poetry anthology (pt 1)

    Cards (99)

    • The Gunn - Vicki Feaver
    • Outline of the Gunn
      - The gunn alerts us to the presence of violence
      - Danger and killing - from our own association with gunns
      - Title is deliberately provocative
      - The poem shows a shift on the perception of guns
      - Conflict, power and gender
    • Structure
      - Lines vary in length
      - Instability of a gun - sudden bursts of violence
      - No rhyme scheme
      - Different stanza lengths
    • Stanza 1
      - This image is striking as we have an image of the house being warm but due to the media the gunn seems like a violation / transgression-“You lay it” - direct pronoun - makes us feel as if we are directly involved - sexual- Stretched - the pray around it is easy food-“Green chequered cloth” - something we associate with happiness is surpassed by grey shadow and threat of violence- Short and sudden sounds convey violence- Speculated that the gunn is a phallic symbol
    • Stanza 2
      - Shows how the speaker has been desensitised to the gun
      - Apprehension and negative "it's just practice" what is nex - who is being shot
      - Colon is sinister - inevitable
      - Orange strings add warning
      - Cannot distinguish between the can and the animal
      - Sinister undertones
      - Liberal ideologies of not having guns + not hunting
      - Speaker ravels in the danger of the gunn
    • Stanza 3
      - After the rabbi, there is a never ending violence
      - Speaker has accepted the gun ownership of her partner
      - She is attracted by the violence - the gleam in her husband's eye is appealing to her
      - Fresh sex - love - images are messy and disgusting
      - Contrasting images of flesh and decay throughout the poem
      - Wider comment on how guns kill the protective part of ourselves
    • Stanza 4
      - The speaker now admires the gunn- “Alive” ironic as the things in the house are dead- Desire to kill - breaking stereotypes of women, gentle creatures- Subversion of gender roles- Duality of women- Use of colons sets the poem into a bustle of movement and activity - enamoured with energy- Death can bring you life “sprouting golden crocuses” - this is why she admires the gun- “King” - significant death is master of all - dominated by masculine energy - gender roles
    • A Minor role - UA Fanthorpe
    • Overview of a minor role
      - Dramatic monologue
      - The speaker has an unnamed illness
      - The stage is used to reflect on her own life, yet she is not the main character
      - She is never the sole focus
      - She is the focus of attention while her identity isn't
    • Structure of AMR + rhythm
      - Initially uniform structure yet this changes throughout the
      - poem - shows how fast life can change
      - Rhythm has unexpected changes
      - Regular caesuras - interruptions in life
      - Enjambment plays into play like aspects of the poem
      - The speakers life varies because of her illness
    • Stanza 1
      - Title makes us wonder what role she is playing
      - The 1st line is an exposition to the title, contratics to the rest of the poem
      - Partly ironic start to the poem
      - Speaker wants to be relatable
      - Enjambment - her illness is ongoing
      - E - sounds like a groan
      - Her life has been reduce to entrances and exits like she goes in and out of people life and in and out of hospital
      - Plays the role of a monosyllabic patient
      - "Midget" - sense of hopelessness
      - "Fabric" - fabric of society - what it feels like for the speaker to - fit into society
    • Stanza 2
      - "Unobtrusive" - polysyllabic words which sticks out against other smaller words, she feels like her illness is obtrusive
      - She prefers to feel unnoticed
      - She contributes to the background music of society
      - Semantic field of the stage
      - On the stage she feels different - provides her with freedom yet sometimes this clashes
      - Present participles - never ending exhausting illness
      - Has to sustain the background music
    • Stanza 3
      - Focus on more private life and not public sphere
      - Lack of confidence and certainty
      - Contrast between "well meant" and "intrusive" - doesn't want to talk about her health yet people ask for the societal expectations
      - Disconnect between her and society
      - "Incase" severity - never ending flow of life
    • Stanza 4
      - Broken away - her privacy
      - Even at home she is forced to think about her illness
      - Internal monologue
      - "Cat" - symbol of unconditional love and acceptance into society
      - Mysteriously reassuring feels like a stage direction for the cat
      - mAlliteration and asyndetic listing reflects stress
    • Stanza 5
      - Rhetorical question
      - She handles her minor role and fights against idea of death
      - Rejects suicde and chooses to live
      - Rejects prejudice towards disabilities and riots against it
      - Encourages us to not take life for granted
    • Stanza 6
      - Oedipus - greek tragedy
      - Decides not to punish herself for her illness
      - Urges us to life
      - Link to 'As you like it
    • Chainsaw v the Pampas grass
    • Overview of CvP
      - Man v nature
      - Gender roles
      - Social class
      - Uses the mundane to address the universal
      - Speaker is never explicitly named
      - Armitage plays with stereotypes to challenge societal views
    • Structure and rhythm of CvP
      - No rhyme scheme
      - Irregular metre
      - No enjambment which demonstrates sense of opposition
      - Inconsistency in structure demonstrates the fluctuation of chainsaw
      - Endstopped shows the man made working against nature
    • Stanza 1
      -“Match” - sportsman link term “versus” - masculine-“Match” - romantic pairing-“Match” - to light fire- takes on this meaning later on in poem- Contrast of sportsmanship of man to “unlikely”- Personification - chainsaw transition from being a machine to man- Hard G sounds gives impression of strength and rage- Wasn't plugged in limits masculinity and dominion- Boxing match?- Illusion to colonialism- man coming in to destroy inferior human beings-“Knocking back” - chugging an alcoholic drink - illusion to the working class- Semantic field of athletics
    • Stanza 2
      - Brutality of the world
      - Alliteration - soft haze contrast to journey of preparing for battle - sharp juxtaposition
      - Sense of being cleared away is significant as it wants to start a new life, sharp burst of violence
      - Message from Armitage to not forget the past - Colonialism?
      - Simile - gunpowder - Guy Fawkes - Foreshadowing
      - Illusion to social class - starting revolution - bringing down parliament - pointless
      - Semantic field of weaponry
    • Stanza 3
      - Flare of violence is immediate
      - Casualties - war/ colonialism - innocent victims being harmed
      - Violence against women - men are ready to pounce and dont have regard for women
      - Wants to assault the grass - uncontrollable
      - Almost the narrative of chainsaw
      - Sharp and vivid imagery
      - Fricative alliteration gives idea of obscene profanity of language
      - Don't want emotional relationship only physical relationship - idolised by chainsaw
      - Foreshadowing
      - Conversational style emphasised with caesura and structure is emphasised in the breaks
    • Stanza 4
      -Priminative and female
      - Negative female stereotypes
      - Stereotypes of the rich
      - Sibilance in the stanza - gives imagery of nature and softness of nature
      - Description from chainsaws point of view
      - Almost jealous tone
      - Male gauze
      - Pampas grass is being introduced to reader and being ridiculed
    • Stanza 5
      - Clear phallic images-Roles are subverted - grass has male orbits too - “spears’- Male violence does not only destroy women but it also destroys women of men- Heteromonic masculinity- Juxtaposition of violence and soft - men don't know what they're doing- Men not knowing boundaries - toying with predatory ideas- Caesuras break flow of poem - emphasis predatory behaviour - harsh- Lack of subject shows lack of identity
    • Stanza 6
      - Humanity seems nature as a burden and waste of space
      Useless
      - No longer sense of enjoyment of nature
      - Repetitive action - similar to violence throughout history - colonialism?
      - Power is shifting
      - Idiom ' wanting to finish things off"
      - Grass is a symbol of resilience
      - Incomparable with humanity
      - We are a product of nature and evolution - trying to fight elements with fork
    • Stanza 7
      - “Midday moon” - image of being an outsider in his own home- Corn in egypt is biblical reference - nature will be abundant- Man v nature becoming man and nature
    • Stanza 8
      - Chainsaw is to be left without attention
      - Women are stronger than we give them credit for
      - Life doesn't end doesn't end with a violating experience
      - Connotation of violence happening again
      - When forgetting failure there is an urge to persist - for what purpose
    • Eat Me - Patience Agabi
    • Title
      - Capital letters - significance and gravity
      - Eat and me - growing physically and emotionally
      - Imperative - he commands her
      - He is a puppet master
      - Alice in wonderland - she is the adult figure - childish
      - Oppressive relationship
      - Battle with self - male is the alter ego?
      - Societal pressures of food - women lose a sense of self
    • Stanza 1
      - Disturbing- Topics of weight- “When i hit thirty he bought me cake”contrast of happiness to repression- By cake he is celebrating his control- Assonance - a and e- Half rhymes- Rigid structure- Women are forced to conform yet all women are unique- Finality, routine demonstrated by end stopped
    • Stanza 2
      -“White”purity innocence, contrast to reality of poem- Speaker is alienated- Excess- Sexual innuendos - far from innocent- She is innocent to him as she is her blank canvas- Pink - red and white - staining her purity - ruling her purity- Eat me - imperative - suffragette movement force feeding , eluding to struggle of women in the past , references to eating disorders and distortion of thought and sight- Alice in Wonderland potion she grows taller - speaker is physically and emotionally bigger
    • Stanza 3
      - Alliteration of b - speaker detests her body, violent undertones- Different voices and different perspective - links to different languages for different russian people- Feeder v feede-“Belly wobble”- childish, he is the child an primary- “Juggernaught”- dying out lorry, on the verge of destruction, cannot stop- Character is arcing
    • Stanza 4
      - Looks down on women- Change in narrative voice- She is not the only one“girls”- He likes the feeling of power not the speaker- Beauty standards in Nigeria - people prefer bigger girls, wealth, prosperity - forcing women to conform to standard- Poison of societal expectations
    • Stanza 5
      - Image of him diving into her-“Burrow”- link to berry - wishes her death , desires before her health- He is the person that provides for her, she has no other choice, financial disparity- Eats then falls into oblivion-“Forbidden fruit”- giving into original sin - power over men however taking power over one's life can lead to failure and change
    • Stanza 6
      - Stamanzic field - colonial language- “Whale”- size and helplessness no longer strong- She is waiting for freedom - foreshadowing
    • Stanza 7
      - How society constantly thinks about weight
      - Societal expectations
      - Dehumanising
      - Society has labelled her and it controls her
    • Stanza 8
      - Massive - juxtaposition - big on the outside but small on the inside- Reference to force feeding -“olive oil”assonance - evoke image of choking- The more she drinks the more dense she becomes- She is beginning to tolerate him “allowed”- Waiting for the turn
    • Stanza 9
      - What we have been building towards- Speaker takes decision to change her life- "How could i not roll over on top’- question - terminal decision - she doesn't care what the reader thinks- Uses her weight for revenge- Doesn't care - only cares of killing him- It was his greed that killed him - going against the oppressor - link to colonialism
    • Stanza 10
      - She leaves him to process change
      - He is greedy for more - her weight is in his mouth
      - Poem ends on sinister note
      - Melancholy ending - destiny
      - Victorious - losing weight no longer rolling over but will walk
      - Up for interpretation
      - Women ultimately have to make choices
    • context
      - Patience Agabi - nigerian descent
      - Obsession
      - Transgression
      - Gender roles
      - Female speaker relationship with male and force feeding fettish
      - Melancholy tone and sense of submission in first half of the poem
      - Dominant tone towards the end of the poem
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