described by
Clough as an exulted dripping sailor. The last stanza, which repeats the
first, brings the traveler back to shore and to the beginning of his or her
next journey – unknown to all, but also unafraid.

At a deeper level, Clough may have been using the imagery of the ship and
the journey as a metaphor for life and the journey that we take. With this
interpretation, the first stanza is the start of our journey, as we leave the
comforts of home and leave our childhood behind. The second stanza then
represents the good times in life, such as the ‘sunny’ times, friendship with
arms linked, the ‘pleasant …pace’, and the relaxing state that we are in.
Clough makes an effort to show that the traveler and sailors are enjoying
the ride, enjoying life. The third stanza represents the storms and troubles
that people undoubtedly face, and yet his perspective is proud and strong as
we ‘fight’ and ‘exult’ when life’s battles are won. The last stanza, back to
the beginning, is actually the start of another journey in life, with its ups
and downs to come, that does not faze anyone taking the journey.

Linking this poem to a metaphorical journey of life can also be seen in

Clough’s use of cycles (as in life). Time is illustrated with ‘sunny noons’ and
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 ‘stormy nights’ and the pleasant unknown journey of life seems to be a trip
that all want to take. It is as if being on the ship, or taking the journey of life
in stride, is better than the destination, and that there will always be
another trip to take (the complete cycle is portrayed by the identical first
and last stanzas).

Tone
Though this journey, whether it is a simple ocean voyage or symbolic of life,
is one where the destination is unknown, the tone is joyful, almost excited.
The first stanza does not give clues to the destination, but Clough teases the
reader as the seamen neither know nor can say much. There is also pride in
the journey when it is hard, as the sailors (and the travelers facing trials in
life) ‘fight wind and wave’ (either nature or life’s challenges). Their pride
continues as they bravely exult in victory over the elements and ‘scorn to
wish it past’.

Themes
Taken at a superficial level, the themes of travel, exploring, joy (with
travel), living in the moment (the carpe diem perspective) all come to mind.
If the poem is interpreted as symbolic for life, the same themes run through
as we take on the joy of life, exploring, seizing the day (good or bad) and
doing it all over again.

Where Lies the Land?

Arthur Hugh Clough

Where lies the land to which the ship would go? a

Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. a
And where the land she travels from? Away, b
Far, far behind, is all that they can say. b

On sunny noons upon the deck’s smooth face, c

Linked arm in arm, how pleasant here to pace! c
Or, o’er the stern reclining, watch below a
The foaming wake far widening as we go. a

On stormy nights when wild north-westers rave, d

How proud a thing to fight with wind and wave! d
The dripping sailor on the reeling mast e
Exults to bear and scorns to wish it past. e

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 Where lies the land to which the ship would go? a
Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. a
And where the land she travels from? Away, b
Far, far behind, is all that they can say. b

(1852)

Compare Clough’s poem to William Wordsworth’s poem, Where Lies the

Land
www.portablepoetry.com/poems/william_wordsworth/
where_lies_the_land.html

For further reading, find Arthur Clough on this website:

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/index.html

Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

The Man With Night Sweats, by Thom Gunn

Background
Thom Gunn was born in Gravesend, England in 1929. Both his parents were
journalists, and Gunn remembers the house full of books. His parents
divorced and his mother committed suicide, which were obviously traumatic
experiences. Gunn went to Cambridge University and began publishing his

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 poems, many of which had an existential thread running through them
(about will, action, self-knowledge).

Gunn left the United Kingdom to live in San Francisco with his boyfriend.
The Aids epidemic affected many of Gunn’s friends, and his poem, ‘The Man
with Night Sweats’ was inspired by the deaths of his friends. The poem was
one in which Gunn tried to ‘show people what it’s like to be something
else’2.

Structure and Language

The poem has a well-defined structure through most of the eight stanzas,
with a pattern of a 4-lined stanza (quartet) followed by a 2-lined stanza and
then a 4-lined stanza and so on. Each line has six syllables, or three feet
(iambs) of stressed/unstressed syllables. This is called iambic trimeter. In
addition, the poem has rhyming couplets in the first four stanzas in
alternate lines – so the rhyme scheme is abab, cc, dede, ff. This well-
defined structure starts to loosen in the fifth stanza, as the rhyme scheme
ghgh is held together by two half-rhymes (‘sorry’, ‘hurry’ and ‘cracked’,
wrecked’). The sixth stanza is a clear rhyming couplet, but is then followed
by a 4-lined stanza that only contains one rhyming couplet using a repeated
word, ‘me’, with the final stanza having no rhyme.

The poet has used structure for deliberate effect. The short lines could
illustrate his fragmented thoughts, or shortness of breath to mimic his
physical condition. Perhaps Gunn is hesitant about revealing the details of
the issues that face the narrator (it may be Gunn’s perspective, or he may
have written it from another persona). The poem was written after the Aids
epidemic that had affected so many gay men in San Francisco – it could be
that the poem is about someone afflicted with Aids. If this is so, the strict
structure through the first four stanzas can be seen as the narrator keeping
the issue under control until it becomes apparent that the disease cannot be
controlled any more than the lines or rhymes in the poem.

Gunn also uses tenses to help structure the poem. The first stanza is in
present tense, and the reader can almost feel the abrupt wakening from a
dream. Then, the poet reminisces for four stanzas, and the narrator takes
the reader there. Jumping back to the present tense in the sixth stanza,
Gunn reminds us about the sweaty wet sheets that must be changed, but
just as quickly segues to what he is doing ‘hugging my body to me’ and
using the future tense to state what he fears ‘pains that will go through me’.

2
Quoted in Potts, Friday 26 September, 2003, Moving Voice, The Guardian [online edition, available
at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/sep/27/featuresreviews.guardianreview13 ]

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 This poem is quite tactile and physical, to coincide with the physical
condition that Gunn wants to explore and explain. He first describes his
‘flesh’ in terms of being a ‘shield’ and sees its strength as ‘Where it was
gashed, it healed’. This transitions to his later admissions of his ‘shield’
being ‘cracked’, his ‘flesh reduced and wrecked’, as he tries to ‘shield’ from
‘The pains that will go through me’. Gunn’s repetitive use of the words
‘wake’, ‘flesh’, ‘shield’, and ‘reduced’ is presumably to register these images
with the reader.

Other techniques that Gunn uses in this poem include enjambment (for eg.
‘I wake up cold, I who/Prospered through dreams of heat’, or ‘A world of
wonders in/each challenge to the skin.’ Although Gunn has kept six syllables
to a line, he uses enjambment to create more natural sentences that flow. In
addition, he uses caesura to break the rhythm within a line, such as ‘Sweat,
and a clinging sheet’ or ‘Where it was gashed, it healed’. Not only does
Gunn use caesura to give pause for thought within the line, he uses
consonance (the hard consonant sounds in ‘Stopped upright’) to slow the
reader (especially if the poem is read aloud).

Other poetic uses for effect include alliteration, as in ‘risk’, ‘robust’, and
‘world’, ‘wonders’. Alliteration is another technique to help connect the
poet’s words with his feelings: risk and robust both start with a strong ‘r’
sound, to draw out the strength the narrator felt at the time when he
trusted his flesh and his body. However, the softer sound of ‘w’ in world and
wonders can be associated with softer, warmer feelings that the narrator
remembers.

When looking for more poetic devices, consider why the poet uses such
techniques to amplify meaning, heighten awareness for the reader,
entertain, inform, and so on.

Tone
This poem is an elegy, a lament for the loss of life, or the life that will be
lost to Aids, or the loss of physical health. Yet the tone is not moralistic
(about the dangers of homosexuality or Aids) nor self-indulgent or self-
pitiful. If anything, the tone is non-emotional, matter-of-fact and direct.

There is also a sense of pride towards his body (see lines 4-11) as he trusted
his body and soul to be a strength and a ‘shield’. This pride and strength is
replaced by regret ‘I cannot by be sorry’ and finally a realization of the
futility of his situation, his illness (see lines 22-24). Gunn’s regret is created
by the realization that he has brought the disease and its side effects (such
as the night sweats) upon himself. His acceptance of the ravages of the
disease is revealed in the future tense of the pains ‘that will go through’ and
his repetitive ‘as if’ (lines 22, 24).
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 Themes
Themes in this poem include life and loss, regret and acceptance. When
poets write, they have a purpose for doing so; the themes that run through
their poems are their interpretations of life. In Gunn’s case, he is writing
about a particularly tragic time in his life – Aids became a problem in the
1980s and there was so much ignorance and fear surrounding the disease.
At the time Gunn was writing his poem, he wanted to capture his reality, as
he saw it. Mentioned before, but worth repeating, this poem is not full of
self-pity, but is more directly elucidating a condition that many might not
have understood from a first-person perspective. Gunn expects us to
transition with him, from the present physical condition of the night sweats,
to reminiscing about his vitality and youth, to regretting his behavior that
has led to his ‘wrecked’ body, to an acceptance that he will go through
more pain.

The Man With Night Sweats

Thom Gunn

I wake up cold, I who a

Prospered through dreams of heat b
Wake to their residue, a
Sweat, and a clinging sheet. b

My flesh was its own shield: c

Where it was gashed, it healed. c

I grew as I explored d
The body I could trust e
Even while I adored d
The risk that made robust, e

A world of wonders in f
Each challenge to the skin. f

I cannot but be sorry g

The given shield was cracked h
My mind reduced to hurry, g
My flesh reduced and wrecked. h

I have to change the bed, i

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 But catch myself instead i

Stopped upright where I am j

Hugging my body to me k
As if to shield it from l
The pains that will go through me, k

As if hands were enough m

To hold an avalanche off. n

(1992)
Other poems to compare: Night Sweat, by Robert Lowell
Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

Night Sweat, by Robert Lowell

Background
Robert Lowell was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1917, and died in
1977. Lowell suffered from mental illness, was a conscientious objector
during World War II, and had several marriages – all these experiences
influenced his poetry. In this poem, ‘Night Sweat’, Lowell writes about two
important aspects of his life – his poetry writing and his wife’s support.

Structure and Language

There are two, inter-connected, sonnets in this poem. The first fourteen
lines follow a Shakespearean sonnet, in that the rhyme scheme is three
quatrains and a rhyming heroic couplet, written in iambic pentameter.
Shakespearean sonnets usually introduce a theme in the first quatrain, and
then develop that theme in the next two quatrains, with a concluding
couplet. In this poem, the first sonnet follows the pattern of quatrains and a
couplet, but it is not uniform. That is, the first quatrain uses the abba rhyme
scheme and then diverts to a cdcd, efef scheme. What is more, Lowell has
used a mixture of end stopped and enjambed lines, perhaps to play with
the formal structure of a Shakespearean sonnet even more. Then the
second section of fourteen lines is more like a Petrarchan sonnet, with an
eight-line octave, followed by a six-line sestet. So, Lowell has changed the
sonnet’s pattern again, especially if the reader expected a set format. A
Petrarchan sonnet is used to show a change of thought or direction between
the octave and the sestet, though the theme runs through the sonnet.
Lowell seems to have broken this second sonnet into a ten-line section (not
a separate stanza) and a quatrain.

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 Lowell’s attempt to show control, by using sonnet form contradicts the
content of the poem, especially the first half that highlights his writer’s
block. His writing is very important to him, as his ‘life’s fever’, and yet it is
causing great anguish. He keeps to a rhyme scheme, he keeps to a poetic
pattern, but the highly descriptive figurative language he uses portrays a
lack of control, through images of sickness and death.

The numerous personal pronouns reveal the very personal nature of this
poem, and it could have been autobiographical at the time. So, how does
Lowell amplify his anguish over the importance of his poetic writing and his
writer’s block in the first half, followed by his gratitude towards the other
important element in his life – his wife?

Repetition of various words or phrases, personal to the poet, are used

‘always inside me’, ‘one’, ‘my’. He describes his writing as his life, and yet
he is awake with night sweats. He is careful to describe the dishevelled
scene in front of him in the first two lines of the poem, and introduce his
writing apparatus, though the ‘stalled equipment’ may not be literally a
broken computer or typewriter, but his stalled mind. Here, Lowell is using
metaphors to connect concrete objects to the abstract writing process that
Lowell lives for but is finding arduous in this poem. In fact as the third line
indicates that he is in ‘a tidied room’, so perhaps he intends for the reader
to see his mind as cluttered, and not his physical surroundings.

- To tie in to the horror of writer’s block, Lowell uses multiple images of sickness and
death, fever and discomfort throughout the poem [see the examples of colour –white,
gray skulled; death – embalms, urn, the black web from the spider’s sack; sickness –
animal night sweats, fever, leaded eyelids].
- There are numerous examples of figurative speech that tie in with images of sickness
and death – the poet wants us to see and feel as he does: ‘the creeping damp’, ‘sweet
salt embalms me’, ‘wrings us dry’, ‘the child who died’, ‘a heap of wet clothes, seamy,
shivering’, and so on.
- Alliteration is a poet’s tool to amplify meaning by the repetition of sound, or by
introducing a sound that creates a particular effect. Lowell’s use of ‘l’ in ‘light lighten my
leaded eyelids’ slows the reader down, to focus on the particular words that hint at the
poet’s drowsiness (or exhaustion); ‘dabble in the dapple of the day’ also draws our
attention to the words and consider, perhaps, the dapple or patchiness of the day’s light;
and ‘heart hops and flutters like a hare’ creates a breathlessness that may mimic how
the poet feels.

Tone
Lowell’s tone is feverish, anguished, and ties in closely to how he feels
about his writer’s block. His frequent references to deathly images or
sickness pervade the first sonnet, and it is only the subject matter of the
second sonnet, namely his wife, that eases his pain to an extent.

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 Lowell transitions to focusing on his wife in the second sonnet, giving
himself some hope and showing the reader that his wife is the other (more
positive) force in his life. Yet the anguished tone continues, in spite of the
‘lightness’ that his wife brings.

Themes
The overpowering themes in this poem centre round sickness, fever and
death, but also lightness and hope as a counter balance. It seems
paradoxical that Lowell’s work, his love for writing, is becoming a sickness
and stumbling block for him. His confusion is shown in this poem as he
deals with images of death, but also light, especially mentioning ‘the child
who died’ and ‘my child exploding’. Was Lowell referring to the innocence
of a child, his child-like carefree state, or making a reference to a childish
naivety about the nature of high quality creative writing and the toll it takes
on the individual. One thing is certain – Lowell appears confused and
anxious about his ability to write, and can only take comfort from his wife
(though he suggests that she may not be able to bear the world’s dead
weight).

Night Sweat
Robert Lowell

Work-table, litter, books and standing lamp, a

plain things, my stalled equipment, the old broom – b
but I am living in a tidied room, b
for ten nights now I’ve felt the creeping damp a
float over my pajamas’ wilted white … c
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 Sweet salt embalms me and my head is wet, d
everything streams and tells me this is right; c
my life’s fever is soaking in night sweat – d
one life, one writing! But the downward glide e
and bias of existing wrings us dry – f
always inside me is the child who died, e
always inside me is his will to die – f
one universe, one body … in this urn g
the animal night sweats of the spirit burn. g
Behind me! You! Again I feel the light c
lighten my leaded eyelids, while the gray h
skulled horses whinny for the soot of night. c
I dabble in the dapple of the day, h
a heap of wet clothes, seamy, shivering, i
I see my flesh and bedding washed with light, c
my child exploding into dynamite, c
my wife … your lightness alters everything, i
and tears the black web from the spider’s sack, j
as your heart hops and flutters like a hare. k
Poor turtle, tortoise, if I cannot clear l
the surface of these troubled waters here, l
absolve me, help me, Dear Heart, as you bear k
this world’s dead weight and cycle on your back. j

(1964)

Compare this poem to The Man with Night Sweats, by Thomas Gunn

Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

Rain, by Edward Thomas

Background
Edward Thomas was born in 1878, in London, UK, and died in a World War
I battle in 1917. He seems to have lived his short life as fully as possible,
marrying while still at Oxford University, and writing as much as possible.
Thomas was one of six boys in the family, but he did not seem to get on well
with his father, and portrayed his tense relationship in a poem P.H.T.

Marrying at a young age, Thomas supported his family by writing steadily –

biographies, essays, fiction, introductions, poetry and reviews. He was

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 encouraged to write poetry by Robert Frost, and within two years of
starting his poetry, Thomas had written all his poems. His first book of
verse, Six Poems, was published under a pseudonym (Edward Eastaway) in
1916.

Structure and Language

- This poem is written in blank verse, with no end rhyme scheme, although the title and
theme of the poem is repeated at the end of lines 1, 10, and 15 and internally 1, 4, and
7. Repetition is used for effect; there is a sadness associated with the rain in this poem,
so the repeated word ‘rain’ reveals a fixation with the condition.

- As might be expected, there is a rhythmic pattern, with each line having ten syllables,
apart from lines 7, 9 and 14 which have 11 syllables. Unlike neatly unstressed and
stressed iambic pentameter (five pairs of syllables), Thomas has used other rhythmic
metre, such as trochaic (stressed and unstressed) and spondaic (stressed and
stressed) feet to give different rhythms that could be likened to falling rain. However, if
the poem is forced into a rhythmic metre on reading, it loses the tone of a monologue or
spoken conversation. It also loses the change in tempo of the rain falling hard and fast,
or letting up at times. It is likely that Thomas wanted to create a poem that not only
mimicked the rain about which he lamented, but also connected with his introspective
thoughts about life, death and emotional suffering.

The use of enjambment, where the line continues to the next line without pauses in
punctuation, is used to continue the poet’s thoughts and musings about the rain and his
feelings, in a conversational tone. Caesura, used to pause a thought, is often found with
enjambment, and the effect is to make certain words or phrases stand out. In the poem,
caesura is used with commas, and repeatedly with the theme of solitude (see line 2, ‘solitude’
and line 10 ‘solitary’) and with the punctuation at the end of ‘solitude’ on line 6.

- Thomas has used some alliteration, ‘still and stiff’, ‘neither…nor’, ‘since…solitude’. This
is for the effect of repetition or to introduce a sound to the reader, such as the ‘s’ of
reeds whistling in the breeze, or the ‘s’ of breath expelled through sadness of the poet’s
solitude.
- Other repetitive sounds can also be found with assonance, the repetition of similar
vowel sounds, in phrases like ‘still and stiff’, ‘dying’ and ‘lying’, ‘tempest tells’. Notice that
Thomas has used many examples of assonance alongside alliteration, to amplify the
effect of the words, thoughts and feelings for the poet and reader alike.

It is worth noting that all repetitive sounds are used for a particular effect by poets, and the
individual reader may be (i) forced to pause when reading/saying certain phrases in order to
focus on these phrases, or (ii) hear sounds that mirror the topic under focus, for example, the
many ‘s’ sounds could be interpreted as incessant rainfall.

Imagery can be physically helpful to paint the scene for the reader, such as Thomas has done
with the ‘rain’, ‘bleak hut’, and ‘broken reeds’, so that we can imagine the speaker inside the hut,
kept awake, pensive, and melancholic about his situation. Poets also use imagery at a deeper
level, to introduce themes, via symbols, metaphors, similes and other literary devices. Thomas
has used the ubiquitous rain as a bleak image and he is not the first writer to link rain to sombre,
sad thoughts and feelings. Bad weather is often used to foreshadow certain events in literature

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 and though rain can also be perceived in positive terms of cleaning, renewing and giving life to
plants and animals, Thomas does not dwell on the positives in this poem. Nonetheless, there
are positive images of the rain washing the poet cleaner and the hint of baptismal purifying
water in the phrase ‘cleaner than I have been since I was born’.

Images of cold rain, as ‘cold water’ or part of a storm (‘the tempest’) paint a bleaker scene,
especially if the reader considers that Thomas, or the poet, may have been writing as a soldier
at his post living through the horrors of war. Perhaps the poet is writing from such despair that
suggests he has suicidal thoughts?

Finally, Thomas uses the senses to reach the reader as the poet is affected by the sight, sound
and touch of the cold, incessant rain. The assault of the rain on the poet’s senses could be
interpreted as a physical means to deepen the feelings of emotional weariness.

Tone
The mood of the poet is palpably felt in this poem, linked to the rain. As much as rain can signify
purity, life and rebirth, the overall tone of the poem portrays melancholy, sadness, great
loneliness and perhaps depression. The romantic linking of emotions and thoughts with the
natural world is also a strong undertone to this poem. Thomas also vividly portrays the physical
and emotional discomfort felt by the poet, and such morose feelings could resonate with the
reader.

Themes
Solitude, audibly found in this poem, is one of Thomas’s principal themes in his poetry; the other
theme is that of war (death) and the effect on the individual. So this poem is a classic portrayal
of central themes to Thomas. The influence of Robert Frost, of exploring issues of nature, is
also evident in this poem that links emotions to the physical elements of rain. There is also an
undercurrent of Christianity as a symbol of hope, found in the phrases ‘Blessed are the dead’,
and the reference to praying (line 8) and baptism (line 5).

Thomas uses the discomfort about feeling alone, with death nearby, as inextricably linked with
the physical issues of being entrapped in a hut by a cold, relentless rain. Nature is used to
amplify the solitude felt throughout the poem. Death, as a part of the natural cycle of life, could
be considered as a more important theme in the poem, if it is interpreted as the poet waiting for
the inevitability of dying in a war – the fact that Thomas was killed in the war lends some
poignancy to this poem.

Rain
Edward Thomas

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain

1
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks

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 For washing me cleaner than I have been
5
Since I was born into this solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying to-night or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain, 15
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain 20
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be for what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells, disappoint.

Compare this poem with:

During Wind and Rain, by Thomas Hardy
Range-Finding, by Robert Frost
When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead, by Charles Sorley
Futility, by Wilfred Owen

A useful commentary on the poem can be found here:

http://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/rain-edward-thomas/

Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

Any Soul to Any Body, by Cosmo Monkhouse

Background
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 William Cosmo Monkhouse was not a professional poet but he loved poetry
and art. He was born in London in 1840, and died in 1901, having been
married twice. He had a humorous style in several poems, and wrote
several limericks, including my favourite, There was a Young Lady of Niger.

Monkhouse had strong religious beliefs, though this poem about death does
not overtly link religion to the parting of body and soul. In spite of the
serious topic matter about death, Monkhouse injects a light tone, even self-
deprecating humour, into the poem.

Structure and language

This poem has five stanzas, each with eight lines, and with a definite visual
structure in each stanza (though this may have been a typesetting issue for
the Cambridge anthology book). Only the second, fourth and sixth lines are
indented, with the last two lines in each stanza containing a rhyming
couplet (two end words rhyme). There is also a rhyme scheme to each
stanza, though it is not uniform: stanzas 1, 4 and 5 each have one unrhymed
end word, whereas stanzas 2 and 3 are balanced.

The rhythm and metre of each stanza is also not as uniform as expected.
Stanzas 2 and 4 contain ten syllables in each, though the lines are a mixture
of iambic pentameter (stressed and unstressed syllables) and dactylic
pentameter (stressed, unstressed and unstressed, for example – For/give
me, tis’ not my ex/per/i/ence). For the other three stanzas, there are a few
lines of eleven syllables mixed in with lines of ten syllables, though there is
a rhythm to the stressed and unstressed syllables.

Poets will sometimes use structure to keep poems regular or uniform in an

attempt to control the subject matter, for a number of reasons. The sombre
topic of death and the parting of the body and soul in this poem may have
led Monkhouse to keep the fairly uniform rhythm of the poem – perhaps to
bring solace to the reader or poet when dealing with imminent death.

Monkhouse also uses a conversational style with enjambment (the

continuation of the sentence over a line break) and caesura (a pause in the
line, using punctuation). The conversational style is also illustrated by the
use of personal pronouns, introduced on the first line ‘you and I’ and
continued through each stanza.

Repetitive sounds are used throughout the poem, as alliteration (similar

sounds at the beginning of phrases) like ‘company…clove…close’; ‘whate’er
the weather’; ‘tear or two’; or as assonance (similar sounding vowel sounds
in words) such as ‘clove to me so close’; ‘leave…beneath’; ‘think…wicked’.
Repetitive sounds or repeating words is a common effect used in poetry – to
give emphasis, to highlight emotions or underscore thoughts or central
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 themes, to create sounds (either pleasing or discordant) when reading the
poem aloud. How repetition is used and how it is interpreted can be based
on the individual’s analysis of a poem.

In this poem about the soul and the body, it seems that the repeated words
and sounds are intended to soothe and comfort the reader who may be
feeling uneasy about the subject matter. In fact, rather than the poem being
morose, Monkhouse uses an almost lighthearted conversational tone.
This poem both describes the inextricable linking of the soul to the body in
life, and the parting of the soul from the body in death, according to
Christian theology. The soul is considered immortal, whereas the body’s
mortality is seen as it ages, decays and perishes. References to the body’s
mortality are made in the fourth stanza, and though such subject matter
could become weighty, the poet appears nonchalant. This could be taken,
from the soul’s perspective, as a way to gently shed the body that has come
to the end of its use for the soul; if the poem had been written from the
body’s perspective, would the same tone and language have been suitable?

The language used in this poem is meant to be inclusive and comforting, as

references to marriage and friendship are found throughout, for example
‘so many pleasant years together’, ‘my departing friend’, ‘dear body’, ‘a
friend more true’. Yet, looking briefly at each stanza will help to highlight
an undercurrent of uneasiness and shifts in perspective.

The first stanza introduces the soul as the controlling force in the
partnership, and though complimentary about the body, is matter-of-fact
about the aging body reaching ‘the limit of your tether’. This metaphor
symbolizes the inability of the body to stay entwined with the soul, and links
to the religious doctrine of death.

The second stanza shows the conflict that the soul experiences with ‘they’ –
a reference to stanch Christians who consider the body wicked, weak and
apt to sin. Monkhouse shows conflict from the soul’s perspective ‘tis not my
experience’ and for feeling sadness at leaving the body ‘a clod, a prison’.
There is even remorse felt that the soul was kept from shedding tears and
instead had to think about being ‘very glad’ at becoming ‘free’.

The third stanza is more retrospective than previous stanzas, and more
serious. Even though the soul, according to religious ideology, is meant to
be pure and strong as contrasted with the weakness and wickedness of the
body, there is reference to the body’s strength. The body’s honesty in
showing emotions with ‘a blush or stammering tongue’ have kept the soul
from ‘unworthy schemes’ and lying. So in this stanza, the soul is giving
credit to the body.

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 By the fourth stanza, a lighter tone is used in the first four lines. References
to Christianity are found with ‘first design’ either meaning the body as a
baby, or as the first body, Adam. The admission that the body is not as
handsome as before, partly because of the soul, may be referring to the lack
of strength of mind, or bad decisions made that had a physical impact on
the body. The tone becomes more sombre and dark in the last three lines,
as the soul feels pity for the body being placed in a ‘friendless grave’. As
Decay is capitalized, it takes on a powerful persona, commanding ‘all the
hungry legions’ (soldiers or workers) to work on the body. This is quite a
sinister turn to the stanza, but Monkhouse returns to a more detached
perspective in the last stanza.

There is another reference to the close relationship between soul and body,
and between the mother’s and soul’s joy and pride in the body. In this final
stanza, Monkhouse also repeats the uneasiness that sometimes surfaces in
the stanzas, and the conflict from ‘even they who say the worst about you’.
They are the Christians who see the wickedness and weakness of the body,
and the purity and strength of the Christian soul – but they are not sure
about life after death, or what will happen to a person’s soul, as ‘what I
shall do without you’.

Tone
In spite of the seriousness of the subject material, the tone is not as sombre
as might be expected. There are hints of lightheartedness, almost self-
deprecating humour, and yet the undercurrent of uneasiness surfaces from
time to time. This poem is meant to be read in a conversational tone, and as
casually as one can speak about imminent death.

Themes
Though there is an obvious link with religious beliefs of life, death and the
afterlife, the religious message is not overplayed in the poem. Death is the
more prominent theme in the poem, as each stanza indicates that death is
not far away. In keeping with Victorian poetry, the poem covers a serious
topic, but in a more practical manner rather than dwelling on the religious
perspective associated with life after death.

Any Soul to Any Body

Cosmo Monkhouse

So we must part, my body, you and I a

Who’ve spent so many pleasant years together. b
‘Tis sorry work to lose your company c
Who clove to me so close, whate’er the weather, b
From winter unto winter, wet or dry; a
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 But you have reached the limit of your tether, b
And I must journey on my way alone, d
And leave you quietly beneath a stone. d

They say that you are altogether bad e

(Forgive me, ‘tis not my experience), f
And think me very wicked to be sad e
At leaving you, a clod, a prison, whence f
To get quite free I should be very glad. e
Perhaps I may be so, some few days hence, f
But now, methinks, ‘twere graceless not to spend g
A tear or two on my departing friend. g

Now our long partnership is near completed, h

And I look back upon its history; i
I greatly fear I have not always treated h
You with the honesty you showed to me. i
And I must own that you have oft defeated h
Unworthy schemes by your sincerity, i
And by a blush or stammering tongue have tried j
To make me think again before I lied. j
‘Tis true you’re not so handsome as you were, k
But that’s not your fault and is partly mine. l
You might have lasted longer with more care, m
And still looked something like your first design; l
And even now, with all your wear and tear, m
‘Tis pitiful to think I must resign l
You to the friendless grave, the patient prey n
Of all the hungry legions of Decay. n

But you must stay, dear body, and I go. o

And I was once so very proud of you: p
You made my mother’s eyes to overflow o
When first she saw you, wonderful and new. p
And now, with all your faults, ‘twere hard to find q
A slave more willing or a friend more true. p
Ay – even they who say the worst about you p
Can scarcely tell what I shall do without you. p

Further reading:
Andrew Marvell, A Dialogue between the Soul and Body

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 Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

From Long Distance, Tony Harrison

Background
Tony Harrison was born in Leeds, England in 1937. Much of his poetry is
about his family and of memories of his working-class childhood. Harrison
won a place at Leeds Grammar School and became better educated than his
parents. It is said that Harrison and his father differed in their opinions
towards life, and that this caused tension and feelings of guilt from the
younger Harrison. This elegiac poem highlights the way the poet sees his
father deal with the death of his wife and how the son then deals with the
death of his father.

Structure and language

This structured poem is written in four stanzas with an alternate rhyme
scheme (quatrain) of abab, cdcd, efef, ghhg. The last stanza draws
emphasis to itself because of the change in the rhyme scheme to ghhg, as
well as to the subject matter. The poem is written using the natural rhythm
of the structure as well as employing colloquial speech that personalizes
Long Distance for the poet (for example, see ‘just popped out to get the
tea’).

Though this poem can be termed a lyrical elegy, it does not quite follow
the traditional stages of loss in an elegy (namely grief, praise, and solace).

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 The first stage of loss is portrayed in the first stanza, from the father’s
perspective, as he tries to keep his wife’s memory alive by completing
certain mundane tasks. The second stage of praise is touched upon in the
second stanza as the poet admires his father’s ‘still raw love’, and yet the
poet also shows his frustration with the use of ‘blight’ and disbelief in the
third stanza. The third stage of the elegy, of solace and consolation, is
expressed in the last stanza, but with a hint of Socratic irony. The reader
learns that although the poet cannot understand his father’s inability to
accept death, the son also follows the same patter by calling the father’s
‘disconnected number’.

Apart from the formal structure and rhyme scheme of the poem (which can
be interpreted as the poet’s attempt to keep the subject matter and his
emotions under control), there are other poetic devices used for effect. The
most noticeable is the use of personal pronouns throughout the poems;
the poet is speaking about his family and his personal loss. He also draws
the reader in by using ‘you’ to address people in general, though the reader
can take it personally (especially if he or she has had similar experiences of
loss).

Harrison also employs poetic sound devices, such as assonance and

consonance. The repetition of consonant sounds ‘look alone’ and ‘still raw
love’ slow the reader down and add emphasis. This can be seen as a
deliberate measure by Harrison so that we stop to think about how his Dad
must have felt. We can interpret these feelings either as guilt, melancholy,
disbelief, and so on. The repetition of vowel sounds within words, such as
‘risk’ and ‘disbelief’ are also for emphasis. The soft ‘sss’ sound may have
been a deliberate technique to mimic a whisper, or portray reverence.

Enjambment and caesura are often used together, to help the poet give a
natural flow to the poem but also to make the lines more interesting with
internal stops. So Harrison uses enjambment, the continuation of a thought,
to give a casual conversational tone to the poem (for example, see ‘to give
him time to clear away her things’). Caesura breaks the rhythm within a
line, and gives pause for thought or a change in direction (for example, see
‘You couldn’t just drop in. You had to phone’.

There are other techniques that Harrison uses, but only two more will be
mentioned here. The first is the onomatopoeic word ‘scrape’ to help the
reader hear the sound of the rusted key that Harrison’s father desperately
wants to hear. For emphasis, the word ‘knew’ is italicised – as readers, we
automatically stress the word when we read it. Harrison wants us to feel the
depth of his father’s misguided faith in his wife’s return, or perhaps in his
purposeful self-deception to keep his grief under control.

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 Tone
The tone of an elegy is naturally mournful, and yet Harrison does not dwell
on his despair but on his father’s. The reader does not even know until the
last stanza that the ‘long distance’ is actually between himself and his
deceased parents. So Harrison is masterful in keeping the melancholic tone
diluted – this might make it all the more poignant for the reader.

Harrison tries to portray a ‘matter-of-fact’ attitude towards the death of his

parents, and yet there is a hint of conflict within himself. For example, he
has a new phone book, and his Dad’s disconnected number has been put in
there. Perhaps there is wistfulness about his Dad’s death and maybe a little
guilt for the way Harrison treated his Dad. The title of the poem, ‘Long
Distance’, lends itself to sadness or longing for people; though Harrison
tries to be conversational and straightforward about missing his parents,
the undercurrent of sadness can be imagined.

Themes
Life and loss, regret and acceptance, and conflict are all themes that can be
drawn out from this poem. Harrison deals with the death of his parents in a
way that he could talk about, or write about. His interpretation of death is
seen as creating distance between himself and his parents – they are still
around in his memories, and in his phone book, but there is a disconnection
with life. As much as Harrison had to prevent his disbelief towards his Dad’s
behavior from getting stronger (see ‘couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief’), he
finds himself repeating certain aspects of the behavior.

From Long Distance

Tony Harrison

Though my mother was already two years dead a

Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas, b
put hot water bottles her side of the bed a
and still went to renew her transport pass. b

You couldn’t just drop in. You had to phone. c

He’d put you off an hour to give him time d
to clear away her things and look alone c
as though his still raw love were such a crime. d

He couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief e

though sure that very soon he’d hear her key f
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief. e
He knew she’d just popped out to get the tea. f
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 I believe life ends with death, and that is all. g
You haven’t both gone shopping; just the same, h
in my new black leather phone book there’s your name h
and the disconnected number I still call. g

Further reading
Tony Harrison reading his poem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJjs7A6Ue70

Compare this poem to

Elegy for my Father’s Father, by James Baxter

Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

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 Funeral Blues, by W. H. Auden

Background
Wystan Hugh Auden was born in York, England in 1907 and died in 1973 in
Vienna, Austria. He went to school in Surrey, where he met one of his
closest friends, Christopher Isherwood. While studying at Oxford University,
Auden became familiar with poetry by T.S. Eliot, amongst others. Auden
enjoyed travelling, and went to Germany, Iceland and China before moving
to the United States in 1939 (considered an unpopular move, by people in
England, on the eve of World War II). Auden felt uncomfortable about being
public with his homosexuality, which may have been a deciding factor to
leave England, but was nevertheless happy with his longtime partner in the
USA.
He became an American citizen in 1946.

Auden’s earliest poetry was often written in clipped phrases and short lines,
though changes in the style and depth of forms of public and private themes
were becoming apparent in his poetry of the 1930s and 1940s.

The poem ‘Funeral Blues’ was originally written as a satirical piece for a
play on ‘The Ascent of F6’ (co-written with his friend Isherwood) and was
part of his 1940 collection ‘Another Time’.

Structure and Language

This poem is a lyrical elegy, written for a friend who has died. It is
comprised of four stanzas, each with four lines. Each stanza, or quatrain,
seems to be structured along the traditional iambic pentameter (five
pairs of syllables, stressed and unstressed), but there are irregularities in
the meter. Each line has between 9-12 syllables, though the uneven line
length does not detract from a natural rhythm. This could have been a
deliberate construction by Auden, to show the poet wanting a controlled
form and yet not having the ability to keep the iambic pentameter form due
to his heightened emotional state. However, he has kept a rhyme scheme,
with heroic couplets in each stanza. In spite of the irregular meter, Auden
may perhaps have wanted to place particular emphasis on the words
without having to stick to form. For example, I have interpreted the first
stanza with the following stressed and unstressed syllables:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the tel/e/phone,

Pre/vent the dog from bark/ing with a juic/y bone,
Si/lence the pi/a/nos and with muff/led drum
Bring out the coff/in, let the mourn/ers come.

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 Note that this is my interpretations of the stresses for each line, based on a
personal connection to the themes of love and loss through death. Other
readers might place different stresses on the words of the poem.

What stands out, particularly in the first stanza, is repeated in the second
stanza and in two lines of the final stanza, is the verb start to each line.
Notice the verbs that Auden uses, and the imperative way they are used:
stop, prevent, silence, bring, let, (scribbling), put, let, pack, pour. These
verbs almost demand to be stressed, to highlight the poet’s anguish. Yet, in
spite of the poet’s grief, there is still a sense of trying to keep control, at
least in the poetic, technical sense.

Looking at the structure of the stanzas, each ends with a period or full stop,
to contain the thoughts. There are examples of caesura within every
stanza, with the use of commas to give a choppy effect – perhaps simulating
the breathlessness of someone having difficulty talking.

Other poetic sound devices include alliteration eg. working week;

consonance eg. the repeated ‘n’ sound in the last stanza; and
onomatopoeia, eg. the ‘s’ sound in scribbling like the sound of pen/pencil
across paper. These sounds, along with the use of repeated words such as
‘my’ in the third stanza present sounds to the reader to amplify meaning, or
create deep or lasting thoughts about the poem’s themes.

Auden uses plenty of imagery, hyperbole, metaphors and

personification, to layer on meaning to this seemingly simple poem about
death. That is, many of the chosen words are very visual and descriptive,
linking everyday sights and sounds (clocks, telephone, barking dog, piano,
drum) with the mechanisms of a funeral. The ordinary and mundane
commentary in the first few lines is contrasted with the introduction of the
funeral on line 4.

As this poem deals with universal themes of love, loss (at some time in our
lives, we will all experience these emotions), it is fitting that Auden uses
straightforward language, simple descriptive adjectives, and an almost
conversational tone. This is no conversation, though, but rather a lament, a
cry of grief, an outpouring of raw emotion at a funeral. It is communication,
on both a private and personal level.

The second stanza widens the scope of the personal funeral of a friend that
was introduced in line 4, to the skies overhead. Suddenly Auden has
transitioned from a personal setting to a much wider audience, where the
white doves (released at funerals) wear crepe bows (a sign of respect for
someone who has died), and traffic policemen (an old image, dating the
poem) wearing black gloves as a sign of mourning as opposed to traditional
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 white gloves to guide traffic. The poet is in mourning but wants to make his
private grief as public as possible. Even the aeroplanes are ‘moaning
overhead’ as Auden personifies the sounds of the planes with anguished
moans of mourners.

Transition occurs again in the third stanza as the poet uses a deeply
personal string of exaggerated metaphors to describe the dead friend, e.g.
“He was…My working week’. The poet’s pain is palpable as he likens the
death of the friend to all corners of the compass, all days of the week
including Sunday rest, both moon and night, both speech and song.

Finally, in the last stanza, there is a final transition – of resignation, of

indifference to anything else but the poet’s own immediate pain. The
hyperbolic statements of putting out the stars, packing up the moon, and so
on are perhaps reflections of the poet’s grief as universal as nature itself.
So, the poet wants to stop nature, in order to cease his grief, or at least not
be reminded of the continuous world of nature while he is grieving.

This poem can be delved into even more, if the reader sees other symbolism
that could be explored. For example, the links to time in the third stanza
may also have relevance to the first line of stopping the clocks. Auden may
have meant to use the metaphor of the friend as a personal clock, a keeper
of their time, and now the time has stopped. Readers can also consider the
multiple meanings of ‘blues’ in the title, or the contrast between the small
actions of sweeping, pouring and putting out connecting to the woods,
ocean and stars, and so on.

Tone
From the title ‘Funeral Blues’ which aptly illustrates the sadness associated
with funerals and mourning, to each stanza amplifying the poet’s pain, the
overall tone is melancholic, anguished and palpable in the poet’s grief. The
poet displays control through stating (or ordering) commands, in attempts
to contain his private grief, though it is so overpowering that he shifts to
wanting the world to know about his friend’s death. Indifference to
everything around is the end note of the poem – hope and joy are emotions
that are still too distant for the poet.

Themes
The universal themes of great love and the corresponding grief when love is
lost through death are the main themes here. There is also the issue of
communication of emotions on a private or public level, and how to deal
with such powerful emotions.

Funeral Blues
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 W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, a

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, a
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum b
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. b

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead c

Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, c
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves, d
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. d

He was my North, my South, my East and West, e

My working week and my Sunday rest, e
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; f
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. f

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; g
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; g
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; h
For nothing now can ever come to any good. h

From Song of Myself, by Walt Whitman

Background
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 on Long Island, New York, died in 1892,
and was one of nine children. He trained as a printer, but also held jobs as a
teacher, journalist and editor. His started writing poetry after visiting the
South in 1848, and published his first volume of poetry himself in Leaves of
Green which included the poem, Song of Myself. Whitman sent a copy of his
poetry to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who responded with a congratulatory note.

Whitman was influenced by what was happening around him, including the
Civil War, slavery and its abolition, the rise of the United States as a nation
of power, and his personal desire to volunteer as a nurse in army hospitals
during the Civil War. His poetry has centred on democracy, equality and
what it means to be an American.

This particular poem, Song of Myself, is very long. The section to be studied
is only one out of 52. To better understand the poem, reading the other 51
sections might be useful, if time allows.

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 Structure and language
This section is one part of a very long poem, and may have been inspired
from similar epic poems by Homer (Odyssey) and Virgil (Aeneid), as well as
being necessarily long to cover the expansive subject material. Section 21 is
upbeat, celebratory and typical of Whitman’s use of lists to catalogue what
he saw and felt. In addition, he loved to tell stories or anecdotes. This epic
poem can be seen as a story of the poet’s journey through his imagination,
linking his soul and his body to his love for the land and the people.

Looking at the structure of Section 21, it is considered free verse, as it

follows no rhyme or set line pattern. Whitman’s style was to steer clear of
traditional rhyme schemes and poetic devices favoured by others in the
nineteenth century. He seemed more interested in being ‘democratic’ with
his language, writing style and subject matter. So, he chose to be inclusive
in all of his poetry, in his treatment of the self, inclusion of all others and of
nature. Whitman uses a common, inclusive language, and his exuberant
praise of everyone and everything around him is part of his unique poetic
voice. American pride in their sense of self and love of country is a cultural
phenomenon that is not always felt by other nationals in their own
countries, but it is amplified here in Whitman’s poem.

The poem highlights Whitman’s use of long lines – each one with end-stop
punctuation (caesura) apart from line 15. The effect of such long lines
makes the reader pause for breath at the end, before continuing. If read
aloud, this poem can sound like a speech, a passionate speech to anyone
who will listen. Speeches often use rhetorical questions (that answer
themselves or anticipate a question from the reader) as Whitman does in
line 10, ‘Have you outstript the rest? are you the President?’. Which
President is the poet referring to, and what is the significance of this
president?

Whitman also uses a particular type of rhetorical device, the apostrophe,

to address an abstraction or personification that is not physically present.
Line 14 and Line 17 call to the night or the earth, to include nature in the
poet’s praises. This direct address to nature shows Whitman continuing to
be inclusive.

Whilst there is no traditional rhyme scheme, Whitman does use repetition

and anaphora (repetition of the same expression at the beginning of two or
more lines) to highlight or intensify meaning. There are examples of end-
line repetition: ‘man’ (lines 4, 5); ‘love’ (lines 25, 26); and repetition within
the stanzas or at the end: ‘earth’ (lines 17 – 23) and ‘night’ (lines 12 – 16).

In fact, the poet’s musings about the wonders of the world are focused on
earth and night, introduced in line 13. Night is first mentioned as he
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 connects himself walking with the ‘tender and growing night’. This poem, a
journey of the poet’s imagination, of his body and soul, really starts to
unfold with the vivid descriptions and images of the night and earth.

The night is personified as a body that half-holds the sea, or presses close
like a naked body. The earth is also described in elaborate terms, for
example, ‘voluptuous cool-breath’d’ and perhaps as Mother Earth as the
reader can imagine the ‘far-swooping elbowed earth’ putting arms around
everything and everyone.

Though the poet’s title states that the subject matter is about ‘myself’, and
the personal pronoun ‘I’ is found throughout the first four stanzas, the poem
also includes the reader (this is more apparent in other sections of the
poem, but the reader can sense the poet’s wish to consider himself no
different from anyone else). The poet’s use of the pronoun ‘you’ in the
fourth stanza is directed at the reader – it can be interpreted to mean that
in spite of your achievements, wealth or status, ‘you’ are as
important/unimportant as the next person [as ‘you’ are not the President,
and you have not outstript or done better than everyone else]. Where ‘you’
is used in the last stanza, the poet refers to earth, and wants to return love
he feels from the earth to the earth itself (hyperbole). The second stanza is
also a good example of Whitman’s central desire to include everyone, and to
praise all people, ‘it is as good to be a woman as to be a man’.

The poem makes historical references to the growth of America,

especially in the third stanza –contextualising the historical time period that
affected Whitman’s writing, as it was a time of slavery, the Civil War and
the reconstructive growth of America. This can account for Whitman’s focus
on writing about democracy, unity and being an American. There are
biblical references throughout Song of Myself, but specifically in this
section, mentioning the Prodigal Son has significance, in relation to the
earth. Why, though, is the poet calling the earth the Prodigal Son, someone
who was wasteful before becoming repentant?

Walt Whitman is a very popular poet in American culture, and there are
many different ways to interpret the language he uses. Thus, it is important
to read it through and make your own interpretations, especially in light of
the other sections and the controversial nature of some of the material.

Tone
Reading this section of the long poem, it nonetheless illustrates the overall
tone as joyous and celebratory. Even in this short section, the language
used and material covered gives a very inclusive tone to the poem as
Whitman strives to be a representative, proud American voice.

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 Themes
Democracy, equality and identity of the self are all displayed in this section
of Song Of Myself, and are central themes throughout the poem. Whitman
considers his identity as compromised of his everyday personality, displayed
in his physical self, and his inner soul. As he is able to identify with heaven,
earth, all people and animals, he feels connected with everything and
everyone. Equality is a concept Whitman strives for, especially in light of his
society at the time (eg. Slavery, Civil War), and the poet makes claims to be
the poet of ‘body’ and ‘soul’ as well as ‘woman’ and ‘man’. Democracy is
found in friendship, fairness and Whitman strives to be friendly and
welcoming in his poem, using more easily-accessible language, common
images and experiences.

Section 21

From Song of Myself

Walt Whitman

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,

1
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new
tongue.

I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,

And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,
5
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.

I chant the chant of dilation or pride,

We have had ducking and deprecating about enough,
I show that size is only development.

Have you outstript the rest? are you the President?

10
It is a trifle, they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on.
I am he that walks with the tender and growing night,
I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night.

Press close bare-bosom’d night – press close magnetic nourishing night!

Night of south winds – night of the large few stars
15
Still nodding night – mad naked summer night.

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 Smile O voluptuous cool-breath’d earth!
Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees!
Earth of departed sunset – earth of the mountains misty-topped!
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!
20

Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river!

Earth of the limpid grey of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!
Far-swooping elbowed earth – rich apple-blossom’d earth!
Smile, for your lover comes.
Prodigal, you have given me love – therefore I to you give love!
25
O unspeakable passionate love.

graft – transplant
dilation – expansion
vitreous – glassy
Prodigal – wastrel, reckless spendthrift (as in Prodigal Son)

Further Reading:
Pied Beauty by G.M. Hopkins

Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

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 The Telephone Call, by Fleur Adcock

Background
Fleur Adcock was born in Papakura, New Zealand in 1934. She moved with
her family to England during World War II and then went back to New
Zealand when she was thirteen. She later returned to England in 1963.
Adcock did her degree in Classics, has worked as a professional librarian
for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and has held several
writing fellowships at different universities.

Adcock has centred many of her poems around ordinary home life and
about images drawn from her experiences. It has been noted that the
’subject of Adcock’s poetry is often unromantic, yet she privides a deeper,
sometimes dark, twist on what appears to be a mundane situation’
(http://postcolonialstudies.emory.edu/fleur-adcock/). This characterization
of her material may easily be applied to The Telephone Call.

On a superficial level, the poem seems to be focusing on the dream of

winning the lottery, coupled with the irritation of getting unsolicited calls or
hoax calls. There is a deeper theme here, drawn out through the satirical
dialogue of the poem.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed Adcock’s clever imagination in the

poem – I may have thought about a telemarketer trying to give me
something free, but I had not thought about Adcock’s spin on a telephone
call. The satirical nature of this poem still makes me smile.
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 Structure and Language
This poem is very structured, written in six stanzas of eight lines each.
There is no end rhyme scheme, as the poem is a dialogue between a
company representative and the person receiving the call – an end rhyme
scheme would have disrupted the flow of the conversation. There are,
however, internal rhymes, such as ‘dry’ and ‘cry’ (lines 19 and 20
respectively), and ‘way’ and ‘day’ (lines 22 and 23 respectively). Perhaps
Adcock introduced these words in the third stanza to slow the reader down
to reflect upon how he or she may feel (especially are there is an abrupt
change in tone, that of skepticism, from the ‘lottery winner’ in the fourth
stanza).

Free verse, with its free structure, is the obvious choice to keep the
conversational rhythm going in this poem. Adcock has thought carefully
about the length of lines and dialogue, peppering the speakers’ words with
enough punctuation to help the reader hear the voices and the change in
pitch, tone, level of excitement from the ‘lottery winner’, or the ingratiating
manner of the company representative.

To slow the reader down, several poetic devices and grammatical tools are
used by Adcock. Consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds, can be seen in the first
stanza as the company representative introduces an unexpected message. It is also noticeably
used by the ‘lottery winner’ when describing the physical symptoms of winning such a huge
prize. In addition, judiciously used punctuation (commas, ellipses, dashes, question marks)
help the reader to hear intonations in the voices of the two people on the phone.

Hyperbole, the use of exaggerated words or phrases for effect, has been
used with the company representative’s dialogue, especially in the
introduction ‘the Ultra-super Global Special’. Not only is hyperbole used to
make certain words or phrases stand out, it is a clever literary style used by
Adcock – it mirrors the overinflated claims and selling tactics of advertisers
or telemarketers.

Tone
I cannot help smiling after reading this poem – it is one of my favourites
because the tone is down-to-earth, whimsical and satirical. Adcock plays on
the ‘universal’ wish that people have to win the top lottery prize, or to get
something for nothing. I believe she is laughing at human nature and the
inherent greed of most people.

There are several tones in this short dialogue, including an upbeat tone
from the company representative, and the excited, emotion-filled ‘lottery
winner’. The transition to a skeptical tone ‘I’ll believe it when I see the
cheque’ is a very real emotion to include here.

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 Her language in the poem is very easy to read, especially as a conversation.
Her subject matter, of an unsolicited call would be mundane and yet it
contrasts with the extraordinary news of lottery winnings. Adcock is
whimsical in the pleasant tone from the company representative, touching
on the American phrase ‘Have a nice day!’ as a cheerful conversation
ending. Perhaps Adcock wants the reader to see, through her satirical use
of the phrase, the insincerity of the platitude as used by the company
representative.

Themes
Greed is the underlying theme in the telephone call, and the hook for the
reader as well as for the ‘lottery winner’. Does the poem make the reader
consider what he or she would do if a huge lottery prize was suddenly won?
Another theme, then, is considering personal values and whether rational
thought is lost when huge wealth is given or suggested. If so, the theme of
greed and values emanates from the poem into the reader’s thoughts – that
makes this poem powerful (and funny, if we can laugh at ourselves).

The Telephone Call

By Fleur Adcock

They asked me ‘Are you sitting down? 1

Right? This is Universal Lotteries’,
they said. ‘You’ve won the top prize,
the Ultra-super Global Special.
What would you do with a million pounds? 5
Or, actually, with more than a million –
not that it makes a lot of difference
once you’re a millionaire.’ And they laughed.

‘Are you OK?’ they asked – ‘Still there?

Come on, now, tell us, how does it feel?’ 10
I said ‘I just…I can’t believe it!’
They said ‘That’s what they all say.
What else? Go on, tell us about it.’
I said ‘I feel the top of my head
has floated off, out through the window, 15
revolving like a flying saucer.’

‘That’s unusual’ they said. ‘Go on.’

I said ‘I’m finding it hard to talk.
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 My throat’s gone dry, my nose is tingling.
I think I’m going to sneeze – or cry.’ 20
‘That’s right’ they said, ‘don’t be ashamed
of giving way to your emotions.
It isn’t every day you hear
you’re going to get a million pounds.

Relax, now, have a little cry; 25

we’ll give you a moment…’ ‘Hang on!’ I said.
‘I haven’t bought a lottery ticket
for years and years. And what did you say
the company’s called?’ They laughed again.
‘Not to worry about a ticket. 30
We’re Universal. We operate
A retrospective Chances Module.

Nearly everyone’s bought a ticket

in some lottery or another,
once at least. We buy up the files, 35

feed the names into our computer,

and see who the lucky person is.’
‘Well, that’s incredible’ I said.
‘It’s marvelous. I still can’t quite…
I’ll believe it when I see the cheque.’ 40

‘Oh,’ they said, ‘there’s no cheque.’

‘But the money?’ ‘We don’t deal in money.
Experiences are what we deal in.
You’ve had a great experience, right?
Exciting? Something you’ll remember? 45
That’s your prize. So congratulations
from all of us at Universal.
Have a nice day!’ And the line went dead.

Further reading:
‘A Consumer’s Report’ by Peter Porter

Now make your own notes based on annotating this poem, using
quotations, and categorizing your notes under headings like:
poem summary/overview; structure and poetic devices;
language; themes; tone.

A Consumer’s Report, Peter Porter

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 Background
Peter Porter was born in 1929, in Brisbane, Australia, but he moved to
England in 1951. He was deeply saddened by his mother’s death when he
was only nine; he also had personal periods of difficulty that led to a
nervous breakdown and suicide attempts. His first wife, Jannice, also had
issues of depression and alcoholism, and died in an apparent suicide after
Porter started an affair with a married woman.

In spite of these tragedies, Porter continued to write prolifically. His

occasional jobs as a clerk, bookseller, and advertising copywriter seem to
have influenced some of his work, including this poem. This poem pokes fun
at advertising and consumer-report writing, but there is a deeper message
under the satirical overtones of the ‘consumer report’.

Structure and Language

As a consumer’s report about a product, this poem has to be in free verse to
allow for its expository nature. There are two parts to the poem: an opening
tercet to frame the poem, and the main stanza describing the consumer’s
findings with the product, Life.

The poem reads as if someone is completing sections in a questionnaire

about a product that has been purchased – Porter uses the language of
marketing to structure this poem and create a completely fresh style. There
is no formal rhyme scheme, rhythm, and the language is informal and
conversational.

Porter combines poetic techniques of enjambment (the continuation of a

thought to give a casual, almost conversational, tone) and caesura to break
the rhythm within a line are used throughout the poem. Caesura can give
pause for thought or a change in the writer’s thoughts. This helps to create
the flow of the poem, as does careful use of punctuation such as commas,
dashes, brackets, full stops.

Slowing the reader down, Porter uses alliteration (similar sounds at the
start of words) and consonance (similar consonant sounds close together)
throughout the poem. Some examples can be seen on line 6 ‘I think I’d have
liked’; line 12 ‘it’s difficult to tell’; line 36 ‘popular product’; line41 ‘behave
badly about’. There are plenty of other examples that are intended to slow
the reader down and give pause for thought about what is being said.

Lines are short and to the point, to get the consumer’s message across in a
matter-of-fact way. Interestingly, though the consumer states that the
answers are ‘confidential’, they become very public – Porter’s irreverent
sense of humour is thus seen from the outset. In fact, the whole poem is a
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 satirical metaphor for life itself, and Porter mocks the advertising and
questionnaire form-filling in the seemingly bland way the writer responds to
the questions.

There seems to be a transition from the carefully constructed answers to

more reflective thinking, from line 33 onwards. Perhaps Porter wanted to
show a natural frustration by some ‘respondents’ when conforming to
writing specific points in a questionnaire.

Tone
On first reading, this poem could appear to be really dry, almost as if the
writer was bored of filling out the ‘consumer’s report’. Once it becomes
clear that the poem is about life and the satirical undertones are realized,
the poet’s humorous tone is seen. This is a satirical piece, mocking
advertising (presentation of products as ‘must-haves’), and treating life as if
it were a product.

The humour in the poem can be understood, especially if deeper meanings

are drawn out from the words (Sorry, but the lines ‘It seemed gentle on the
hands…I have used much more than I thought’ just reminds me of children
using too much toilet paper! Perhaps it is the subliminal message from the
‘embarrassing deposit’ that I read into the poem, or after four children, it
may be remembering certain incidents). There are plenty of funny
comments that make this poem quite light-hearted, in spite of the deeper
thoughts about life e.g. it should not be put in the way of children.

An undercurrent in the poem is that of the writer’s serious thoughts about

life, with a slightly cynical tone at times ‘I think we should take it for
granted’.

Themes
The main idea or underlying meaning of the poem is about life, as a product
that is given and used. Reflection about life, seen as an assessment of the
product, is at two levels – as feedback for a product, or as someone who is
slightly dissatisfied with life.

A Consumer’s Report
Peter Porter

The name of the product I tested is Life,

I have completed the form you sent me
and understand that my answers are confidential.

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 I had it as a gift,
I didn’t feel much while using it, 5
in fact I think I’d have liked to be more excited.
It seemed gentle on the hands
but left an embarrassing deposit behind.
It was not economical
and I have used much more than I thought 10
(I suppose I have about half left
but it’s difficult to tell) –
although the instructions are fairly large
there are so many of them
I don’t know which to follow, especially 15
as they seem to contradict each other.
I’m not sure such a thing
should be put in the way of children –
It’s difficult to think of a purpose
Also the price is much too high. 20
Things are piling up so fast,
after all, the world got by
for a thousand million years
without this, do we need it now?
(Incidentally, please ask your man 25
To stop calling me ‘the respondent’,
I don’t like the sound of it.)
There seems to be a lot of different labels,
sizes and colours should be uniform,
the shape is awkward, it’s waterproof 30
but not heat resistant, it doesn’t keep
yet it’s very difficult to get rid of:
whenever they make it cheaper they seem
to put less in – if you say you don’t
want it, then it’s delivered anyway. 35
I’d agree it’s a popular product,
it’s got into the language; people
even say they’re on the side of it.
Personally I think it’s overdone,
a small thing people are ready 40
to behave badly about. I think
we should take it for granted. If its
experts are called philosophers or market
researchers or historians, we shouldn’t
care. We are the consumers and the last 45
law makers. So finally, I’d buy it.
But the question of a ‘best buy’
I’d like to leave until I get
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 the competitive product you said you’d send.
1929

If you want to hear Peter Porter’s reading of his poem, go to this link
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/-and-quot-consumers-report-and-quot-by-
peter-porter-poetry-reading-6269903/

Further reading:
‘He Never Expected Much’ by Thomas Hardy
‘The Telephone Call’ by Fleur Adcock

On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book, Charles Tennyson Turner

Background
Charles Tennyson Turner was born in 1808, in Lincolnshire, United
Kingdom, and died in 1879. His last name was Tennyson and he was the
brother of a more well-known poet, Alfred Tennyson. It has been stated that
he changed his last name to Turner for a dying relative, in order to get
money from the will.

Charles Tennyson Turner led a quiet life as a vicar in Lincolnshire – his

religious perspective becomes visible in this poem about an insect, though a
deeper analysis could reveal his perceived fate of each one of us.

Structure and Language

This elegiac poem has a definite structure (iambic pentameter), with a
regular rhyme scheme of abbacddcefefgg. As a fourteen-lined poem, it can
be described as a sonnet, but it does not quite fit the traditional pattern of a
Shakespearean, Petrarchan or Spenserian sonnet. Perhaps the poet wanted
to mimic his struggle over the crushed fly, the death of an innocent, by
struggling to keep to the traditions of sonnet form. Or, in an attempt to
highlight the personal nature of the poem to the writer, he created his own
style of sonnet.

Sonnets written during the time of this poem, that were entitled ‘Oh…’ were
usually about some weighty topic. The title about a crushed fly would

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 appear to be more whimsical, perhaps even on a first reading – and yet, a
deeper analysis reveals the poet’s reflection upon human responsibility, the
state of the individual, and religion.

The poet has used particular techniques to make this sonnet more effective
– some are typical styles to add meaning (to be discussed later). There is
one striking use of language that can be tied to the poet’s lifestyle. This is
the use of archaic language, such as ‘thee’, ‘thine’, ‘pent’ and ‘wert’.
Though this language could have been typically spoken in the community in
which Turner lived, it is more likely that his religious background impacted
this poem in his word choice (and deeper message).

Poetic structures used for effect include caesura (using punctuation or

words to create a break in the flow of words) and enjambment (the
continuation of one line to the next line). Caesura examples include ‘Oh!
that the memories, which survive us here’ (line 15) or ‘Now thou art gone:
Our doom is ever near’ (line 18). Both lines have the effect of making us
pause for thought, as the writer does, to consider the deeper implications of
a fly’s death in relation to a life lost.

Accompanying caesura is enjambment, a technique used to give flow to a

poem. Examples include lines 7-8 and lines 11-12. They help to give
continuity to the lines and prevent the poem from becoming too disjointed
(as can happen when a poet is constrained by a particular style, such as the
sonnet).

Other techniques picked up include the use of sounds, through alliteration

and consonance. Alliteration examples include ‘pages pent’ and ‘thou’ and
‘thine’ – such repetitive initial consonants help to slow the reader down, or
make the reader think about the content a little longer. In the case of
alliteration used in conjunction with the archaic language of thee, thine,
and so on, Turner may have wanted the reader to dwell on the religious
resonance of the words. Consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds
within words or close together is also seen in the poem, with the many
instances of ‘th’ sounds in ‘thine’, ‘thou’ and ‘thy’. Again, I can connect the
religious sounds of such words to the poem, in an attempt to create deeper
layers of meaning. Perhaps the ‘th’ sound in lines 2 and 3, along with the ‘h’
sound of ‘has’ and ‘here’ lends a breathlessness to the lines – to create the
feeling of surprise and sadness that a fly has been accidentally killed.

Though appearing to be slightly comical, the poet uses apostrophe to

address the dead fly in the poem, making this a personal communication
between poet and fly. As apostrophe is a poetic technique used to directly
address someone or something as if it is present and real, did Turner want

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 to make this personal, or keep the existence of the fly real? Is this technique
being used to address us?

Turner has wrapped quite a few descriptive words into this sonnet for
greater effect, and though readers may find more, I will highlight a few that
stand out to me:

‘thine own fair monument’ – instead of writing about the crushed fly leaving
a smudge in a book, the stain of the insect is elevated to being a ‘fair
monument’. Turner changes the image from that of a ruined page in a book
to a mark of a remembered insect;

‘thy wings gleam’ – this phrase ties in with ‘lustre’ at the end of the poem.
Turner wants the reader to see beautiful and positive connotations with the
colour and shine of the wings, as opposed to using words that may show the
dullness or negativity of a marked page;

‘doom’ – metonymy for death, as the word doom refers to something that is
associated with death. This is similar to a synonym, but the reader can
interpret the poet’s use of the word doom – why did Turner use the word for
death, as it implies something darker or more destructive?

‘peril’ – another negative word that could make the reader question what
‘peril’ exists – it could be impending death, our own mortality, or perhaps
being exposed to sin itself;

‘lustre’ – this word ties in with the gleaming wings. Lustre is the shine of
the fly, or its vitality. By saying we will leave no lustre is to say that we will
not leave a mark. Turner seems to suggest that the ‘blameless life’ of the fly
is more worthy than ours. Perhaps the reader is to infer that we may not
leave a physical mark after we die, but does Turner not want us to be
comforted by the fact that we may leave some legacy that transcends the
physical? As a religious man, he would have believed souls going to heaven.

Turner uses a simile to express meanings that are deeper than the physical
description of the dead fly. For example, ‘the memories…were half as lovely
as the wings’ are interesting lines as they can be interpreted in two ways.
The poet may be indicating that the physical presence of the fly was ‘lovely’
but the memories may not have been (too short a life, too insignificant?).
Alternatively, the poet may be optimistically comparing the beauty of the
physical (wings) to the beauty of the intangible memories. A deeper
interpretation of the simile can be suggested if the poet is seen to be talking
about human lives. In this sense, the memories of the individual survive in
the people who live to remember him or her and can be represented in a
beautiful monument (gravesite, for example).
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 If Turner’s religious perspective is shown through the use of Biblical
language, it is also most clearly displayed in the line ‘Pure relics of a
blameless life’. This is a clear religious reference to the innocence of
creatures that do not sin. The religious references continue with the loss of
innocence ‘thou art gone’ and the consequences of doom and peril.

Religious metaphors are also found in lines 11-12 and 13-14. In lines 11-12,
the lifting up to ‘soar away upon the summer-airs’ is a metaphor of the
religious belief that the soul is risen after death. This has a positive
connotation for the readers that share the same religious perspective. A
more cynical, or realistic view of death is illustrated in the last two lines
that through ‘the closing book’ (is this the Bible?) may end our lives, we will
not leave a mark or lustre. Is this because Turner felt that, as humans, we
are all sinners and cannot leave a pure mark? Or does he feel that abstract
memories are all humans can hope form instead of concrete reminders of
our life and our worth.

Did Turner want the reader to consider his/her own mortality, and worth, as
compared to a fly? If so, he paints the insignificant fly as leaving more of a
mark than us. Do we need to have more of a carpe diem attitude towards
life, as Turner wants us to consider more meaning to living life well than
hoping for a physical remembrance after we have died?

Tone
As an elegy, there is an expected mournful tone to the poem. Though it may
seem superficially whimsical to be lamenting about crushing a small fly, this
wistful sonnet is far more reflective about our mortality.

There are also steady religious undertones in the poem, linking Turner’s
lifestyle with the themes and message about life and death that he wanted
to highlight.

Theme
Universal themes are covered here, namely life and death. Linking both
concepts to religion and structuring the poem around the death of a fly to
draw a parallel to our own worth are two other themes that can be drawn
out from Turner’s ode.

On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book

Charles Tennyson Turner

Some hand, that never meant to do thee hurt, a

Has crushed thee here between these pages pent; b
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 But thou has left thine own fair monument, b
Thy wings gleam out and tell me what thou wert: a
Oh! that the memories, which survive us here, c
Were half as lovely as these wings of thine! d
Pure relics of a blameless life, that shine d
Now thou art gone: Our doom is ever near: c
The peril is beside us day by day; e
The book will close upon us, it may be, f
Just as we lift ourselves to soar away e
Upon the summer-airs. But, unlike thee, f
The closing book may stop our vital breath, g
Yet leave no lustre on our page of death. g

pent – shut up within

Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land a

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone b
Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand, a
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, c
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, a
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read d
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, e
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: d
And on the pedestal these words appear: f
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: e
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ g
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay h
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare g
The lone and level sands stretch far away. h

trunkless – lacking the chest or trunk of the body

stamped – inscribed

Away, Melancholy
Stevie Smith

Away, melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.

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 Are not the trees green,
The earth as green?
Does not the wind blow,
Fire leap and the rivers flow?
Away melancholy.

The ant is busy

He carrieth his meat,
All things hurry
To be eaten or eat.
Away, melancholy.

Man, too, hurries,

Eats, couples, buries,
He is an animal also
With a hey ho melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.

Man of all creatures

Is superlative
(Away melancholy)
He of all creatures alone
Raisieth a stone
(Away melancholy)
Into the stone, the god
Pours what he knows of good
Calling, good, God.
Away melancholy, let it go.
Speak not to me of tears,
Tyranny, pox, wars,
Saying, Can God
Stone of man’s thought, be good?

Say rather it is enough

That the stuffed
Stone of man’s good, growing,
By man’s called God.
Away, melancholy, let it go.

Man aspires
To good,
To love
Sighs;

Beaten, corrupted, dying

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 In his own blood lying
Yet heaves up an eye above
Cries, Love, love.
It is his virtue needs explaining,
Not his failing.

Away melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.

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