Vultures

• theme


  looking at a very complex co-existence of love and evil, idea that evil can be hidden in the most tender gestures and that it can become normalised
• structure

  free verse (no rhyme), stanzas separated by an ellipsis, no regular rhythm, hardly any punctuation, enjambement occurs
• ideas are not separated by punctuation


  lines about love and evil are blurred and the chaos which exists int he poem as a result of the poet trying to work out the relationship between the 2 is depicted
• d' alliteration


  gives a sense of heaviness which adds to the idea of despondence, adds to the grim atmosphere
• broken bones of a dead tree'

  metaphor, comparing branches of a tree to bones (suggest death), both have been stripped bear and bleached by the sun (brittle and cracked)
• nestled' juxtaposed with


  the image of horror that has been created with tender love, unsettling effect
• bashed in' implies


  physical violence often associated with vultures
• dump of gross'


  suggests a carelessness in doing something that seems to be of very little value, author creating a horrific scene of vultures (crime scene)
• Affectionately'


  care (juxtaposition)
• swollen'


  creates a vivid image and connotation of disease
• water logged'


  associated with dirt and flies etc.
• full'


  suggests the act of over enduldgement (greediness of vulture)
• hollowed remnant'


  corpse that vultures have fed on
• telescopic eyes'


  good sight of vultures (surveillance) as well as the act of waiting for something to die (uncaring of death)
• telescopic'


  alludes to inventions ('Belsen' used inventions to kill)
• strange'


  emphasises the strange existing relationship of love and evil
• love'


  personified and is given human qualities however evil is not (it is not of nature to be evil, love is more natural)
• particular'


  implies selectness with love
• turned to the wall'


  Selectness of evil, love could be in denial (similar to loving someone when knowing they have done evil), normalisation of evil
• belsen'


  nazi concentration camp where people were killed using a mechanism (a way of detachment and not having to confront death)
• fumes of human roast'


  personified, smell is given a human quality
• clinging' suggests


  unnaturalness, fighting to be there, he is trying to forget the shame/guilt but smell stays and doesn't move on
• rebelioussly'


  does not want the smell to stay
• two opposing ideas as father kills humans vs child being given a chocolates as an act of love


  juxtaposition, shows evil existing amongst love
• tender' implies


  innocence and naivety of children
• ... shows each stanza is a different thought but there is still a link to the theme
• ogre'


  associated with a monster (evil)
• that grants even an ogre a tiny glow worm'


  metaphor comparing evil to an ogre
• glow worm'


  suggests a bit of light, delicacy
• tiny'

  tries to heighten the idea that tenderness in evil ('ogre') is so small
• encapsulated'


  enclosed
• c' alliteration


  creates a hard sound which suggests how hard and cold the heart is
• germ'


  suggests dirt and spreading of disease which passes onto others (evil can be passed on)
• tone


  ends on a note of hopelessness, as evil exists and one cannot do anything about it
• harbinger'


  people/things that announce the approach of someone/something
• charnel house'


  building where corpses/bones placed
• commandant'


  German officer in charge of a place
• perpetuity'


  state of continuing forever
• bounteous Providence'


  all good things that God gives to mankind
• despondent'


  not reactive