POEM THEME PERSPECTIV LANGUAGE STRUC POETIC COMPAR-

E & TONE T-URE DEVICES ISONS

1 On my first Death Father lamenting - Pride and affection for his son “thou - iambic - Metaphorical language: - Affliction of
Sonne over the loss of his child of my right hand and joy’ pentameter money , extended Margaret
Love son. - Talking directly to son; Personal metaphor ‘lent to me, - Song of the
‘Farewell’ - lines in and I thee pay’ Old Mother
(Ben Parent and Sorrowful; - Hopeless ‘I loose all father, now’ rhyming - ‘scap’d worlds, and - Catrin
Jonson) Child grief; uncertainty - Commemoratory , ‘rest in soft pairs, called fleshes rage’
Relationships (lines 6,8); pain peace…here doth lye’ couplets. - Son is 'best piece of
poetrie’ greatest creation

2 The Love Mother is anxious - Her thoughts are illogical, beyond - 11 stanzas
long to express
- ‘shadows of the - Catrin
Affliction of about her missing reprieve ‘I look for Ghosts’ clouds’ - Digging
grief.
Parent and son. - Eternal pain ‘Neglect me! no I - ‘chains tie us down - On My First
Margaret
Child suffered long’ and ‘evermore’ - Regular, by land and sea’ Sonne
Relationships pain; fearful; - Love ‘my beloved son’ basic rhyme - Personification ‘My
(W.Yeats) desperate; - Searching ‘ Where art thou’ is scheme apprehension comes
irrational; obsessed repeated (ABABCCC) in crowds’
3 The Song of Jealousy Old woman - Women’s chores are repetitive - Rhyming
pairs of lines
- ‘fire’ is used as a - Affliction of
Margaret
the Old complains about through rhyming couplets and rhythm metaphor of her life and
- On my first
Parent and her life; she is bitter ‘blow/glow’ tiredness First ‘flicker’
Mother - Metre is Sonne
Child towards the young - Focuses on her life ‘I rise/I must anapaestic (2 then ‘feeble and cold’ - Digging
(William Relationships scrub’ Obligation unstressed & - Simplistic and - Catrin
Words- weary; bitter; - Contrast to young ‘lie long and then stressed Monosyllabic ‘And N.B - Poet is
sympathetic to the
worth) resigned; frustrated dream/ idleness’ Envious of ‘their syllable) then’ or ‘because I am elderly. Young should
day’ old’ be helpful.

4 Patrolling Nature Poet describes a - War-like ‘savegest trinity - Free verse - Onomatopoeia - Inversaid
- Sonnet
Barnegat fierce storm that lashing/advancing/cutting swirl’ (Animism) ‘incessant
undertone muttering’ - Storm on the
Love for human cannot - Repetition – ‘wild, wild’ - Uses Island
nature ‘patrol’ - Confusion ‘is that a wreck?’ present - Personification ‘shouts - Cold Knap
(Walt - Every line ending ‘ing’ makes storm participle of demoniac laughter’ Lake
Whitman) Danger respect; admiration; imminent ‘ing’ - Alliteration of ‘s’ (line N.B – Good poem
wariness; awe - Metaphor ‘trinity’ 6) sounds like waves of for analysis of
the ocean poetic
language’
5 Sonnet Nature Poet is idealistic -‘I love’ is repeated; clear declaration - No - alliterated sound - Death of
(John about summer - Colourful ’white wool sack clouds’ punctuation, ‘where/reed/rustle/wind Naturalist
Love for love; tranquillity; and ‘bright beetles’ picturesque - Personifies nature - Patrolling
Clare)
nature happiness - Sonnet ‘summer beaming’ Barnegat
(love)
 POEM THEME PERSPECTIV LANGUAGE STRUCTURE POETIC COMPA
E & TONE DEVICES RI-SONS
1 At the Death Heaney talks about - Descriptive language, potatoes are - Loose Iambic metre - Alliteration/ Repetition - - On my
Potato Famine in seen as ‘pebbles’ ‘stone’ and later in first & last section ‘hedge to headland’ and first Sonne
Potato ‘putrefied’ - Second section has ‘ragged ranks’
Nature Ireland and its - The
Digging effects of killing - Technical language less rhyme in an - Similie ‘like crows Affliction
‘turf/bark/sod/mould’ irregular pattern attacking’
Suffering people. of M.
- Religious reference ‘famine god’ - A clear ABAB - Metaphor ‘beaks of
rhyme scheme that
- The Field
and ‘black Mother’ and famine snipped at guts’
horror; pride; breaks down in the Mouse
‘processional stopping’ (See contrast line 39 and
resilience final line ‘libations 41)
- October
- Hardship for people ‘mouths
tightened in, eyes die hard’ of cold tea, scatter
crumbs’
2 Digging Parent and |Heaney is proud of - Descriptive – digging is a ‘clean - The poem consists of - Alliteration ‘spade sinks - On my
Child his grand(father) rasping sound’; ‘cool hardness’ nine stanzas that vary into the gravely ground’ first Sonne
Relationships digging potatoes. (tactile); ‘nicking and slicing’ between two lines and - Onomatopoeia ‘squelch - The
- Technical – ‘turf/sods/soggy peat’ five lines in length. and slap’
There is no pattern to
Affliction
Memories respect; admiration; - Rhythm of digging ‘tall tops, buried - Extended metaphor of M.
the stanzas, perhaps to ‘through living rots
guilt; hearty the bright edge’ and ‘down and reflect the idea that - Catrin
down’ awaken in my head’
Passage of there is no pattern or (Memories and roots) - Cold Knap
Time - Pride ‘By god the old man could predictability to our Lake
handle a spade’ (colloquial) memories.
- Mali

3 Death Nature Little Heaney is - Sensual ‘festered/gargled/ heavy - blank verse - Assonance ‘punishing - Inversnaid
fascinated then headed’ (British countryside) (Un-rhyming lines sun’ - Sonnet
of a - Excitement of child ‘nimble/burst/ - Repetition of heaviness
Love of disgusted by frogs. each containing - Patrolling
Naturalist Nature jellied specks’ five beats or feet.) ‘the warm thick Barnegat
- Childish - ‘daddy frog’ ‘slap/plop’ slobber/grew like clotted
excitement; water’
- The Field
Danger admiration; fear; - Technical - ‘flax-dam/sods’ Mouse
- Disgust - ‘angry/gross-bellied’ frogs - Metaphor ‘great slime
child-like kings’
- Military
‘rank/cocked/invaded/grenades’ - Simile ‘loose necks pulsed
like snails’

4 Storm on Nature Poet describes the - Inclusive ‘we are’ and personal/direct - Iambic pentameter - Metaphor ‘space is a
salvo’* (lots of guns firing
- Inversnaid
effects of a fierce ‘you can’ ‘you know what I mean’, lines - mostly blank - Sonnet
the Island storm on the more impact at once)
Power of verse, but with half- - Wind ‘spits like a tame
- Patrolling
Nature inhabitants - War-like imagery ‘blast/pummels/ rhyming couplets at Barnegat
bombarded’ cat’ and trees ‘raise a
the beginning and tragic chorus’ - The Field
fear; helplessness; - Repetition of ‘no’
Danger end. - Sharp contrasts ‘exploding Mouse
uncertainty, decline in - Language changes from security in lines comfortably’ & ‘good slate’
* Safety and security
faith in nature; (1-2) to ‘it is a huge nothing that we fluctuates to ‘strafes invisibly’.
(*Politics) loneliness ; friendly fear’.
 POEM THEME PERSPECTIV LANGUAGE STRUCTUR POETIC DEVICES COMPAR
E & TONE E I-SONS
1 Catrin Parent and Child Clarke as a mother - Personal and direct ‘I can remember - Short lines divided - Contrast, before her child life - On My first
Sonne
Relationships talks to her daughter st
you child’ (1 line) into two stanzas. was normal ‘the people and
about struggle of birth - Conflict ‘fierce confrontation’ and The change from cars’ - The
and their struggle now. ‘fought over’ the birth to skating Affliction of
Memories - Metaphor ‘the tight red rope M.
- Love ‘with the wild, tender circles’. in the 2nd stanza
of love’ (umbilical cord & love) - Digging
affectionate; Reflects their constant battle even at the implies struggle in
Love intervening years - Metaphor for screaming - Follower
exasperation; yearning end ‘still I am fighting’. (foreshadows future struggle) ‘I
and indicates time
- ‘our struggle’ united yet wanting to be
has past. wrote all over the walls with
Growing Up ‘Separate’ my words’

2 A Difficult Politics
(Good Friday
Clarke describes an - War and Peace ‘We thought her - Enjambment of
first 2 lines allow
- Use of personal pronouns and - At the Potato
Digging
old sheep giving barren’ and ‘exhausted, tamed by direct to reader ‘we’d planned/you
Birth, Agreement of pain’ Refers to peace talks in Belfast. ideas to flow find us’ - Storm on the
Easter 1998
birth – struggle is a freely.
Easter promised peace in metaphor for peace - Religious References ‘quiet supper and
- Regular 6 line
- Metaphor for hope ‘watch for car Island
bottle of wine’ (Jesus’ last supper) and lights’ (nature)
1998 Northern Ireland) in N.I ‘lamb’ (Jesus) and ‘stone rolled away’ stanzas - Digging
- Metaphor for conflict ‘we strain
symbol of his resurrection. - No rhyme makes together…harder than we dared’ (Imagery)
Nature hopeful; anxious; in unpredictable
- Present tense used when talking about - Metaphor for weak peace
relieved peace ‘we strain together/she drinks (serious tone)
Religion ‘cradling’ vulnerable.
him’

3 The Field Nature Set in harvest time on - False sense of security ‘summer’ and - The poem consists
of three stanzas of
- Metaphor 1st line ‘long grass is a - Patrolling
Barnegat
a farm where a mouse ‘air hums/ sweetness’ peaceful scene snare drum’ and ‘jets’ reiterate war
Mouse Parent/Child gets hurt like innocent - Violent and war language ‘tractor 9 lines each. The far away. - Sonnet
Relationships victims of war in early blade/crushed/’ (weapons) lines are of varying - Oxymoron ‘killed flowers’ 2nd - At the Potato
lengths, perhaps to stanza focuses on death and agony. Digging
90’s former- - Pain ‘agony, the field’s
Danger reflect the freedom - Onomatopoeia ‘stammering with - Storm on the
Yugoslavia. hurt/bleeding/ /wounding’ of the natural Island
- Use of ‘we’ makes reader become gunfire’
Politics world - or the lack
serious; guilt; fear; involved of order in the war-
- Alliteration & Simile ‘bones brittle
distressed; sombre - Effects of war: ‘neighbour turned as mouse-ribs’
Death torn world.
stranger’ like in former-Yugoslavia - Land is personified ‘pain won’t
heal/ bleeding’
4 Cold Knap Memories Poet describes her - Dramatic descriptions make the story - Mainly regular
pattern:
- Mother’s bravery ‘kneeling/a
heroine/head bowed’ exaggerated
- Digging
- Storm on the
mother rescued a surreal. The girl is ‘dressed in water’s
Lake Danger the stanzas consist - Lots of colour, visual ‘blue-lipped/ Island
drowning girl from a long green silk’ (also metaphor) alternately of 4
- Questioning ‘Was I there?’ green/rosy/red’ (primary colours - Sonnet 130
Closing Couplet lake. But is it real? lines and 6 lines, (closing
- Shocking ‘watched her thrashed for that children like)
almost drowning’ violent image although the lines - Alliteration ‘drawn by the dread of couplet)
Parent/Child admiration; - Spectator is uncertain ‘shadowy/mud
are of varying it’ and ‘breathing, bleating’
Relationships confusion; wonder; lengths. It ends
blooms in cloudiness’ with a rhyming
- absence of sound, tension ‘silent’
melancholy - Dual meaning ‘troubled surface’ water couplet. - Rhyming closing couplet lines 21-
and memories. 22 ‘water/daughter’ memories blur!