Where I Come From - Elizabeth Brewster

Where I Come From

Elizabeth Brewster

Summary: This poem is about the poet meeting all sorts of different people in her life. She notes their background and the wonderful adventures that they have about they themselves travelling the world.  She then contrasts it to the world that she grew up in before she met these people. She, living in a small rural area with little need for money and education, finds her life very different from those in the urban world. 

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)

Structural analysis

1.       Repetition on the word “smell”

a.       The smell is the strongest memory sense. Therefore by utilising the sense of smell, it is easier to create a strong empathy link between the reader and the poet so that the reader will be able to relate with poet more easily to point out the vast difference between the urban and rural area.

b.      There is a sense of irony and hypocrisy involved as the poet was educated about the power of smell in memory, yet she is using this to be able to make fun of the urban area and describe the failures that come along with it.

2.       Free verse

a.       Note that the whole poem is in third person and that it is somewhat impossible to be able to express all the contents of the poem if it was in first person. The big shift from urban to rural will not be so dramatic if it was not in first person as it will be gradual. By utilising a third person narration it is easier to illustrate the vast difference between the two.

3.       Indentation in the second stanza

a.       The indentation in the second stanza is so that it starts when the first stanza ends, illustrating the link between the two although there is a shift in idea. They are therefore parallel ideas, although the author is trying to link the two ideas together. She is trying to connect the two ideas together because the poet tries to impress onto the reader that the two co-exist with each other. The rural area is not possible without an urban area as there is no point of comparison and the urban and rural area both depend on each other for progress and development. The urban area depends on the rural area for raw materials and electricity while the rural area depends on the urban area for technology, employment and modern entertainment.

4.       Simplistic writing. This is used by the poet so as to be able to make it easier for the reader to be able to imagine about the reader extensive use of imagery used when the poet describes the place. It is also used to provide fluidity so as to be able to make a quick transition when she starts to list out areas. Secondly when we make the big shift from the rural to urban area, the use of simplistic writing is good to address the big contrast between the two.

Word analysis

First stanza

1.       “People are made of places”. Obviously this means that people are affected with them by their birthplace and that their character reflects the area that they grow up in. Take note that this is also the topic sentence of the whole poem. It is, in essence, the summary of the whole poem.

2.       “They carry with them hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace or the cool eyes of sea-gazers”

a.       It is here that the poet addresses different biomes so as to be able to include all the different parts of the world and in turn to be able to describe everyone from different backgrounds.

b.      The phrase “cool eyes of sea-gazers” demonstrates the atmosphere surrounding sea-gazers (which are people who live along the coast) as the coast along the sea is usually cool (as they usually are in Canada, the place of birth of the poet herself). This once again reflects the fact that once again “People are made of places”.

Note that the lines that lead up to this moment all address either memories or backgrounds, creating a good foundation for the poem as it deals with the constant shift of these areas.

3.       “Atmosphere of cities how different drops from them” note how we the concept of being different is given physical attributes as it cannot actually drop. This is used by the poet to create a sense of imagery to emphasize the difference in individuality and uniqueness of every different person.

4.       “Like the smell of smog or the almost-not-smell of tulips”. This once again deals with the contrast between the smell of something so strong and something so faint (which is the smell of tulips), illustrating the fact that the world is full of contrasts and contradictions, and it is these things that make it so beautiful. As I have said in so many of the old poem analyses, what is the point of having something beautiful if we do not have nothing to compare it with?

5.       “nature tidily plotted in little squares”

a.       This is used as a form of irony by the poet to contradict what she said about the world being full of different places. There are areas that are uniform, however as a whole, the world is different. If you can follow the line of reasoning, we can say that the contradiction of the contradiction, is a contradiction in itself.

b.      Alternatively it can be used to describe how development/globalisation is starting to make everything uniform as urbanisation starts to control the dispersion and growth of plants, taking away the mystery and the uniqueness of different parts of the world.

6.       “With a fountain in the centre; museum smell, art also tidily plotted with a guidebook”. The fountain symbolises the reign of the urban, educated world over nature, being in the centre, as well as the fountain being a beautiful piece of human technology upon closer inspection. The fact that nature has been plotted around it implies a negative force, as if commanding nature to conform. This is in a sense the educated world mocking the natural world, as we often find a way to defend ourselves against the elements using technology (eg: Dubai, which receives its resources from other countries nearby and for what? Money. Something that also the developed world has learned to revolve around.)

7.        “art also tidily plotted with guidebook;” In the poet here can be expressing her criticism on the lack of originality found when you have seen the artworks of too many artists and thus fail to come up with an idea of your own, time and time again pointing out to faults in development, that it has led to the loss of creativity that we used to see so often in people. Living in an urban area, we also start to see people being able to express themselves less and less. Therefore there is a suppression of expression and people start to look, do and sound more and more the same thing as they start to conform to the pressures of the urban area. Once again this can be related to the ‘song’ Ernold Same by Blur, which addresses how this person used to the same thing over and over again till the day he died. What a boring life that was.

8.       “Or the smell of work, glue factories maybe”

a.       The poet is expressing her opinions of the industrial revolution, the place where development all began. Relating to the structure based analysis, note how the poet is using smell once again to try and make us remember those times, as the metaphor found in the smell of work (eg: sweat, grit and dirt) are usually things quite hard to forget when you were living in those times, or if you are now working in the secondary sector.

                                                               i.      The factory can also be used by the poet to convey a sense of claustrophobia and confinement in the reader, which one can often feel when you move from a big open area to an area where you are surrounded by buildings and roads.

b.      Glue is sometimes used as a drug when you sniff it (although low-level). The poet here specifically mentions glue here, perhaps relating this to the production of narcotics on an industrial scale due to the development, once again pointing out the faults of urban development as she tends to favour the rural area. 

9.       “Chromium-plated offices; smell of subways crowded at rush hours” Once again the poet uses smell to try and make us remember of the last time in the subway as it is our strongest memory trigger. This can be related to the previous sentence which relates to the sense of confinement that we can find in the Chromium-plated office and the sense of claustrophobia that we often feel when we are in the “Subways crowded at rush hours”

Second Stanza

1.       “Where I come from”. This already shows a shift as we shift from the urban perspective to the rural perspective, from her point of view. She is about to talk about her life in the rural area and her experiences.

2.       “people carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;” this indicates that in the poet’s hometown, the main point of trade is in the wood trade, particularly fine woods like pinewood. The fact that she mentions the ‘front-liners’ that are the front line of people that bring income to the country gives the implication that the poet feels a sense of pride towards her hometown, especially these people who she regards as her heroes. The fact that she also mentions these people first creates an image of the town being strong and having the potential to uphold their own weight and to be able to overcome any obstacles that might come their way.

3.       “blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;” this indicates the concept of rejuvenation and how we can create something new from old. This is basically because the nutrients from the burned-out bush is used for growth in the blueberry patches. This means that it has the ability to generate new things from old.

a.       The poet here could be addressing development and how we always tend to get rid of the old things of the past and keep replacing it with something new (eg: technology. We keep throwing away the old devices and keep buying the new ones, even though there is not much difference). She could also be addressing urban sprawl, and how the old (rural area) will be eventually replaced with the new (urban area) given enough time.

4.       “wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint, with yards where hens and chickens circle about, clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses behind which violets grown.”

a.       This is where the poet relates the poem to memories of the past, specifically hers. The fact that the wooden farmhouse and schoolhouse(s) is old, battered and is in need of paint exemplifies the fact that the farmhouse has been used a lot, probably by the childhood in her past which implies that she has spent a long time in that area and probably has a very big impact on her. This creates a sense of nostalgic feelings in poet and in the reader due to the empathetic bond between the two. This gives the impression that what the poet is seeing through her own eyes is not what is physically there, but what is metaphorically there – her childhood. This causes the reader to thinking about his or her own nostalgic memories and how what they physically see is not what they mentally see.  This creates an even stronger bond between the two parties, despite the fact that they are not mentally seeing the same thing.

b.      The fact that the “violets grown” along the school house demonstrates a symbol representing a rebellion against the structured and organised world, as the growing pattern of the violet is often the opposite – disorganised. Furthermore it gives the image of the plant and thus nature trying to engulf the place of study, the place of development, to give a sense of nature finally being able to triumph over something man-made.

5.       “Spring and winter are the mind’s chief seasons; ice and the breaking of ice”. This is when the poet starts to get surreal as she starts to get lost in her own memories of her past. She is implying that the spring and winter are the two main peaks in the thought pattern of the brain. The other two seasons are the times that lead up to that very special moment, which is the ice and the breaking of ice, completely metaphoric though.

a.       The ice represents rigidity, the conformity into acting as one. The fact that you are confined to studying and working all day with no rest.

b.      The breaking of it represents the fact that we cannot do this forever and that in some time of our lives we will all crack and leave. We will all change to be the person that we once were. It can also represent the vast difference between the rural and urban area, as if the area was a ‘break’ from the stresses and that they are so vastly different as if the rules and regulations of the urban area did not apply in the rural area.

Also note the link between the nature and the mind in this line. The poet here could be addressing the similarities yet differences between the two aspects. Similar to how the urban and rural area are so different, yet completely linked.

6.       “A door in the mind blows open, and there blows a frosty wind from fields of snow” the door represents a new alternative to the ‘line of thought’ that she is about to go through.

a.       Therefore the poet here is trying to imply the fact that there will be something that she will experience that will change the way that she interprets the world, change the way that she thinks as a person. She here could be addressing urbanisation and how urban sprawl will eventually catch up with its rural counterpart, specifically the area around it, changing the area forever and the people with it. Change is coming. The fact that there are fields of snow represent the fact that it is something that is tough and it is something that you can overcome quickly, but whether or not you are prepared you will have to go through it, else the snow might enter the door and engulf you from there before you are ready, therefore you should go and meet the challenge first.

b.      Alternatively, the door to her mind could indicate a doorway to her past as she starts to remember more and more. She then realises that this is something that she wants to do but is hard to do due to the time constraints of our fast paced world. This constraint is represented obviously by the snow. She is also aware of the bad aspects of her past and that she will have to overcome that as well if she has to experience the good aspects of her past as well.

                                                               i.      The snow may also represent her memories and how easily it for her to get engulfed into it.

                                                             ii.      It could also meant that the snow represents her memories and it is very easily to let the memory sink into her character, affecting it, whether positively or negatively.

c.       Also, note that the door is man-made while snow is naturally formed. The poet recognizes its power of the duality of having both natural and man-made devices in our lives and that it is obviously important to us because we carry it/it affects us. In other words, our identity is shaped by the nature/world around us.

 Speaker of the poem: the poet herself, both the semi-physical (second stanza) and the omniscient part of her (first stanza), Elizabeth Brewster

Speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem:  – duality, positive and nostalgic about nature and negative about city

Paired poems (Identify poems in the anthology and why they are appropriate to be paired)

1.       The Planners in the similar hatred over the urban environment and the consistency, conformity, and the lack of creativity from the people that come with it.

2.       Horses in the sense that there is a similar time shift in the poem. The time shift can be found here when the poet mentions her childhood and the industrialization period. However, it is not chronological.

3.       Summer Farm in the sense that there is great detail in the natural aspect of the world in order to reinforce the subject matter. In this poem, it is the fact that nature conquers over development, of which nature made up more of the poet’s childhood than the latter. In the other poem, it was of course to reinforce the mental state of the poet.

Memorable Lines:

1.       People are made of places.

2.       Nature tidily plotted in little squares with a fountain in the centre; museum smell, art also tidily plotted with a guidebook

3.       Wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint, with yards where hens and chickens circle about, clucking aimlessly;

4.       Spring and winter are the mind’s chief seasons; ice and the breaking of ice. 

The Woodspurge - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Woodspurge

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Summary of the Poem:

The poet talks about a world that seems surreal (although it could most possibly be possible), and talks about the Woodspurge, as you can see below.

In this sense, he is trying to make the Woodspurge an extraordinary plant that it is very rare in reality and is from a world not from our own. The poem here uses the Woodspurge as a symbol in an allegorical story, which we will discuss later on.

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition...etc)

Structure level analysis

1.       AAAA rhyme scheme, with a few exceptions here and there. It is used to basically create a sense of consistency which we will naturally find a little boring and dull. In this context it fits in perfectly as the poet tries to describe a dystopian world, where interesting and fun things to do are very scarce, if any at all. The choice of words are also simple, which adds to the effect as we find nothing out of the ordinary very interesting, even on a linguistic scale.

2.       Constant caesura at the end of every line, usually due to punctuation. At some point we don’t even see the need for the punctuation as we already read it with the pause automatically, but still it is there for reinforcement. This is used to allow a pause for every sentence to sink in, indicating the fact that when we started reading we were already at the climax or at the dramatic scene of the poem.

Word level analysis

1.        Use of the word “wind” repetitively in the first stanza to emphasize the atmosphere and setting. “The wind flapped loose, the wind was still” implying that the wind was completely periodical at this moment and continued to be so, to set the setting for the first two stanzas. Even when we don’t read it in the second stanza, we already see the atmosphere constantly changing from windy to calm, as was the aim of the poet. Note how he varies the sentence structure and adds a little bit of movement to avoid repeating the same thing twice so that it still has its hold on the reader so he won’t get bored and stop reading it as a whole. This sudden climate change may show indication of a potential storm coming.

“I walked on at the wind’s will-,

I sat now, for the wind was still”

The fact that he goes with the wind and does not even oppose it shows a sign of submissiveness and a lack of defiance. ‘Just take me where you want me to go’ is what he is saying. It also gives a sense of you having no more meaning in your life and that you are just in fact an empty shell.

In a way, it can also express emotional turmoil and that the poet has finally given up, the wind being used to express his feelings outside of his own body (the flooding of pain and other negative emotions).

2.       The second stanza deals with another form of submissiveness. Note the synecdoche on the knees and forehead, we well as lips, hair and ears. Also note that these bodily features usually found exposed, giving the implication that the character in the story is as well metaphorically. The fact that they were all mentioned is to express on the characters nakedness and the vulnerability as he just submits to the storm.

“Between my knees my forehead was,-

My lips, drawn in, said not Alas!

My hair was over in the grass,

My naked ears heard the day pass.”

Note as well that there is a lost rhyme in “was” and “Alas”, once again exemplifying the submissive behaviour of the character. ‘All is lost’

So at the end of the second stanza, we can conclude that the guy is in an ‘armadillo’ position and that he is just suffering the storm, waiting for it to pass.

3.       In the third stanza, the poet wakes up in a surreal world. I can’t help but think of the scene in Avatar at night in this scene just before he makes out with the heroine. We have indications of the world surreal.

a.       The sun goes down, foreshadowing the fact that we are about to experience a world unseen, as we are usually unfamiliar of a world without the sun outside the house in the wild.

b.      A sudden movement to the detailed world, as the poet starts to notice the weeds on the ground. Note that even the number of weeds we can find is said. This sudden description in detail foreshadow that something big is going to happen as we start to explore even the small changes in the things around us. At last we see the bloom of the Woodspurge, “Three cups in one.” , an alien that we probably would not have seen or learned to appreciate without the surreal world to act as a background.

4.       The last stanza is a beautiful one. The poet starts to show how powerful an impact the Woodspurge has had on him. He starts to feel a wave of powerful emotion as he notices the beauty of the Woodspurge. Thus the lines “From the perfect grief there need not be” and starts to relate the Woodspurge with many other things that humans treasure so much. “Wisdom or even memory”. This is an implication that the poet thinks of the Woodspurge as something that we can’t even comprehend, that there is more behind it than meets the eye. This is the perfect evidence of the Woodspurge in the symbol in the eyes of the poet, that he has seen it before or can relate it to something of his past.

5.       He then goes on the say “One thing then learnt remains to me” , which basically means that of all he has forgotten, of all the emotional turmoil that has washed over him, of all the depression and emptiness that he holds, there is only one thing that he remembers. One thing that he can’t deny and something that he wants to keep, no matter what happens. This line is used to create a emotion of bittersweet love towards this flower, that it has managed to stick with him through thick and thin, although not mentioned how.

That “The woodspurge has a cup of three.” Once again he is talking about the characteristics of the flower, although phrased differently. This means that what is more important as the symbol is its peculiar characteristics rather than the name itself, which once again has a meaning that only the poet knows, and what we can only do is ponder about it.

Identify the speaker in the poem: The poet himself, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Identify the speaker’s attitude towards the subject of the poem: At first submissive, emotionally stressed and pained. Towards the end there is a feeling of surrealism, bittersweet memories and a sense of grief.

Paired poems:

1.        A Birthday by Christina Rosetti in the sense that the emotional standpoint is all there is to the poem and that in a way images are used to portray that emotional standpoint for as much as possible.

2.       The Cockroach in both the poem endings as they start to look inwardly on themselves and the life that they have and compare it with The Cockroach and The Woodspurge accordingly.

3.       Continuum in the sense that surreal images are used to exemplify the character’s emotions and amplify them to the reader so as to be able to create a stronger emotional connection.

Memorable lines:

1.       “From perfect grief there need not be”

2.       “One thing then learnt remains to me, - The Woodspurge has a cup of three”

3.       “I had walked on at the wind’s will, - I sat now, for the wind was still.”

4.       “The Woodspurge flowered, three cups in one...”
“The woodspurge has a cup of three...”

The Planners - Boey Kim Cheng

The Planners

Boey Kim Cheng

Summary: The poet talks about progress, and how they can be boring in the sense that we organize everything so neatly and that there is no more mystery left in the world. Every single thing is perfectly done until it is wrong to be human and make a mistake every once in a while. So he starts to wonder; is this form of progress a good thing or a bad thing?

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)

Structure level analysis

1.       There is no indentation at all and every line start at exactly the same area. You could draw a line through the beginning to use as a backing and all would remain in line. This could exemplify the accuracy, the level of perfection that we find in progress. One could argue it also deals with the boredom of having the same thing structure in the same way, thinking that it is ‘perfect’ and cannot be improved anymore, similar to how every building in a city looks more or less the same while every tree in the forest are all differently structured.

2.       Free verse: gives a sense of irony in the “mathematically designed” city in which no creation is actually ‘free’ to express ideas.

a.       This could have been used by the poet as a form of rebellion over conformity.

b.      Alternatively he could have been addressing the issue of a small case of rebellion over robotic and repetitive thinking every single day, and to show that there is still a sense of originality and people who have not given up. And they are hiding in places where you least expect it, in the fabric of the poem itself.

Word level analysis

1.        Throughout the whole text, we can find a repetition of the word “They", all put in capitals, which can illustrate the fact that it is a title rather than referring to a selective group of people. Rather throughout the poem the poet is talking about the same group of people.

a.       He could be referring in this way the multinational companies and conglomerates that run the world.  They are the ones that spur on progress. “They plan. They build…”

b.      On the other hand he could be using personification to refer to progress as an entity itself that changes the way we see our world, our city in a way that helps them develop.

2.       Note the technical terms found in the first few lines of the poem. “All spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities. The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points linked by bridges all hang”. These indicate the fact that the thought of progress is already so ingrained into the minds of society (and already ingrained into our vocabulary) that it is already in our instinct to progress and no longer a choice.

3.       We can also see another form of personification towards the end of the stanza.

“Even the sea draws back
and the sky surrenders”

This implies that even nature fears the course of progress and is retreating to give way to allow these things to happen. It also exemplifies the fact that even nature sees progress as something being more powerful than it, which is an unprecedented event.

On the other hand, the poet can be dealing with the problems of environmental degradation that comes with development and how development always comes at a price to the environment. We always find cases of illegal logging or deforestation, and the waters being polluted with litter. He can be giving nature human attributes so that we can empathize with them more easily, and perhaps make us realize that development always has a cost.

4.       The first three lines of the second stanza emphasize on the perfection of progress.

“They erase the flaws,

The blemishes of the past, knock off

Useless blocks with dental dexterity”

The first line already describes perfection itself – a lack of flaws.

Any imperfections of the past, we knock off.

We get rid of anything useless, indicating maximum efficiency with the new world of progress, with dental dexterity. When we usually think of dentists, we usually think of how everything is sterile, how the dentist is always so calm and collected and how everything he does is completely exact and accurate, which is the implication of the poet at this time. He wants us to note that correction that we make that is caused by the past is knocked away perfectly, never a wasted movement.

5.       “The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth”, of course the poet here is talking about the buildings, and how they are constructed in perfect rows, with the very slight variations in height and structure making it look as if the city has teeth. It is perhaps in this sense that the poet is bringing us back to a day with the dentist, and how movement is perfect from him. The use of the word “teeth” that is a animal attribute gives the implication that the city is a physical entity and is alive, contrary to the way we perceive it. The fact that they are shining teeth also exaggerates the perfection of progress.

6.       “Anesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis. They have the means. They have it all so it will not hurt.”

Note the power of three happening here.

a.       Also not how they are all terms used to fooling the brain into doing something that it was not originally planned to do. It is here that the poet tries to make us wonder ‘is progress making us think differently? Is it changing the way we view the world as? Have we begun to become too soft, or too unused to the natural world or a world without progress?’ I find that not doing homework for a day is painful, perhaps this is one of the things I should question ‘is this feeling normal? Or the work of progress?’ Not how the syntax of the sentence and the use of the word “they” make it look as if you are about to undergo a life changing procedure and they are telling you not to worry, when in fact you really should.

b.      On the other hand, it can make us wonder ‘is it normal to not take these things at all? What is wrong with being a little bit human? Is there a drug for everything that we have? And if so, what is it then that makes us what we are if not for our flaws? This question as addressed by Blur in their work entitled The Universal, where there was a drug for feeling that you had and it made you wonder ‘isn’t it normal to have these feelings?’ at that point in time it was very normal to take anti-depressants to make you feel happy, or to take painkillers when you felt physically pained. Aren’t these feelings what make us human? What are we then, if not for the emotions and feelings that we have?

c.       Alternatively, the words mentioned (Amaesthesia, amnesia and hypnosis) form images connected to plastic surgery, and therefore the re-modelling of one’s aspects. Hypnosis also suggesting manipulation of one’s thoughts to create this “seemingly” perfect world. It could also deal with the fact that although we consider these things to be perfect, they are not real at all and that in reality it is impossible to be perfect. It is these imperfections that make us who we are.

7.       “The piling will not stop.
The drilling goes right through
the fossils of last century”

It is here that the poet is once again trying to reinforce the fact that progress is already so ingrained into our heads that we cannot help but continue to progress. It will keep going no matter what, giving perhaps a sense of hopelessness and inevitability and a lack of control over what we observe.

Note that it says “goes right through the fossils of last century”. Fossils are the only thing we have left that connects us to the past and the fact that we are drilling right through them destroys them. He is perhaps saying that progress has destroyed our interpretation of the past as we try as much as we can now to look more into the future. How many times do we know or predict more about the future than look back at its past? The poet here tries to point out the fact that when we look to the future, we must never forget to look back on the past as well, so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes twice.

8.       “But my heart would not bleed

poetry. Not a single drop
to stain the blueprint
of our past’s tomorrow”

It is here that the author says ‘hey maybe development and progress isn’t a bad thing. And even if I felt it was I would keep my actions to myself, because I wouldn’t do anything to stop it’. Take note that a blueprint has already been set up for the future, indicating that we already have a plan. The author says that he would do nothing to stain that blueprint to mess up the measurements of any of the plans. His heart would not bleed poetry, something regarded as a work of art, something that we do not really think about in progress, where most of the work we find is left brained. 

Lastly, the two words “past’s tomorrow” is an oxymoron and it is used to exemplify the fact that ‘we are already living in the future, and what you do already determines the future – the future is in your hands and I would do nothing to change it.’ Perhaps here the poet is saying that he will do nothing to change and that ‘we should be the change we want to see in the world’.

9.      Juxtaposition in the line “grace of mathematics” where grace  moves freely, in unrestrained strings, yet mathematics is made up of rules and straight, unrestricted lines.  

Speaker of the poem: The writer himself, a victim (or a fortunate person) to be able to witness progress in front of his eyes, Boey Kim Cheng.

Speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem:  Sitting on the fence, conservative, not taking sides, saying things as they are in his opinion, although not at all biased.

Paired poems (Identify poems in the anthology and why they are appropriate to be paired)

1.      The City Planners towards the end as she addresses the conspirators of the City Planners, similar to how the poet in The Planners addresses the unknown plans of progress, or the multinational companies that spur progress “They”

Memorable lines

1.       “They plan, they build. All spaces are gridded.”

2.       “The sea draws back and the skies surrender.”

3.       “Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis’’

4.       “Not a single drop to stain the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow”

The Pike - Ted Hughes

Pike

Ted Hughes

Summary: The poem is based on his childhood. As a child he often visited the lake (presumably so that his father can go fishing), of which there lived a huge pike in the deep part of the pond. It is the memory of such a place that acts as a foundation on which this poem was based upon. This poem is amazing in the sense that the implication of the poem is both physical and allegorical. The pond could represent the conscious mind of Hughes himself. The deeper area could represent the subconscious, which is where the true monsters live, as Hughes often said.

The poem follows the pattern of many of Hughes’ work. It is usually marked by practical knowledge and precise description of the creature described, such as their bodies and how they move, as well as their behaviour. Hughes also tended to have a very big obsession with big and fierce creatures and often written poems including the The Juguar in the animal world and the Thistles of the plant world. He always tended to depict these creatures in the most warlike and vicious state.

Just to give you a picture of how big the Pike looks like:

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)

·         Note how the beginning of every sentence starts with a capital letter, even though there are sometimes no form of punctuation to dictate it so. This can be used as a way to stroke the ego of the pike, as if by saying that ‘we should always make a grand sentence starter for the Pike!’, as if we are throwing a red carpet down for the Pike to walk on when we are making descriptions of it which in the perspective of the poet, may be his thoughts exactly.

Other than the ones mentioned there is no (or very little) bits that we can analyse from the structure due to the fact that all his other poems follow the same format. So why should this be any different? All that we can say is that he is very consistent in the way that he writes his poems, a sign of a very organised and well-collected poet.

However, like most poems, there are reoccurring themes that we find in the context¸ and for the sake of simplicity I will try and colour code them.

Word-based analysis

Stanza 1

“Pike, three inches long, perfect
It was until I searched up what a baby pike looked like when I finally realised what the poet was implying when he wrote “three inches long”.

The fact that he is using a baby pike as the first imagery of the poem represents the fact that they are already beautiful from birth and there is nothing more that they needed to do in their life to improve as they are already at the top. He is also addressing the innocence of the Pike at birth, putting the fish in rather adorable light to the reader.

Pike in all parts, green tigering the gold
The phrase “green tigering the gold” basically has the meaning of the pike being green with the gold that we see in a tiger. This has two forms of interpretation

·         The use of the word “tigering” relates to, of course, the tiger that we find on land, which is sometimes considered to be one of the most powerful land creatures to ever walk this Earth. Its cat-like bone structure is perfect for hunting in its particular environment. This could thus be a reference to how the pike is perfectly built for killing in water, similar to how the tiger is perfectly built for hunting on land. He could also make a reference to its ferocity and dominance that we see in the tiger, implying that he sees it in the pike as well.

·         The use of the word gold, especially the shade of gold that we often see on the tiger, implies royalty, putting the pike in a rather majestic and elegant light.

Killer from the egg: the malevolent aged grin.
The poet here is exemplifying the fact that the pike is already structured to become the perfect killer since birth. It already is born with the instincts to survive and the techniques to hunt, portraying the Pike as the ultimate king of the sea in terms of dominance, commanding respect. Furthermore it creates makes the pike look like a sacred animal, as if hand-crafted by God to do amazing things.
They dance on the surface among the flies.”
The main diet of the Pike at birth is the flies. Therefore the use of the word dance is a metaphor used to describe the hunt. However the poet is implying the fact that the hunting is so easy to them due to their ingrained thinking and specialised body structure that they make it seems as seamless as if they were doing a dance among the flies rather than hunting them.

Stanza 2

“Or move, stunned by their own grandeur
The phrase “stunned by their own grandeur” is used to create an air of arrogance around the Pike, as if it knows that it is something to be respected. This reinforces the point about the poet calling the Pike perfect as even the Pike is aware of that. Furthermore the use of the word grandeur once again relates the Pike to royalty or a higher-class noblemen, commanding even more respect.

Over a bed of emerald, silhouette
Take note that Emerald is considered very rare and valuable in human terms and the fact that the emerald is found on the seabed of the pond represents the fact that the Pike guards over it, as if the Pike was the king, the pond its kingdom or castle, and the bed of Emeralds, its wealth or treasury.

Of submarine delicacy and horror.
Note the juxtaposition in the two words “delicacy” and “horror” as well as the metaphor when we describe the pike as a submarine. The two juxtaposing words represent the pike itself. It is delicate and beautiful at times (perhaps at birth), yet horrifying and terrifying when hunting. This is favourable in both contexts, as you want to be horrifying and terrifying when you are hunting, yet favourable in the eyes of the poet when the creature is beautiful when young as it helps bring his point across, meaning that the pike gets to enjoy the best of both worlds. This is something that not many people get to do, making the pike look privileged, as the poet likes to make the pike look. 
A hundred feet long in their world.”
This could be a metaphor for their dominance, for although small relative to the pond, they are huge in arrogance and their aura can be sensed (and feared) for as much as a hundred feet, accentuating once again the arrogance of the Pike, as well as its right to be by the poet.

Stanza 3

“In ponds, under the heat-stuck lily pads-
In this point of view, the pike swims below the heat-stuck lily pads. This can refer once again to royalty as we find the lily pads sacrificing itself and taking in the heat, just so that the Pike can be cool directly below it.

Gloom of their stillness;
This is similar to the works of Hunting Snake by Judith Wright, who implies that the snake (and in this case, the pike as well) are both creatures of mystery, and that we tend to think of them as something different than they truly are – creatures of beauty. Furthermore the fact that Hughes also does the same gives the pike a calm and collected attitude; as if everything that is happening in the pond is planned by the Pike and that everything planned is going smoothly.

Logged on last year’s black leaves, watching upwards
This can exemplify the fact that the pike even holds dominance over the areas that it can’t reach (ie above the surface of the water) as it keeps close watch every day, ensuring that no one dares step even close to its territory. The black leaves could refer to the lily pads which have died, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the pike. The fact that the pike looks through the dead black leaves without acknowledging its presence once again demonstrates its arrogance, as if it deserves to have plants die for it.

Or hung in an amber cavern of weeds”
Once again there is this concept of plants sacrificing themselves to provide shelter or anything that the Pike might request. In this case, as already said before, shelter. There is also that issue of the Pike being mysterious, once again giving it a calm and collected attitude. This could also be applicable when it is in its environment, hunting for prey that might pass by. It is collected and calm, and not worried that the prey might get away, because it’ll always get the prey in the end.

Stanza 4

“The jaws’ hooked clamp and fangs
Structure once again being perfect for hunting.
Not to be changed at this date;
Nothing more needs to be improved since birth, it was already born perfect.
A life subdued to its instrument;
It is perhaps here that he issues the problems of being a pike. That perhaps the Pike is perfectly built for killing, and thus has to live up to its expectations. That all its life it is honing its skills in hunting just to be able to fulfil the expectations of everybody. It is here that is life is subdued (weakened) what is the point in life if you are built do something that you are not passionate about? Or something that you don’t really want to do? It is here that the poet is implying that the Pike may reflect on him instead, perhaps relating it to an incident in his childhood as he starts to remember his past when he recalls this pond as well as the pike. This is similar to the poem found in the anthology The Cockroach when the poet finds that the animal that he describing, the cockroach, completely reflect the actions of his life, as well as the life of many that walk on this earth. Could the pike also be reflecting on us as well?
The gills kneading quietly, and the pectorals”
This gives us a view of the mechanical makings of the Pike. Perhaps the poet is exaggerating these features to give us a sense of its raw power as well as its efficiency and consistency due to the use of the verb and adverb kneading quietly. Note as well the random use of a named muscle that is a feature of a core muscle, one of the most important muscles in your body. The fact that it is featured indicate how much power that the pike has, especially in the ones where the strength of the muscles is required most (core muscles)

Stanza 5

“Three we kept behind glass,
Jungled in weed: three inches, four,
And four and a half: fed fry to them
Suddenly there were two, finally one”

The scene described dictates the experience that the poet had of keeping such creatures as pets. Take note that the fact that they were so small although the poet was so proud illustrates how hard it actually is to capture a pike that even capturing one this small was already considered an achievement.
Also note how they suddenly disappeared. This indicates that the other two were killed off by the strongest one. This expresses their arrogance once again as they try to remain on top and the best and the most dominant, despite the fact that they are the ones being help mercy to the poet, who “feeds fry to them” and kept them “behind glass”
“Jungled in weed”, mystery once again.

Stanza 6 and 7
“With a sag belly and a grin it was born with.
And indeed they spare nobody.
Two, six pounds each, over two feet long,
High and dry and dead in the willow-herb -
One jammed past its gills down the other’s gullet:
The outside eye stared: as a vice locks -
The same iron in this eye
Though its film shrank in death”

This is one of the poet’s experience when he went to the lake with his father to go fishing one day. One pike swam into the mouth of another one, where both of them suffocated and died. This could represent the dangers of arrogance, contrary to what the poet was implying as he mentioned arrogance a countless number of times and painted it in a positive light. He in this area is trying to imply the fact that sometimes, as president John F Kennedy used to say “When you are preparing for a fight, prepare to dig two graves”. In this case, the pike could represent him as his recollection could have triggered a memory of his past where he had faced a similar issue, only to find both parties lose due to arrogance.
However, there is still a level of respect for the way that these two Pike died, they were pikes after all. The best creatures to ever walk this earth in the eyes of the poet. Anyway the phrase “vice locks- the same iron in this eye” indicates a sense of masculinity as we see tools mentioned and of all tools, locks which represent strength as well, indicating the poet feels like the two pikes died in the most masculine way possible, thus deserving some respect.

Stanza 8 and 9

“A pond I fished, fifty years across,
Whose lilies and muscular tench
Had outlased every visible stone
Of the monastery that planted them -
Stilled legendary depth:
It was as deep as England. It held
Pike too immense to stir, so immense and old
That past nightfall I dared not cast”

These two stanzas represent the bittersweet memories that the poet had in connection with this pond, and how he has lived with it and saw it changed throughout the ages. The use of the metaphor in the phrase “fifty years across” is used both as a time and distance measure, used to say that it is big enough for one to take fifty years in order to cover the whole area, fishing wise. This is a good way for one to create a sense of meaning to a statistical measurement, not only indicating that the poet possess knowledge of the area, but how the poet came to obtain the knowledge – in this case through experience.
The use of the word “monastery” was specially used by the poet so as to create the pond as having a sacred touch to it, as if it was the haven for pikes. It is also creates an innocent image to the pond, as well as the poet when he visited that area regularly as a child.
Also note the hyperbole when the poet said that the pond was “as deep as England”. This hyperbole sounds juvenile, like a child saying that ‘an elephant was the size of Canada… (if that makes any sense at all)’, indicating that the poet has been at the same pond since he was a young boy, bringing back bittersweet memories in the poet, and in the reader as he starts to recall his childhood days as well, strengthening the empathy link between both the reader and the poet as they are able to relate to the same feeling that they get when talking about their past.

Stanza 10 and 11

“But silently cast fished
With the hair frozen on my head
For what might move, for what eye might move.
The still splashes on the dark pond,
Owls hushing the floating woods
Frail on my ear against the dream”

This is the final experience reported in the play, where the poet decides to one night fish in the pond. This is completely contradictory to what just stated previously stating “That past nightfall I dared not cast”. It is at this time that things start to become surreal, as we finally see the world that we don’t usually see as many are usually asleep at this time. Furthermore the person is very sleepy, and it usually at this time that dreams and reality start to blend as you become more and more sleepy and drift into a half-sleep. Note the oxymoron in the phrase “still splashes” which add to this very surreal image as in no way, in any shape or form, that a splash can be still as they completely contradict each other in every way… that is unless the world described is surreal. (But even then I wouldn’t know what a still splash looks like.)

Also note the powerful imagery used to create this surreal image. “Owls hushing the floating woods” This piece of imagery is used to describe the darkness and the tree branches that branch out into the night sky. We do not notice where the tree branches originate from as they are hidden in the darkness due to the density of the forest, making it look as if they are floating.

This can also be a metaphor for the mind of the reader, for at night when you are alone, sleepy and in the depths of night the branches, which may represent the tendril of darkness of evil’s hold on you, try to engulf you to make you do things that you will regret the next morning. This comes along due to the irrationality that you get when you are sleepy. The branches then branch out towards the pond, which in this case represent the mind, trying to infect it.

The poet looks around as he is scared “For what might move, for what eye might move.” This indicates that he is scared for anything attacking him, presumably the creatures of the forest. However, what he fears even more is the “eyes that might move” – the things that are already watching him, preparing to strike. Based on the descriptions of the pike before, we can also assume that he is afraid of the pike watching him with those very scary beady eyes, ready to display its strength in the water at any time.

“Darkness beneath night’s darkness had freed,
That rose slowly towards me, watching.”

The first darkness is a metaphor for the Pike, justifying the fact that:

1.       It is currently in its element where it is most powerful. It has the best edge possible for hunting purposes.

2.       It is once again a creature of mystery, and it is at this time of night that it becomes more mysterious as its behavioural patterns change and such approaching this very crucial time when it has to hunt.

3.       It is the thing that you should be more scared of than the dark itself due to the pike’s potency at night. “Darkness beneath night’s darkness had been freed”. This gives the image of the pike finally being free, indicating that it will be more ferocious and animalistic than it normally is as whatever restriction that was in place before is now freed.

4.       The pike then rose slowly towards him, watching, foreshadowing the fact that he is about to be attacked or that something dramatic will happen. The poem ends here, leaving us wondering what that dramatic moment might be, in turn creating tension at the end of the story. Genius.

Speaker of the poem: The poet himself, Ted Hughes. In his mature self although metaphorically in his childhood self as well.

Speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem:  Nostalgic towards his childhood and the pond. A profound respect, almost obsession, with the pike due to its power and its impact on his childhood days.

Paired poems (Identify poems in the anthology and why they are appropriate to be paired)

1.       Hunting Snake in the sense that both writers share a profound respect for the animal that they are describing.

2.       The Woodspurge due to both poets having a wider meaning towards their feature of choice and that what they are actually describing could be completely allegorical, representing something else.

3.       Horses in the sense of the time shift throughout the text, although Horses is chronological. They also share an equal amount of respect for the animal that they are describing and also tend to point out the physical strength found in the animal.

Memorable Lines:

1.       “They dance on the surface among the flies”

2.       “Over a bed of emerald, silhouette of submarine delicacy and horror”

3.       “A pond I fished, fifty years across”

4.       “It was as deep as England”

The Cockroach - Kevin Halligan

The Cockroach

Kevin Halligan

Summary of the poem

The poet writes a completely allegorical poem about the cockroach in his house (or any other person’s house for that matter). He, perhaps out of sheer boredom, observes the actions of the cockroach and notes its actions It is finally at the end that he realizes the reflection of the cockroach on himself. Note that these are usually actions that are quite ordinary done by an insect that is usually ignored by society, which could indicate how in the context of a wider scale, all we do is minute comparatively.

“All we are is dust in the wind…”

Significant poetic devices and their significance

Structure based analysis

1.       There is an ABAB rhyme scheme until the 9^th line, and then it loses its rhyme scheme. This could implicate a sudden sense of the poet being startled as he starts to realize that the actions of the cockroach are very similar to what he does when put in his context, thus the lines “Except I thought I recognized myself”

a.       On the other hand, it could indicate that life is actually really boring. Note that the rhyme scheme breaks during the climax of the poem when the cockroach climbs the shelf. Then, it has a vague scheme coming back again when the poet rhymes “go” with “know”. This shows that after the climax, all there is to do is go back to normal. Similarly, after you break the consistency and do something amazing, at the end of it, all there is left to do is go back to your normal life. When you break the consistency of the rhyme scheme to create an impact to a climax, all there is left to do is attempt to go back to the rhyme scheme again, else it won’t be special anymore. At that point, what is the point in life if it is so boring?

2.       Lack of any clear stanza. May portray the poet or the atmosphere at the current moment as a very relaxed one due to the fluidity of not having to pause to move to the next stanza, especially in this case where he has the time to observe the actions of a small cockroach. Kind of like a ‘go with the flow’ attitude.

Word analysis

1.       The phrase “Skirting a ball of dust” in the second line of the poem portray the cockroach as being capable of avoiding a form of obstacle and hardship by detour. The fact that it is a “ball of dust that rode on the floor” portrays the fact that it is an accumulating obstacle which means that if it is not tackled now, it will be much harder to overcome in the future. This can be similar to humans, who often try to take the easy way out in the short term, only to find that their work builds up in the future (eg: cheating on exams or putting all your work last minute till just before the deadline)

2.       “At first he seemed quite satisfied to trace a path between the wainscot and the door. But soon he turned to jog in crooked rings” At first the cockroach is happy with his life and is just content doing the small things in life without any trouble. It demonstrates how as humans we sometimes take our time to enjoy the things in life doing something so small. Then the cockroach suddenly starts being agitated and starts to go into a slow jog. Furthermore it goes in crooked rings. If you read the next line, it shows that it also circles “the rusty table and back”, showing that it is just agitated, confused and restless. It also shows uncertainty.  This exaggerates the fact that in life, we tend to have our ups and downs, our high and lows as we are happy with something at one time, and how we become agitated and scurry up and down the place wondering about our meaning in life and what to do in certain situations. Such examples would be the mid-life crisis, where you start to question what you have done with half your life gone when you were just happy with the way things were just beforehand as many would have just gotten married, or received a stable job not long before.

3.       “And flipping right over to scratch his wings – as if a victim of a mild attack of restlessness that worsened over time.” this further accentuates the restlessness of the cockroach and its sudden need to do something with its life before it is to pass away. This, as said before, is similar to the will of people who are so often bored for a long period of time to try and do something with their lives, especially during a mid-life crisis. It finally goes “ARGGGHHH! (scratching its wings, similar to how someone would scratch their heads when stressed)” and tries to do something amazing  as read in the next line.

4.       “After a while, he climbed an open shelf” this indicates a sudden sense of hardship as the cockroach is climbing something as big as a mountain in the eyes of a human when put into perspective. It also implies a sense of progress as it is at least something productive that you do with your life. In this sense, the cockroach is going on an adventure.

5.       Symbols:

a.       Found in the open shelf, having the capacity to store useful objects, suggests the cockroach’s vast potential and thus the vast potential that we have as human beings. “Open” may suggest a change in perspective as he/it becomes more “open-minded”.

b.      A path between the wainscot and the door. Concept of Journey through life. The “path” depicts his growth stage. “Wainscot” is typically their place of birth (they are cockroaches after all a wainscot can be defined as “wooden panels that can be used to line the walls of a room”), while the “door”, due to the ability to “open”, represents freedom and success, normally found in the later stages of your life.

6.       “And stopped. He looked uncertain where to go.” We can see two caesuras there in the form of the full stop. The first caesura is used as a tool by the poet to create a pause in the reading pace of the reader to make the success of the cockroach more dramatic. The second one however, is to let the fact that it has completed its aim and has nothing left to do sink in. At the end of the day, what do you have left to do after finishing your goal? There are documented times when Olympic players who achieved a world record ended up in their rooms alone crying. When you are already at the top, what is there anymore to look forward to? The author looks at this as some sort of curse that we have in our lives. We should feel happy and feel a sense of achievement when we reach our goal; when we do something amazing (in this case, the cockroach finally reaching the top of the open shelf). Why is it that we feel this sense of emptiness and a lack of any feeling whatsoever? “Was this due payment for some vicious crime a former life had led to? I don’t know” The line at the end may be related to the feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that the cockroach felt previously before its amazing feat and how he is feeling this sense of ‘what am I doing with my life?’ feeling. This line is the end of the description of the cockroach as the poet comes to look back at his own life.

“Except I thought I recognized myself”

Identify the speaker in the poem: The poet himself, Kevin Halligan

Identify the speaker’s attitude towards the subject of the poem: Bored at the beginning of the poem as it starts to look at the actions of the cockroach, then curious of its actions, then starts to contemplate his meaning, as well as the cockroaches, meaning in life as he watches the emptiness of the cockroach at having completed an amazing feat in his perspective.
At first he sounds monotonous due to the absence of adventure and struggle in his life. Later on, his tone begins to be increasingly lively and the pace slightly speeds up and the voice becomes smoother as he rarely uses caesura, and writes in long lines.

Paired poems:

1.       Hunting Snake in the sense that they both make you contemplate on your life and the way that you interpret the way you look at others or your own life in that matter.

2.       Continuum as there is a more depressing mood to it in the sense that you are not morally attached. In both poems, there is no emotional attachment at all inwardly, only perhaps towards the cockroach in the poem.

Memorable lines

1.       “Skirting a ball of dust that rode the floor”

2.       “But soon he turned to jog in crooked rings,”

3.       “And stopped. He looked uncertain where to go.”

4.       “Except I thought I recognized myself”