Pluto

• Structure of the poem reinforces the sense of confusion through the use of indentation throughout – the non-indented lines are typically the past and the indented lines are the present, however this structure breaks down towards the end perhaps showing the breakdown of the persona’s mind.

  The poem also has 6 stanzas, all of fairly varying length (although some are the same) which show no pattern – further reinforcing the sense of confusion in the poem.
• ‘I’m thinking Pluto Pluto Pluto, thrilled, beside myself’

  • poignant metaphor: accentuating idea of hope and vitality of a personas youth gradually fading
  • adjective ‘thrilled’: excitement, exhilaration, initial glow and brilliance amplified through the repetition of ‘Pluto’, an overwhelming tone.
  • synaesthesia ‘soap’: reminiscence of memories and triggering emotional state of the past
  • Unexpected thrill people felt -discovery of Pluto in 1930.
  • Repetition (incantation-like): wanting to be able to traverse distance of time and yearning to clutch on to it, reality it is slipping through fingers.
• A02: "brown coins of age on my face the size of ha'pennies"

  • metaphor implies his skin has now discoloured as he has gotten older, comparing it to pennies.
  • their time and potential that has been taken away is now visible on his face.
  • decimalisation of archaic currency. Now old and decayed, how this man feels.
  • face has a double meaning - face could also link to a clocks face, emphasising the powerful nature of time and its irreversible qualities, loss of youthful purity and image of decay.
• A02: "in the dark, unreachable, of what it was like"

  • extended metaphor for the persona with similarities in their loneliness, isolation and ambiguous identities throughout the poem.
  • constantly reminded of his past and the time of Pluto being discovered.
  • the past and his potential being unreachable.
  • isolated words 'unreachable' similar feelings of the persona, isolated and lonely.
• A03: Pluto was discovered and named in 1930, named the most distant planet in the solar system, that is until 1992, it was renamed a dwarf planet. It is isolate, remote and alienated.