Owen Sheers – 'Skirrid Hill' – Poems Analysed

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Owen Sheers – ‘Skirrid Hill’ – Poems Analysed

Title

Content / Topic

Theme(s)

Imagery / Diction

Tone / Irony

Grammatical

Features

Structure

Sound

Devices

1

Last

Act

Introducing the poems; revealing his true self, his experiences. The poems express what he has not been able to say in everyday speech and experience. He addresses the reader in a familiar way, almost apologetically. He seems to be saying that the poems help him to express in those thoughts and feelings that are inexpressible in real life experiences and relationships. By publishing the collection, he presents the poems / scenes from his life as himself. Poetry allows him to express his realities and, perhaps, to interpret his experience.

Revealing. Honest. Dedication to whoever the poet is addressing – the reader / lover(s).

The poet is aware of gaps in his communication in various relationships: gaps like missing teeth, silent mouthing O, stuck record of my tongue, the zero of the word failing to catch NB images from the theatre. They are scenes stacked in the wings And the parts we’ve played suggests that relationships involved performance. In presenting his poems, he is bowing as himself, like an actor at the end of a play. Each poem is an experience / a scene from his life. Publishing the collection is like that final bow of the actor being himself for the first time all night.

Reminiscing Irony - the time it has taken to write these poems only now to be revealed. It takes poetry to fill in the gaps.

The first sentence lists qualities in his speech/poetry mainly their inadequacy to tell the whole story: 4 sentences. Listing of images - Gaps - Record - Countdown - Stage - Bow

Free verse. One stanza. Before the contents page.

Choice of words: mouthing O Teeth

2

Mam

etz

Wo

od

Mametz Wood - the scene of terrible fighting in the Battle of the Somme - (WW1) is still throwing up the bodies of the young slain soldiers. Only now are we realising

The waste of war. The effects down through decades on other generations.

China plate. Relic of a finger. Eggshell skull. Nesting machine guns.

That dead men should be so audible now… Blue flint pieces mimics the

Accumulation of images and body parts. Missing finite verbs in

Three line stanzas control the rhythm in a poem where all is ruin and destruction.

Some alliteration. e.g. broken bone.

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the cost, the waste, the tragedy.

Unresolved parting from the earth and from community. The horror of war.

The earth as a sentinel. A wound. Mosaic of bone. Dance macabre. Socketed heads.

shape of the white bones. Their war songs are audible, yet their mouths and skulls are empty.

sentences 2,3, 5. Create the effect of brokenness.

3

The

Farr

ier

A farrier (blacksmith) re-shoes a mare. She accepts his presence and seems to understand that they have this unique relationship. It is a coming together that both manage with dignity. They understand each other.

They are inextricably linked. This is his work for her and the shoes always remind her of him – at least she accepts his presence and accommodates his movements as he pares her hooves and hammers on new shoes. Then they part and go their separate ways

Almost a holy relationship: - Blessing. - The wind’s fingers. Romantic: - She knows his smells - woodbine, metal and hoof. - He folds her back leg. - Cups her fetlock. - A romantic lead dropping from the lips of his lover. - Moon-silver clippings. - Gives her a slap. - The sound of his steel biting at her heels. NB the farrier is wearing part of a horse - his apron /The leather black and tan of a rain-beaten bay. Gentleness is suggested in the seamstress image. Suggestion that he thinks she is beautiful and he wants to do the job perfectly.

This is an uncomfortable experience for the horse, yet it does not interfere with their relationship. There is a gentleness and acceptance of the shoeing.

Well-formed complex sentences suggesting a calm, measured pace and atmosphere. Nice contrast - his steel, her teeth. The last line – not a complete sentence - marks a unique relationship: the life of the blacksmith and the mare are inextricably linked. The shoes are like an irritating dog!

Three line stanzas, lots of enjambment and caesura; stanza 6, creates a measured tone - a leisurely feeling like the mare who walks unhurried to and from the farrier’s shop.

Wonderful range of words, both monosyllabic and polysyllabic. Indicating a deep human/beast relationship. Onomatopoeic “Slap” with its suggestion of familiarity.



4

Inh

eri

tan

ce

The poem lists the features, habits, qualities of his parents, which he has inherited. He desires to capture in his life that which they “Forged” in their years together.

Inheritance The desire to capture the deep values acquired through thick and thin, and to replay / test these in a modern context.

The stammer Like a stick in the spokes… Eye’s blue ore. The joiner’s lathe. A “forged” life. The year’s hard hammer. A world red hot in the centre and cold on the outside.

He is so inextricably bonded with his parents and what they have passed on that his desire is to replay that relationship and not seek some unknown way of life, despite its attractive freedoms.

A list of inherited qualities / features etc. Incomplete sentences suggest that he has only part of each parent and he will have to live his own full life - his full sentence! The poem sounds like an answer to a question: “What have you inherited from your parents?” It is not a conversational answer; the images elevate the style to poetry

Stanza 1 Dad. Stanza 2 Mum. Stanza 3 own world. Poet “I want some of that”.

Seemingly simple; Loaded with images in the word choice and metaphorical language. The sound feeds into the notion of two parents; one life.

5

Mar

kin

g Ti

me

The poet’s lover acquired a burn mark in the small of her, from a carpet when they were making love one night. This mark binds them together forever. Even if it is no longer visible on the

The scars of love remain even when love changes, or lovers forget their passion / relationship.

Marking time – an idiom. Here with a metaphorical meaning. Scar / memory / fading. Lust personified?

Assured. Hopeful. Realistic and resigned to the

Three sentences grammatically complex and much poetic licence with the syntax,

Controlled by two stanzas / to in the relationship.

Alliterated “finally fading”. Flags flying.



surface, it will lie deep in the tissue under the skin.

Ship image – flags on the mast (the two scars. A brand burn (marking her out as his forever. Scar = marks on trees hearts and arrows, etc. that alter with time but never fade. Skin/the bark of the tree.

inevitability of change.

extended with images in a variety subordinate phrases and clauses; “I trace…again” This is his evidence that scars remain. It seems to spark old feelings. Certainly he remembers their passion. Does he want to cling to this memory.

Note the silence of her voice. This is the poet’s voice. Is he clinging to something which has vanished?

6

Sho

w

The couple attend a fashion show and meet afterwards in the bar. The poet is enchanted with the beauty of his lover / partner wooed by the make-up and dress.

How passion is lit by images of beauty. Surrendered – he is helpless in the powerful feelings the sight of her generates. How we create images of people.

The models: Curlews. Stalking. Slow motion tennis match. Featherless wings. Crocodile pit of cameras flashing their teeth. The woman: Like a pianist. A painter. Jewels /stars. Magic: spell artful hocus-pocus. Enchantment.

The models and the woman are mere mortals. Clothes, jewellery and makeup create illusions. Yet the public and the poet believe in this magical world if only briefly.

Controlled sentence structure. Sentence 1 simple. Sentence 2 complex. Sentence 3 simple. Sentence 4 complex. Part 1 and part 2 reflect/

Parallel parts and as mentioned, parallel grammatical sentences. The models. The woman. The magic. Note the models have three-line

Surprising images carried in the diction and the sound of the words.



parallel each other: - same magic - same enchantment.

narrow stanzas (reflecting their superficial existence.) The woman is living, not perfect, more wholesome and fulsome.

7

Val

enti

ne

A lover (the poet?) recalls a fractured relationship where not even lovemaking can repair the feelings of loss and alienation. Suggestion that the relationship has ended but the persona treasures the last lovemaking as a Valentine. He clings to the memory of the physical.

Love / disappointment & pain. Pain / pleasure Uncertainty. Alienation.

Water is used negatively. Paris. Painful uncertainty. Metaphors: Water torture. Sharp clicking heels. Evacuated. Wrecked. Washed up on a beach.

Paris, a romantic city, a symbol of romance, cannot generate or restore the relationship. Valentine, a romantic date in the calendar, gives more pain than pleasure.

Note that not one sentence is complete. Each is missing - the vital finite verb in the 3-line stanzas to make a simple sentence or main clause. Even enjambment cannot mend the incomplete sentences. The refrains are simple sentences – indicating that the poet is reasserting his

Three-line structure favoured by Owen Sheers + refrain. Like a ballad. Snapshots.

Repetition of refrain. No rhyme (which is a unifying factor usually in poetry.)



own identity – pulling himself together – so to speak. Acts as a parallel to the fractured relationship.

8

Win

ter

Swan

s

The couple walk along the edge of the lake. They are disenchanted with each other “silent and apart”, but observing the swans. The woman remarks on the fact that swans mate for life. The swan mates seem to remind them of love and by the end they have re-established a link with each other by holding hands.

Alienation. Separation. The power of nature to teach and inspire and restore us spiritually and emotionally.

Personification of “clouds had given their all” (not like the lovers). Personification of the earth “Gulping for breath”. They “skirt the lake” as they skirt important issues in their relationship. The swans show them how it’s done: “tipping in unison”. Effort involved “rolling weights down their bodies to their heads/ they halved themselves in the dark water.” Effort and sharing involved in a love relationship. Uncomfortable too - “icebergs of white water”. Sorting out imbalances “like boats righting in rough weather”.

Ironic that humans have to learn human lessons from nature – the environment and its animals – before they can be truly human. The poet says, “the swans came and stopped us” being apart and alienated.

Complex sentences reflecting the complexities of the relationship. Direct speech – an acknowledgement of patterns in nature. This honesty helps restore the bonds. Is the woman searching for a permanency - a life-long relationship? Has he been reluctant to commit?

The stanzas follow an order: The sky. The earth. The birds. The water. The lovers.

The sounds of the words, images and sentences convey the turmoil of the minds and hearts of the lovers and the quietness and control of the birds.



They are perfect “like porcelain” statues over the “stilling water”. The swans teach the human couple how to negotiate troubles in their relationship. The water becomes a symbol of calm and restored unity “our hands had, somehow, swum the distance between us.” They become like the swans doing the same actions; hands “folded, one over the other like a pair of wings settling after flight.”

9

Nig

ht

Win

do

ws

A couple’s sexual relationship / a couple alienated from one another who find understanding through sex. Certainly, they are aware that they may be watched by neighbours across the street, which of course meant they could (see) too. The title isn’t about ideal lovemaking, but about the windows which suggests something now quite satisfying about the love-making itself and could account for her sigh.

Sex and physicality. Isolation. Passion. Separation. Togetherness. Mystery?

Impressionist through thin white drapes. Check out the technique of the impressionists (Monet, Manet, etc.) “curves of a distant landscape” “back arching like a bow” “drawn by an invisible tendon” “night windows opposite performed” – personification “like lightning...” “the dress of your shadow” “curves”, “performed”, “arching” Almost a continued metaphor of dance or movement, a fluidity. Note the use of light and shadow: bar of light; Trailing the shadow or your dress behind you.

“That night we turned some of them off” etc. – a familiar tone, as if the reader knows exactly what’s being said - a dialogue/address? “body slick and valleyed in the August heat” – intense/passionate NB the parts and shapes of

Reads like a recollection. The poet is addressing the lover possibly or just recounting the experience for the reader. Enjambment 7 stanzas 4 lines each 7th stanza 3 lines.

S1 that night they tried to be more private leaving only one light on. S2 the woman lowers herself to him. NB the distant landscape image. S3 the valleyed body; the arching back.

Enjambment. “...hall bulb bright” – alliteration. “side swipes” – alliteration.



She is almost insubstantial. the human body are used by Sheers interchangeably. Sometimes it is that body that is compared to the place; at other times, the place is personified. See Skirrid Fawr.

S4 the invisible tendon image of intensity and physically charged action. S5 Sudden cut to the windows opposite and the Morse code image implying secrecy and voyeuristic peeping. S6 contrast of the police car strobe.

10

Ke

yway

s

The poet and his lover are standing in a locksmith’s shop waiting for him to cut a set of keys. The relationship is over, so the poet needs keys to get into her flat and collect his things while she is out. He recalls how he felt when they first met. He describes how close they were in a chapel, listening to the Messiah. He would lie moulded into her sleeping shape like a key that fits a

Loss. Grief. Alienation. An ending with an immanent beginning for both of them – separately.

Dominant images: the key and keyways. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(lock) S1 standing in the locksmiths divided in heart and purpose waiting for a set of your keys to be cut. S2 the hot day presses (he feels oppressed). Lights uncut keys like lucky charms along a bracelet.

Very obvious. Here they are getting keys cut when she is changing the lock, most likely; they don’t fit together any more.

The poet’s words are addressed to her the “you” of the relationship. Enjambment between stanzas and caesuras emphasise a broken relationship. She does not respond. He

S1 Sets the scene and the awful reality of the split. S2 Heat light, the memory of how he was charmed in the beginning and

Repetition of words and phrases Strange, keys, keyways and all the parts of keys and locks.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(lock)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(lock)


lock perfectly. Their keyways would fit. He realises it is useless now to track back through events to the first time when one of us made a turn that failed to dock. Just as they changing the locks, (are trying to find a new arrangement ) they are making copies of the old keys.

Poet remembers initial charm enchantment. S3 He was an uncut key then waiting your impression. Experiences would be milling and groves in time until our keyways would fit. S4 Siamese twins sharing one lung Our combinations matched, / our tumblers aligned precisely to give and roll perfectly/into the other’s empty spaces. S5 A master key fit When did the bolt slip? The blade break in the mouth? S6 A turn that failed to dock The expected click which never came.

Sad and oppressive tone. The poet feels emotional pain intensely.

pours out his grief and puzzlement in a brilliantly sustained set of metaphors, relating to keys and keyways.

inexperienced too. S3 A magical moment of oneness when they attended Handel’s Messiah in a chapel. S4, 5 He felt convinced they were perfectly matched. S5 Ends the stanza wondering when it went go wrong. S6 Realises it is useless to unpick the months. S7 A couplet returning like a circle to his feeling of puzzlement and sadness that they should be

Unanswered questions.



cutting keys just when we‘re changing all the locks.

11

Bo

rde

r C

ou

ntr

y

The adult poet returns (2nd visit?) to the quarry in/near Abergavenny (Gwent)? *(“Traditional Gateway to Wales” www) where he and a childhood friend grew up. They fished, played among the heaps of rusting cars, shouted. One-day tragedy struck and the poet is propelled into adulthood. The poem is about lost childhood and, it seems, the death of his friend. Certainly, there was a tragedy that provides the typical poetic border country – not just geographical, but that of the end of childhood and a life and the beginning of adulthood. The poet visited the quarry sometime after the tragedy (1st visit?) to find nature taking over the wrecks. An ascending buzzard raises the poet’s imagination to the spiritual realm. Is the boy on the lane the ghost of his dead friend? Is he the poet trying to

Loss. Grief. Searching for answers. Death.

Images of youth: Commas and apostrophes of minnows and bullheads. Shouldering the kick of your father’s shotgun. Playing war in the barn. Dying (ironically again and again). Gap-toothed roof (children often lose teeth). Identified with the buzzards striking their cries. Images of death: Raised earth like the hummock of a grave. Headstone of trees. Wind-written epitaphs. Graveyard of cars. Reading aloud the names of the dead. An accident when life put on the brakes and pitched you without notice through the windscreen of your youth. The poppy – a symbol of the fallen WW1 young men. The buzzard – in childhood and at the end Nature: spittle sheep inkdot cows

Expectations, dreams and hopes unfulfilled. Searching for the dead among the living. The triumph of nature over man’s life and achievements. The tragic irony of dying young. The tragedy of a father surviving his deceased son. The ghost of the boy still trying to find his way home. The poet returning home

A number of regular and irregular sentences predominantly complex sentences. The poet is, after all searching for answers to one of life’s most complex issues: death. Lists stanzas 2,3,6. This builds up images of the wild irrational and unpredictable play of the boys and in 6 gives an aerial view. Fantastic variety of verbs and extension through simile

6 nine-line stanzas each with its theme. 1 return. 2 a specific place – the quarry. 3 actual games. 4 where we lost ourselves in the hours before dark hints at the tragedy and the boy’s father finding him. 5 Another visit sometime after. Nature is beginning to take over and burry the cars.

Read this poem aloud and you will hear the rich music of the vocabulary: Alliteration A hummock…a headstone Rusting to red Steel and stone. Assonance - again and again. Holes in the windows



return home to find answers? Is the poet still wandering in the border country of his emotions and thoughts?

Personification – the tractor writing etc.

searching for answers. The tone is sad but not morbid. It has a quiet dignity. We share in the fun and the shock. You feel the poet’s grief and pain.

metaphor and personification. Important in recounting past times and invites the reader to share the many emotions. Elements of colloquial speech: I can’t help standing at its edge. Sheers often stands at the edge of experiences and revisits them to work through his emotions and thoughts.

An indication here that the poet returns to find answers to deep and troubling questions. 6 This stanza is almost mystical. We are invited to journey on “and on over the lanes” – to look down on the scene. Note the ambiguity of the boy.

+ The way the sentences move through time and place with cinematographic precision.

12

Fart

he

r

The poet recollects a particular 27th December when he climbed Skirrid Hill with his father. They took the long way. They rested at an altar of rock, watched the dog run ahead and then continued over broken rock. He pauses to look at his grey-haired father and felt keenly the age difference and change between them. The dog returned. He took a

Father son bonds. The theme of separation.

Images and the Skirrid: the wood simplified by snow the dry stone wall, its puzzle solved by moss, the cleft of the earth the altar of rock Images of nature: watching the dog shrink over the hill a blade of wind from the east the sky rubbed raw over the mountain

Tone of respect and an element of sadness. Paradox (a form of irony in: or at least a shallow handhold in the thought that with every step apart, I’m another closer to you

The poet uses first person - possibly addressing his father in real life or in his imagination. Sentences quite regular and varied in type; simple,

The poet tells a story, uses chronological organisation, but weaves in key themes and imagery (See imagery).

Alliteration simplified by snow Short and sharp Rock …rested Rubbed raw



photo of his father, realising there was something special in the moment. He realises that though they are growing apart, he feels closer to his father.

Images of his father: your bent head the colour of the rocks your breath reaching me, short and sharp and solitary Images of time and space: I felt the tipping in the scales of us shared the shock of a country unrolled before us the intersection of our ages Images of crossing a boundary: me reaching for some kind of purchase or at least a shallow handhold in the thought that with every step apart, I’m another closer to you

Informal tone. compound and complex.

He builds up to the realisation - the paradox at the end.

Assonance Choosing …wood Snow stone Shock…pocket Shallow handhold…thought Onomatopoeia shock Contrast Apart closer

13

Tree

s

The poet / persona is addressing his father (most likely), possibly his grandfather or other relative. Obviously the father has told him that he has planted “an oak tree /in the middle of the top field.” The poet asks how long it will take to mature and the father answers “some time”. The poet understands what the father means and recollects that his father had

Time. Survival. Maturity. Border country of beginnings and endings.

The simple diction creates images of father, son, three trees and now a thin oak sapling that may one day mature into a vast oak tree. A long bow reminds one of the age of bows and arrows, of archery. The image focuses on an arrow being shot from a long bow and landing at some future far away target.

Remember irony permeates the language, because we have hopes and dreams that can be foiled and destroyed either by ourselves or by forces around us.

Conversational tone; directly addressed to the father “You …I) I realise I should have known Two line stanzas emphasise that not much must be said only

The poet does nearly all the talking. The father merely says “some time” emphasising that we can only hope to see the trees/human lives mature.

Simplicity; predominance of monosyllabic words. The most profound realities are grasped over a



planted a tree for each child in the family to the north south and west of the house. The most recent sapling is delicate and finger-thick but has the potential, like the children to mature. It is “loaded with promise and silhouetted against a reddening sky.” The red could represent the hope of a beginning or the death of and end.

Metaphor of the reddening sky with its suggestions of blood, birth life and death life and death. You nod your head – image of silent understanding. The father allows the son to reach a proper understanding of the fragility of our lives.

And remember that tragic irony is the ruin of life dreams – death being an inevitable destruction. The father knows this and the son / poet realises it in the course of the poem.

realised and contemplated. Words come near to failing in this poem.

lifetime of waiting quietly.

14

Hed

ge S

cho

ol

A sensuous poem about picking blackberries on the way home from school. The quotation is from Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s tale. The pardoner sells relics, promising the buyer that their time in Purgatory will be shortened as a result. In fact, he doesn’t care what happens to their souls. The money he receives should go to the church, but he keeps it for himself. A modern translation reads: “When they (the individuals) are dead, why should I be worrying / whether or not their souls have gone blackberrying.” The poem suggests that there is

Tasting the pleasures of life. Self-indulgence. Pleasure and self-awareness. Note the fact that the walk home “got longer”, suggesting he spent more and more time picking blackberries and indulging in the sight, smells, textures and tastes of the fruit and experimenting with them. He learnt about himself and

Suggestion that he gets off the bus at a certain point – perhaps a different point each day? Deliberately planned activity Stanza 1 (freeing up both hands). Lesson – each time he learns something new about the blackberries; eating them in their various stages of development: the bitterness of the unripe red; the rain-bloated looseness of the older fruits. Simile: cobwebbed and dusty as a Claret…cellar Held a coiled black pearl necklace …hedgerow caviar …a sudden symphony

The tone is confessional but not guilty; honest. Sheers is using the phrase to show that he learnt lessons from nature and his relationship with the blackberries Consult: www.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster Archives/hedge_schools.htm

Narrative stanza 1 is a compound sentence, but the remaining stanzas are mainly irregular sentences reflecting, perhaps, lack of self-knowledge. Stanzas 3-5 They show how he went through a series of sensory and sensual experiments.

Stanza 1 The preparation Stanza 2 The taste Stanza3 Hoarding them Stanza 4 Squeezing a handful of them and experiencing in the hand what the mouth feels. The discovery of

Read it aloud to hear the poet’s voice: his rich imagery, surprising diction, assonance and alliteration: Piling in the palm Cupped and coiled



something sinful (but so enjoyable!) in blackberrying. It describes the sheer excess, self-indulgence and wastefulness of his actions. The boy discovers that there is something dark in his soul. It is immensely pleasurable but he senses something wrongful in this excess.

his pursuit of pleasure. Dark has a suggestion of the negative, the immoral or unacceptable.

In his fist squeezing them and letting the skin on his hand experience the mouthfeel of juice and the eyes of the berries. Simile: his hand as bloodied as a butcher’s or a farmer’s at lambing.

This and other websites on Hedge Schools will give you an interesting brief history of the use of the term in 18 and 19th century Ireland. Ironic that it takes a simple innocent activity while he is alone and in a beautiful spot to learn that there are forces within that are undisciplined, that show his potential for excess and selfish pursuits.

Note the unusual verbs and adjectives: …the bus Diminish Hoard Cupped Bloodied Tracing their variety Unripe red Rainbloated Hedgerow Caviar Sudden Symphony Blue-black red Dark.

his inner thoughts and desires.

Sudden symphony bloodied as a butchers’.

15

Jose

ph

Jo

ne

s

The poem is a response to a question: Do you remember Joseph Jones? The poet remembers him well as the ultimate lad, much preoccupied with body image, pulling power and making a name for himself among his mates and the girls. He owned a fast Ford car, which used to be

Identity built on the pursuit of image. Failure to achieve long term skills.

Joseph ’s dedication to body image: Fifty press-ups before a night out hair sheened with gel air dead with scent Claims to have been successful with the girls: Got his red wings over the bandstand railings

Despite his hard work maintaining his image, Joseph Jones has not achieved any lasting fame. The poet remembers his as he was. Had he achieved

Scraps of memory presented in lists: Appearance Success with the girls Drinking sessions

Unusual arrangement of lines for an unusual fellow.

The lists and fragments serve to remind us of a shallow fellow with shallow values.



popular with youths. He was known to have been in late night fights. There was “a trial once”. Was this for membership of a football club? Or was it a court trial for bad behaviour. Whatever. He didn’t achieve much.

His girlfriend is a Marilyn Munroe image: Her skirt, an umbrella blown inside out white tights shed to high heels Among his mates totally confident and full of machismo at the bar: Stroking his chest with one hand Drinking with the other Sees celebrity as inevitable: The making of a small town myth XR2 suggests popular Ford ‘boy racer’ car. Did he crash it? Late night fights – fuelled by drink A trial once – his one attempt of making something of himself . Cardiff youth – possibly in a sports club.

anything worthwhile, he would be well known. Conversational tone.

A trial once (an ambiguous phrase).

Entertaining, all the same.

16

Late

Sp

rin

g

The poet recalls how he felt like a man when he helped his grandfather castrate the lambs and dock their tails. He would stretch the O-rings across a castrating tool and while his grandfather would position the lambs like a cello. The grandfather would coax the testicles into the lambs’ sack/scrotum and then using the tool tie a band around the base of it. The scrotum, containing the testicles, would fall off in a

Identity. Becoming a man. Man and nature. Learning the harsh realities of animal husbandry.

A hard orange O-rings. Made-to-purpose-tool heavy and steel-hard in the sun Grandfather played (the lamb) like a cello wax them up Like a man milking The testicles two soaped beans into a delicate purse Silent concentration

The poet feels he is becoming a man whereas the lamb is being deprived of his male functions.

Sentences are organised in an informal way speech-like. Enjambment gives a feeling of a shared task and of one action followed systematically by another.

S1 & 2 the poet feels like a man preparing the O-rings on the pliars. S3 a shift to the grandfather’s ease as he positions the lamb and prepares it

Alliteration Picking … plastic …made- to …purpose Stretching …steel-hard Pliars …passed



week. They would tie a band around the tail, too, and it would fall off in a week. See http://media.animalnetwork.com/channelmedia/hobbyfarms/Castrating.wmv

while gesturing with his other for a tool, a pliars in reverse The poet is fascinated which I’d pass to him then stand and stare A week later the tails scattered like catkins a windfall of our morning’s work a strange harvest of the seeds we’d sown.

for castration. S4, 5 and 6 the actual procedure done with ease and without violence. S7 , S8 Docking tails and counting both in the field a week later.

Stand …stare Assonance Like…milking Conversational vocabulary. A number of surprising similes.

17

The

Equ

atio

n

An equation is a mathematical statement, in symbols, that two things are exactly the same (or equivalent). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation In this poem a teacher tells the poet how he spends the afternoons teaching logarithms, but in the afternoon when goes home he changes into his overalls, feeds the hens and collect an egg later.

A man in harmony with nature. There is the suggestion that both forms of work are equally worthwhile and interesting to him.

A classroom image: waving away the blackboard’s hieroglyphics Sweet methane not usually a pleasant smell sensation Before scattering the grain He fills his fist but som2 of the grain falls out leaks As the grain falls in a circular movement it looks like a sail of grain A gentle theft is done while the hen sleeps. Under the sleeping weight of a hen, to bring out,

The poet conveys the calm, balanced world of the teacher. Like an equation, he does both jobs with the ease of a magician.

He told me is the main clause stated in the first sentence and implied in S2 and S3. Singles out the one egg like the answer to an equation

S1 First job S2, S3 & S4 2nd job Reports this interesting life style to the reader.

Alliteration Dug deep


http://media.animalnetwork.com/channelmedia/hobbyfarms/Castrating.wmv



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_mathematical_symbols

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation


Like a magician whose tricks are just the way of things One egg, warm and bald in his brown palm He is not greedy; he takes just what he needs.

18

Swal

low

s

The poet marvels at the swallows and how they breed in a flawless way. He sees them as writers writing in italic style as they fly across “the page of the sky”.

How seamless the ending of one generation and the beginning of another is among swallows. Regeneration is a yearly event.

Personification. The way the swallows fly is like italic writing Like a sky-jive The birds all seem to be similar in size and skill They swoop in descent as if dipping their pens (themselves) in ink and then flying around the sky as if signing their signatures across the page of the sky

Admiration

S1 the way the swallows fly around S2 regeneration S3 signatures

The surprising writing images add charm to the sound of the simple stanza structures

19

On

Go

ing

Title - On (the business of Going (dying) In this poem Owen Sheers seems to be saying goodbye to his grandmother? ancient child Jean Sheers is dying and surrounded by medical instruments to measure, record and monitor. But she is near the final sleep and medicine cannot do any more for her.

Separating. Ending of a life. Grief. Death.

Medical instruments: Windows into the soul’s temperature Image of age: an ancient child/ fragile breathe working at the skin of your cheek like a blustery wind at a blind paper temple A measurement of connection with the dying woman

Grieving. Sad. Bereft. Note how a gesture speaks eloquently.

Enjambment set S1 and S2. And between S3 and S4. Trying to make a connection.

S1 focuses on medical instruments but these are no longer useful. S2focuses on the dying woman. S3 the kiss.

Alliteration measure and monitor. Blustery …blind. Sleep …slow-closing.



He is interested in the emotional connection only. She responds to his kiss with a flicker of her eyes and this provides for him a closure more important than any medical record or statement.

triggered by the connection of my kiss and he power of a small movement to communicate: registered in the flicker open of your eyes the half-second of recorded understanding Closeness to death: …they disengaged and you slipped back Into the sleep of their slow closing

S4 the response and closure.

20

Y G

aer

The poet rides on his horse to a (possibly) ancient fort on a high position and surveys the horizon – a 360◦ view. He feels close to nature and the heart of life. Here is where he can find answers, he thinks. He can understand why a grieving father visits this spot so harsh wild and exposed to suffer the extremes of the weather in protest against the loss of his son. Here the man takes on the suffering of ages and of the extremities of endurance. Here he fights the elements, shout, can blames violent forces of nature. The

Sheers sees nature as a mysterious force, stronger and more satisfying even than the bond between lovers. He returns to places in nature as if drawn by a magnet. Nature seems to mirror human experience not only in beginnings and births but in death, separation, loss. Note: Skirrid comes from a Welsh word for divorce / separation.

Image of the ring of gorse shows that nature triumphs over man’s constructions. Sown yellow in winter – a symbol of endurance sown in the worst season, yet surviving even thriving more in winter than summer, when its lights will be diminished. Powerful images in the diction: trench, rampart, serving only one purpose – opening the view (and the inner vision) not warding off an enemy. Images of energy, life, animal force in the veins mapping twitching muscle

Irony that man’s work and experiences eventually succumb to nature’s power. Irony that man is helpless to prevent death and the destruction of his dreams, yet it is his bonds with nature that heals him and helps him to move on.

One simple sentence stating what can be seen now. Stanza 3, 4 and 5 move from the dead stones past, to a living horse now in a complex sentence. In stanzas 6, 7, 8 the poet transfigures the scent into a vast panorama, round like the world and

See grammatical features Again three line stanzas with two long sentences starting with Stanza 2, reflecting perhaps the accumulation of thoughts and feelings. Some density created with listing of

Remember all poems and all of each poem is a sound experience. Every part of the structure of a poem contributes to that sound. Whatever you



primeval ferocity of the forces of nature is the counterpart of his own extreme grief, rage, desolation.

This idea is the overriding theme of the book. But it is not all morbid. He finds something magnificent in this greater power. It is also the source of restoration and new beginnings. The Welsh title shows his feeling of connectedness with this hard and flinty place.

the memory of smoke possibly from the poet’s camp fire. 360◦ fantastically panoramic, vast landscape and mindscape, a quilt Stitched with silver threads of rivers. Here the man takes on a foe leaning full tilt, getting beaten by the rain, shot by hail, shouting his grief and anger.

Nature allows man to blame what should not be blamed? Reflective tone; the poet meditates on the man’s actions. The poet acknowledges the power of nature as source of pain and death but also of life and new beginnings.

encompassing all experience.

things e.g. stanza 4 and stanzas 5 and 6.

hear will contribute to the tone and convey that attitude of the poet to the topic. Note the onomatopoeic words, beating, pepper-shot and shout in the final stanza.

21

The

Hill

Fo

rt

Note the English title. What does this suggest about the father’s grief? The poet tells us how the man used to take his son (9?) to the hill fort. The son was energetic, wild like the ponies, and full of life. The father would calm him down, put his hand on the small of his son’s back and point out the lands, towns and villages where the ancestors lived. The poet

Accepting loss. Separation. Death. Grief. Handing over to nature the course of a life. Calm acceptance of change.

Image of a lively highly energetic boy: simile – charging the hill as wild as the long-maned ponies The ponies are interested in this frisky young thing; they watch a moment Beautiful image of the father bending down to the child’s eye level and protective hand on his back. Check Tretower with its 12th century castle; Raglan with its 15th century castle;

There is a tone of acceptance of resignation to the tragedy of losing his son. He seeks comfort in the idea that his young son left a strong impression (presence, vitality, identity) on the earth. Of

Similar to Y Gaer in the three-line pattern. Note the beginning of sentence 1 in line 1 and the beginning of sentence 2 (putting a brake on the boy?) in stanza 2.

1, a scene from the past. 2, 3, getting the boys attention. 4, pointing to the places where the ancestors lived.

Narrative style On a clear day… Unusual imagery creates surprising sounds …9, 19 or 90 years.



give voice to the words the man never uttered but meant: that it is not the length of our earthly sojourn that matter but the quality of our lives. The poet concludes with a statement that that is the reason the man returns to the hill fort regularly: “to tip these ashes” these thoughts and realisations into the tongue of the wind. It is a kind of laying to rest of his son’s short but precious life.

A boundary place between death and full restoration. Resignation.

Bredwardine which is surrounded by castles. All emphasise history and the bonds felt by those with ancestral links. Scattered grains suggest great numbers, potential growth and a harvest to come. Survival is a matter of luck like the germinating of a seed. Note the wisdom in the image of the number of steps and the impression. Note the personification of the wind – an inverted communion image? These ashes – are they the boy’s ashes or his memories of him? Spindrift – a lonely image of space and darkness of being lost.

course, this is the poet’s idea but he feels an empathy with the bereaved man. The father keeps returning to the hill fort even though his son is not physically with him.

Then follows a long complex sentence stanzas 3-7 an outpouring of deep emotion and wisdom. The final sentence is compound almost NB the And … and construction suggesting continuation.

5-7 Wisdom acquired through suffering attributed by the poet to the man’s mind. 8 The poet uses death and ashes to show the man trying to work through the final phase of grief and the feelings of chaos and the search for meaning in the loss of a young life.

The epigrammatic saying it isn’t the number of steps that will matter but the depth of the impression. Direct speech gives poignancy and immediacy; helps us to identify with a man seeking comfort in the midst of intense pain. We hear his voice, though imagined



by the poet.

22

Inte

rmis

sio

n

There is a power cut. An easterly wind has blown a chestnut tree against the power lines and has altered the experience of light and dark in the house. The poet hears the other person say that all she/he hopes for is to live long enough to be good at the oboe. He remembers the effort of a fly trying to escape into the air outside realises that big ambitions matter less than small everyday achievements (like the fly’s).

The fragility of long term dreams and ambitions? (Again, nature acts as a parable teaching the poet more reliable values – in this case aiming at small victories.) Alienation from the other person?

“Intermission” generally associated with a break in a theatrical performance. What does this suggest about their relationship? The power cut creates a mysterious atmosphere in the “stilled house” wells of darkness; doors opening onto mineshafts of night Stanza 2 And us shifts the focus A cosy image Stanza 3 rooms shrunken the halo of candlelight controls the amount that can be seen the world lessened The person speaks from the shore of a chair suggesting the poet is in another place that is not safe (the sea, another shore) the fly’s buzzing is like a tattooist’s needle

Ironic that it takes the unsettling experience of a power cut to disturb a relationship and make the poet re-evaluate his view of life in particular the plans we make. He sees ambition in another light. He is all too wary of the way dreams can be unfulfilled.

Stanzas 1-3. Note the list following this. Stanza 4 uncertainty created by 3 fragments. Stanza 5-6 +line 1 of St. 7 show the poet more focussed on the achievement of the fly than on the hopes and ambition of the other person The last 2 lines are a kind of punch line – a realisation.

See grammatical structure. Three line stanzas – basically free verse which Sheers generally favours despite the frequent use of the three-line stanza structure. Note the contrasts between the real and the surreal; between the man and the woman between the light and the dark; between large scale plans and humbler ones.

Note the simpler vocabulary suitable for the uneasy atmosphere. Many monosyllabic words adding to the poet’s preference for simpler ambitions, smaller aims etc.



23

Cal

en

dar

Haiku snapshots of the seasons.

Passing of time The year Seasonal images Images: crochet & minim (music) Wires / musical stave Volts (electricity) Lips of foxgloves Lovers (simile) Dancing spider Web = fingerprint Branches = veins Nests = like blood clot Rooks = infection

The tone is gentle, light and generally pleasant. In the fourth haiku “infection” carries threat but it is a passing threat.

Nouns used as verbs (crochet and minim). Haiku simplicity – finely drawn images in a single sentence. in each haiku.

HAIKU 5 7 5. The 4 haiku single out memorable, typical events associated with each season.

Spare and disciplined Relying on the diction and imagery to portray the season.

The variety of words and images bring about constant surprise.

24

Flag

The poet is reflecting on the ubiquitous Welsh flag with its bright red dragon. He describes the various places it can be seen when on a train journey, or in the city or on the motorway where it flaps on a SNAX caravan pole. He sees the dragon as a symbol of a country rooted in legends of the past, but longing to be young. He sees how it symbolises the people themselves preoccupied by their nationality and grieving

The power of a flag to represent a whole nation, separating it from other nations.

Seeing the country from different positions in the train: the country on rewind or fast forward The flag: Hung like wet washing in backyards Looking like the repetitions of an image down the terraces’ hall of mirrors The flag painted on the Swansea gym where the occasional sun has ghosted the paint to a bad photocopy The flag on the pole of a SNAX caravan flapping madly in the wind the beast of it struggling to exist.

Pride. Honesty. Is the dragon ironic?

Some regularity of sentence construction or part sentences. Races through examples of places where the flag can be seen. Lists; use of the conjunction or

S1 & 2 where the flag can be seen as you travel by train to the sea (west). S3 in the city. S4 on the motorway. S5 the legendary dragon.

Exciting variety of nouns. Epithets e.g. A Chinese burn of white, red and green Verbs.



for their unfulfilled aspirations past and present.

The Dragon currency of legend…truer in its fiction than facts can ever be. Wales, an old country, blessed with a blind spot bigger than itself. The flag spawning itself…a strange flower… Wrapped up in itself… A Chinese burn (dragon = symbol of power in China) A tourniquet, a bandage tight on a wound staunching the dreams of what might have been

S6 symbol of an old country desiring youth. S7 in bare places; above the town hall. S8 staunching dreams inexorable tied up with the dreams of the nation.

Alliteration Fast forward Tale truer Flower…flourishes Assonance Ghosted…photography Pole… motorway An epithet is a characterizing word or phrase firmly associated with a person or thing and often used in place of an actual name,



title, or the like, as “man's best friend” for “dog.”

25

The

Ste

elw

ork

s

The Steelworks, except that it doesn’t any more. Ambiguous start using the title as part of the first line. The steelworks are silent. Ambiguity too in the description of the man at work. Are they in a steelworks? More likely, in a gym pumping iron.

Loss of employment. Loss of community and common purpose. Separation from community and nature.

Bleak images in S1 a S2. A deserted mothership becalmed on the valley’s floor The sheep and birds in unnatural and unhealthy places. Elsewhere suggests that the community has moved away. At least the men have shifted their attention elsewhere. Phrases and images of a work out in the gym: S 3 & 4 Pressing and dipping in the lifting bays/locking our elbows/rolling a bicep …lateral pull. It is a far removed from the hard physical demands of the steelworks and from nature. S5Pumping iron …strip lights… screwed tight eyes…pneumatic sighs

Man replaces the world of nature of (iron, steel, grey skies and rain) for a gym with steel equipment and bodybuilding that would happen naturally through hard work. Mournful. Satirical.

A variety of sentences construction and caesura in the form of the dash.

Stanzas 1 and 2 describe the scene of ruin and disintegration. Stanzas 3-5 describe the workouts in the gym. The final stanza reminds you of ever present nature.

Contrast Rolling a bicep up and arm with the rain Rolling off the clouds in sheets



The world of nature is ever dominant and present: still the rain, rolling off the clouds in sheets/across a brushed - metal.

26

Son

g

The poet imagines himself and his lover as two magpies. He asks her to imagine what would happen if she were attracted by a bright bait and were trapped. He declares that he would guard her and care for her to save her from harm. He would be faithful and true. He would watch other magpies get trapped in the same way as his love, attracted by her beautiful feathers. He’d listen all night to their panic and in the morning see the farmer kill them. Eventually the farmer would recognise true love and release her to him and he would help her fly again.

Faithful, unchanging love.

All the images are of the magpies and of his protection of his trapped mate: Spread my wings in the rain Perch above you Fan you with my feathers in the sun Emphasises her beauty: the other magpies would be drawn by the oil spill of her plumage The darkness of your eye He is indifferent to their plight: I’d watch them strut in squawking …doom trapped. He would feed her dropping the mites like kisses to your beak Tough my wings to yours The final stanza is liberation where the farmer would open the door to your cage and let your walk out to me. Sustains the bird image to prove the sincerity of his love.

Earnest and loving.

Words and phrases sustain the imagery of the trapped lover and the self-sacrificing devotion of the mate. Addresses his lover in a conversational style, but transforms it with the metaphor of the magpies. Sentences are generally regular and complex with a number covering 2 or more stanzas.

S1 and 2 sets up the personal story. S4 ,5, and 6 considers his attitude to others who would also be trapped (indifference!) S7 about how he would care for her in winter and spring. S8 about waiting for the farmer to realise the love is all there is to save. S9 how he would help

Constant use of bird related vocabulary. Alliteration: Bright bait Fan…feathers Drawn …darkness Wing on wire .. Assonance: open the door You …your



her to fly again.

27

Lan

dm

ark

Two lovers have been lying on the grass. Obviously, they were not talking philosophy. They dress, gather up their things. As they leave the spot, they turn and look at the place where they were lying. Their bodies have left an imprint (a landmark) in the grass. They feel as if their love will last for ever. However, the imprint is shallow and an inference can be drawn that their love won’t last. It, too, is shallow; it will die hence the sarcophagus image.

The illusions of love. Reading the signs.

Afterwards (strongly suggests lovemaking). It had made them feel transported beyond time they were timeless The setting is beautiful white-blossomed branches of the blackthorn tree. Gradually the world returns: his watch, her earrings, their clumsy shoes. Their awareness is heightened and they notice the telephone wires the time, a long-dead sheep folded (see Wake). They look at the place holding each other as if to let go would mean forever. Dark portents in the imagery in the final stanza: a double shadow …a sarcophagus, shallow among the long stems/ and complete without them.

They believe their love will last for ever. All the signs in nature suggest it will not. Their landmark is shallow and will not imprint itself for long. Nature does not need them.

Descriptive and sensuous vocabulary and sentences - all regular.

S1 The aftermath of love-making S2 They return to normality. S3 and more. S4 They look back at the place which is their landmark. S5 All the imagery suggests this landmark will fade soon.

Note the use of adjectives and their power to evoke images more intensely.

28

Hap

py

Acc

iden

ts

Robert Capa was a famous combat photo journalist of the 20th century. He took photos in conflicts in Europe and in the East. His photographs of the

Loss but something can be salvaged.

Powerful D-Day images. The ramps were lowered and the air turned to lead

That the damage to the photos should bring out the horror and

From line two onwards the sentences (all incomplete) answer the question “And

See Grammatical Features. Question (line 1)

The diction is a mix of war words and



Normandy landings are iconic. He died in 1954 Read: http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html A darkroom technician was almost as anxious to see the invasion images as Capa himself. In his haste, the technician dried the film too quickly. The excess heat melted the emulsion on all but 10 of the frames. Those that remained were blurred, surreal shots, which succinctly conveyed the chaos and confusion of the day.

And the marines before him dropped into the water The image of the chaos and the pressure: No time to set aperture or exposure, just shoot and shoot - The accident: a lad barely 16-year-old dried the film too quickly destroyed most of the frames. See green print. That he’d overheat the negative strips, blister the silver, /melt the emulsion, until their frozen fires caught /and smoked from under the dark room doors Damage to the pictures brought out the confusion of that day As a result, the pictures have skies heat blurred, …starbursts of light and their surfaces grazed. The damages describe so perfectly the confusion of that day when a generation fall headlong through the trapdoor of war

confusion of the D-Day.

Robert Capa, how was her to know?” Note how many sentences begin with “that”, a conjunction that introduces a noun clause object to “was to know”. In effect answers in the form of noun clauses. Note the parenthesis in S2. Parenthesis is a term that describes extra information added for particular effects.

Implied answer “That most of these photos would be destroyed but that those that were saved would tell the world the truth about the landing on Omaha. In fact one of them has become the definitive image of the Normandy landings.

photographic terms all powerfully evocative of the chaos, the risks and the media supercharged with anxiety and interest. Repetition and internal rhyme Shoot and shoot Alliteration Frozen fires Dark …door

29

Dri

nki

ng

Wit

h

Hit

ler

Owen Sheers spent time in Zimbabwe researching and writing about the missionary work of one of his ancestors.

How tyranny isolates and alienates people.

Wears power like an aftershave A heavy, overwhelming smell that covers up; just slaps it on as a matter of course

Condemning tone. The poet despises this monster and

Controlled complex sentences.

S1 Hunzvi’s aura of power

Onomatopoeia? flounder, scorched


http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html

http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html


In this poem, he seems to have had an encounter with a Hitler type of ZanuPF leader. He is known as Dr “Hitler” Hunzvi with good reason. He is in the bar of a hotel and observes the way Hunzvi carries with him an aura of ferocity and power – the power of cruelty and oppression. He makes the women fearful and submissive without even saying a word. He is a manipulator conducting asked for laughter from the bar. Everything he does is an act and others act a part for their own safety. He touches a woman’s leg and when she is gone she washes him away with a slow blink of her blue-painted eyes. It is as if he has contaminated her and the atmosphere in the bar.

Women flounder in it (power); it threatens to overcome and kill them. Unsure eyes = a transferred epithet. They not their eyes are unsure. His own (smiles) slide into place – a CD selected with play pressed across the lips S3 the mindless cruelty of the man & his brutal followers who commit mindless cruelties on the men who cradle the fruit of their bruises … beat the first two hundred instead the scorched huts like cauterised wounds The Zambian businesswoman – a pretty, dark and quiet He leaves in a flourish of (credit?) cards Lives in affluence in a desperately poor country Into his world = into his depravity, cruelty and inhuman actions.

can see the behind the show is a brute as inhuman as Hitler and his henchmen. A game of appearances is being played here and everyone is aware that Hunzvi is not a man to be crossed even in the slightest way.

S2 ready smile and chit chat S3 beatings and atrocities; his guilt S4 the Zambian businesswoman S5 leaves with a show of cards S6 the woman washes him away

Tension conveyed in the discipline of the four-line stanzas and the detail of the scene and the people in it.

30

Fou

r M

ove

me

nts

in

the

Sca

le

of

Tw

o

Ambiguous title – musical metaphor

Loss. Alienation. Separation. An end of a love.

Images in Part 1: 1st person: NB great musical works like symphonies generally have 4 movements.

Expectations and dreams not fulfilled.

Series of regular and irregular sentences.

4 parts. A musical composition

Wonderful rich range of words



I – Pages the two lovers are lying back to back, naked, in bed. II– Still life The poet/persona sits up and the woman draws her body up to and against his back. He feels alive intensely because of touch. III Eastern Promise She speaks but her words are cold and like ice in water. 1V Line-Break Something breaks between them and leaves them puzzles. It has caused hurt.

Filming Cut to us, an overhead shot, early morning Opposing bass clefs Draw a second bass clef beside the one given but draw it in the opposite direction. The elegant scars on the hips of a cello Butterflies wings Double heart in a secret fruit Open book with blank pages (nothing achieved together) only sleep and dreams Part 2 Images from art 1st person: My naked back A canvas on which you paint Palette of touches; shading, brushstrokes of your hear Depth with the impression of your breasts Texture of your tongue Note the poet reverts to a writer’s imagery his medium the sentence of my spine Unpleasant image of your tongue crackling close in my ear Part III Eastern promise 3rd person: suggesting distance between them. Speak he said and she did. Suggestion of something enchanting Dark tent of her falling down hair

Lists of images. Narrative & Description. Some direct speech Speak he said Speech hurts; reveals the break in the relationship.

would have fore movements but this relationship has only two before it is broken. Scale in music is a range of 8 notes and has infinite possibilities for the composer, but these 2 lovers don’t have a future to develop their motif so to speak.

and images. Sudden breaks between the parts. Onomatopoeia: cracking snapping



But her words are cold Summoning the Steppe and Siberian snow to their bed She cracked her consonants over her tongue Before dropping them to him Simile like the shock of new ice in cold water Part IV Line-break (a writer’s term): Caesura = a break in a line of poetry symbol of a break in their relationship the breaking of a glass in the washing water showing as the only evidence the slow smoke signal of blood uncurling from below

31

Liab

le t

o F

loo

ds

American WWII army recruits are moved into a valley to train and prepare for D-Day the Normandy invasion (6 June 1944). A farmer warns the major that the valley is “Liable to floods”, but the Major believes everything is under control. When the recruits are pitching their tents the pegs reach underlying shale quickly. This tells them that there is hardly any topsoil; it

The power of nature. Failure to recognise the power of nature. Arrogance of man. Unrecognised forces of nature.

Military imagery. S1 We’ve got this one covered. S6 Sweeping in a line rains fusillade and the artillery of thunder S9 the raised the alarm Personification of nature. S8 the river, arming herself with rifles, / flushing out the latrines, swallowing the jeeps, / gathered them all and ushered them off.

The belief that everything was under control but it wasn’t. A seemingly safe place was as treacherous as the Utah or Omaha beaches. Leaders thinking everything was under control but not

Direct speech. Variety of sentence constructions. Ballad like narrative about a disaster. Military vocabulary Sweeping in a line rains fusillade and the

A straightforward narrative following the chronology of events.

The reader hears the voice of the major, the warning of the farmer and the silence of the stealthy river.



has been washed away in earlier floods. Two nights later a storm breaks and swept them and the encampment away. Here nature is a quiet but powerful “enemy”.

S6 the river pulled herself up …spread her wings…bleeding through the camp like ink from a broken cartridge S4 Moel Siabod’s shoulder S10 the weather acts as a cunning enemy. This being taken at night without any say, This being borne, this being swept away.

accepting expert opinion and experience.

artillery of thunder

The sound of the storm: They slept to the sound/ of the rain’s fusillade and the artillery of thunder.

32

His

tory

The poet is telling the reader to study the history of the Lleder Valley in North Wales not through books, but by visiting its slate quarry and experiencing through all the senses the physicality of slate. (NB slate separates out into thin layers that are like the pages of a book.) This physical world is in the bones and heart of everyone who has lived there and studied it so.

Nature is full of marvels against which our book learning is dwarfed. This is a poem about seeing and hearing properly at first hand, not through the medium of print.

Images constantly transform conventional study practices and materials into a natural geological version. Simile S2 the water lies still/and black as oil You hear the chiselling and drilling of the blackbirds song. Image of how to open a book of slate Then with your fingertips/ at its leaves, gently/prize it apart Read the story in stone. Understand that this knowledge is written in every head, across every

The poet shows how by studying the slate and opening its “book” can you acquire a true knowledge of the valley and its people. We are so alphabetised today that we can be alienated from nature itself – the best teacher some would say.

A series of commands starting with the negative Don’t try to learnt his place / in the pages of history Then positives Go instead up to the/disused quarry … Pick yourself a blade of slate … Tap it with your heal… Prise it apart…

Simple 4-line stanzas housing the imperatives and an abundance of images (see imagery and diction).

The poet tells you to listen properly to the blackbird’s song. You are not given a choice. He is saying: Do it if you want to learn the true history of



heart / and down the marrow of every bone Of the people who live in the valley.

This is a poem about seeing and hearing properly at first hand, not through the medium of print. Ironically, it is through the printed poem that we learn about books of slate and a bird’s song.

And see how it becomes A book of slate… And see means And understand

the valley.

33

Am

azo

n

Amazons first emerge in Greek myth. They were a nation of warrior women and renowned for valiant military exploits. Even the Romans wrote about them and included women (from the Danube area) in their irregular army. The word has been used even in modern times to denote a woman of prowess, strength and bravery in war or life. In 1917 Russia, a group of Amazons – women fighters were formed. The woman the Sheers’ poem shows another type of warrior battling cancer and

Courage, bravery. Fighting and overcoming a threat / an enemy / cancer. Changed awareness of self.

Section 1 Note the graceful, gently feminine metaphor of one arm ballerinaed high and the water of her own flesh; also the cyst or tumour is very small, a mere mote. It settles like an alien, uninvited, unwelcome. Section 2 images of concern and a suggestion that the doctor has to play a part; keeping the end of what he has to say at arm’s length. Vividness of flowering dustbins shoes on a street stall and buses redding Section 3 fireworks All of us masked in the flame’s hot soul

Ironic that the woman has to lose a breast – a symbol of femininity and motherhood in order to qualify as an Amazon – a woman of mythical greatness and courage.

It begins – Narrative by a third person. A variety of sentences in free verse with much of the irregularity of conversational speech. The shift from 3 – 2-3 lines compresses the story. The course of the disease, the operation etc., are hinted at in

The first section is about two beginnings: the woman discovering the lump in her breast; the second, the beginning of the lump itself. This section is in three-line stanzas. The second section is in

Section 1 The poet is surmising, suggesting the situation when the woman found the lump/cyst. Section 2 she knows what is



overcoming it. We read about her discovery of the lump, the doctor’s diagnosis, the fireworks and the recovery after a mastectomy.

Champagne celebration (single-serving size/personal and special for her from her youngest & most threatened by the cancer.) He holds the cork soft but hard as if it is her cancerous cyst. Feels he has some power over it. She knows: She watches his fingers work around it.) Mother and son understand each other. Stanza 4 Simile: Her life like old clothes fits her again. Metaphor: Her mind still faceted still thinking & dreaming of her breast removed (the invisible twin) in a partial mastectomy; dreaming of entering a pool at night, an Amazon, / able to draw her bow further and deeper than other women. She has endured and been brave in the face of this enemy. NB images of the past (photos); the present: with its illusion of the breast still there; the future: of swimming naked but now stronger, a survivor – a true Amazon.

the 3rd and 4th stanzas, but not described. Note the absence of medical jargon. Just the horror of the C of cancer.

couplets, suggesting some kind of disturbance perhaps panic.

coming allows us to share her observations about the doctor’s behaviour: offering the seat, his practised look of concern, slow pace of his voice Focus on the sound of hard C - cruelty soft C - uncertainty. Like the lump She walks into her new world, yet it is



the same (oxymoron). Surprise of buses redding past (Poet has changed the function of the word red) Section 3 three lines again, slowing the pace ellipsis – her first outing since… Onomatopoeic tac sparks. Inclusive all of us.

34

Shad

ow

M

an

This poem celebrates the genius of an artist who uses his palette to say something profound about human

How every human being and thing exists with others

Do look at the website to see Mac Adam’s works.

Admiration. The darkness behind his eyes

Three-line stanzas.

Simple. The poet first focuses on the artist’s

Some repetition of light.



beings and how art can express meaning beyond our thoughts and words. The poet is able to show that the artist, through his use of light and shadow, shows the effect of the presence of one thing or person on another or on others…the shadows they throw against the lives of others.

in a challenging shadowy way. Check: http://macadamsstudio.com/photographs.html For an example from his series of photographs called “Shadows” 1985-2008. I do not think the artist is making claims about inter-relationships – just that every person and thing throws a shadow on other persons and things.

His palette is light needs to be read literally, I think. Magic of conjuring with bulb, fruit…. Karl Marx head born from pebble and stone into an absence of light

is an ironic way of talking about insight. Usually intelligence is associated with light.

Lists several examples of the artist’s work.

palette and then gives examples. The insight is stated in the penultimate and last stanza. The last single line emphasises difference.

And the internal rhyme of matter. Assonance shadows they throw

35

Un

der

th

e Su

per

stit

ion

Mo

un

tain

s

Superstition Mountains are a range of mountains in Arizona. The poet is sitting in a mustang at the side of the road reading a poem called “To speak of woe that is in marriage” by Robert Lowell, an American poet: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15282 The photographer is sleeping. They are on a street to the west of Sun City – a kind of holiday city. They

Suggestion that man is in an alien environment, therefore alienated. Sleep and missing opportunities in the natural world. It is a world where humans are overwhelmed by the heat and out of kilter with the

Images of heat. The Mustang absorbing the heat into its mock leather seats. Little comfort in the line from Lowell’s poem. Suggestion of decline in the city; no youth only the old are allowed to live And the neighbours keep check on each other’s houses. The man with his oxygen tanks

Nature is alive and awake while man sleeps. A man kitted out in a tracksuit is very unhealthy. In this holiday city, the poet is reading about an appalling husband and

A series of sentences of regular constructions: simple compound and complex. Enjambment between the three-line stanzas. The poet is musing on what

The poet is musing on what he senses but has difficulty feeling comfortable about his surroundings S1 the car. S2 the poet reads.

Alliteration Marriage…monotonous meanness A suburb-still street in Sun City West


http://macadamsstudio.com/photographs.html



http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15282

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15282


are parked in a suburb street. A man is walking carrying oxygen tanks (suffering from emphysema?) A bird hits a note but it is impossible to identify it. The photographer seems sedated by heat. He seems to be dead, but the poet can hear his breath so he knows the man is alive. There is a vast sweep of blue sky but the Jagged mountains make it seem that they have torn the sky and left it like a piece of paper with a jagged edge. In the natural world, unobserved, a rattle snake wakes up from its winter sleep without knowing why. The title places the event in America. The Superstition Mountains saw many a ruined prospector.

natural world. While they sleep, the rattlesnake is waking from its hibernation. The snake is moving from inaction to action; man, from action to inaction. There is little to suggest that the city is good for body or soul.

Here you experience things, but their remains a space between sense and knowing The photographer’s breath is deep and dry The mountains tear an edge off the sky Wonderful natural events e.g. the rattlesnake uncoils from Winter go unnoticed by the one who should be capturing this magical event – the photographer.

marriage (See poem), an abusive relationship.

he senses but has difficulty feeling comfortable about his surroundings.

S3 the place and its inhabitants. S4 an ill jogger. S5 a bird heard but unidentified, unrecognisable sound. S6,7,8 the sleeping photographer. S8, 9 the photographer has not captured the perfect shot. The poet marvels at the mountains tearing an edge off the sky and imagines the awakening rattlesnake –perfect shots.

deep and dry

36

Serv

ice

Service was written during a National Poetry Day residency. The poet tracks a day in Heston Blumenthal’s

Effort and excellence in running a restaurant.

S1 image of the theatre. Sheers compares restaurant with the activities in preparing the back stage and front of house. (chefs,

Descriptive. A different world not

Straightforward invitation in the simple sentence of line 1.

Structured on a typical day in HB’s kitchen.

What strikes the reader



kitchen. The poet writes about the preparation of the food, the cooking and the serving of different “covers”. It ends with the waiters smoking a fag outside. NB the feverish pace of events; the clockwork organisation; the suggestions of high quality cuisine, menu, service, etc. The poet dwells on other stories besides those of the patrons. See S30 the oysters.

waiters, cleaners / wardrobe managers, carpenters, Hoovers) Food arrives at precise times. S4 Image of the tables dressed like prom girls. S5 the Sommelier (wine expert) tastes. Red wine like a “boxer’s mouthful of red”; holds the glass like a carver – a woodturner. S9 new image – the kitchen a submarine. Words and lists barrage the reader with foods in prep. No conversation, just the radio. S7 Images of time. 2, 4, 9 (S3 & 6) Image of lovers, matadors, (OS is fascinated with blood and brutal things, I think) Hudini. S7 quick fag S9 brutal images of score and unstitched with pliars The bass flesh – a pink blank page; waiting for nothing/ but heat and the tongue S10 a witches cauldron of onion puree; parcelled duck hams …presents for the tree. S12 salmon piled like deckle-edged (rough)leaves of a medieval manuscript Transformation of the oyster: Bookmarks (thin fillets?) of mackerel rolled and tied into Tigered ballotines (stripes of string) S13 coins on the eyes of the dead S14 a canvas whitewashed – a metaphor to describe how

always appreciated or understood by the patrons, those who eat in the restaurant. A frenetic tone to match the pace of events.

Thereafter notice fewer complete sentences, but a superabundance of lists to create a feeling of fast clockwork efficiency and organisation. Shortening of words e.g. prep. Many activities grouped in stanzas on the prep, cook, serve themes. Note the reference to the time To what is allowed S12 and 16 (radio on and off) To getting everything right “Check!!” a command in inverted commas Restaurant language: “you

Arrival of food timetable of: arrival of the food preparing starters main courses and desserts serving last fag last tasting

first is the pace, followed by the density of the vocabulary, the constant references to the time. Surprising images. The listing of foods and actions The human voices issuing orders The radio which you imagine quiet tense drone of



everything is cleaned, tidied and looks perfect. S14 The waiters move around the tables like sharks through a coral reef. S15 gold = image of excellence, wealth, cutting edge food and service. S17 the ticket machine personified pokes out its white tongue… The order hangs like a photograph drying in a dark room. S18 two images - submarine dives, dives…woven walking S20 the fat man merely referred to a suit; his stomach, a globe (represents the overfed world?); his serviette, a sail tackling tight above his belt. S21 the waiter presents a bottle/like a new-born baby. S25 the chef - an author copy-editing the text; the boy’s hair like a book open at the centre page; the champagne bubbles threading the core; the conversation tense delicate carefully tuned Finely strung. S30 the story of the oysters and how they were captured in the wild sea; now presented on a plate, white as snow, smooth as marble, hard as bone. (Note the contrasts.) S31 the submarine slows ... the waiters shed their gold and the normality of them as they take a fag outside.

can go on those”.

Conversation among the patrons Read this aloud and try to hear internal rhyme. assonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia.



S32 the gestures of the Sommelier testing the wines compared to a dart player, weighting his arrow a gardener scenting his rose.

37

The

Fis

hm

on

ger

The focus of the poem is a man to whom fish are commodities. He seems to be associated with a hardness and military culture not the gentler, more honest culture of the fisherman. He is able to read the consumer’s body language and knows how much and what to say according to the customer’s responses. He skilfully selects a carp from the water for a customer. His heart is hardened to the violence involved in killing the fish possibly chopping off it head. Check: www.aquatext.com/images/fish etc/intanat.htm to see the internal anatomy of a carp. There is a suggestion that he is damaged by this work and, like a fish gasping for air, he is not in his element killing the fish.

Alienation / separation from nature.

Punters = customers S2 comparison between the fishmonger selecting a carp and us reaching for an apple in a bucket. S3 foil disk of the silver eye The engine stroke of his heart He is finely tuned – a musical image. Cruel kindness (Oxymoron) suggests that the fish is alive. S4 He knows the anatomy of the fish (see www in contents) its soft spots near the heart. Note the similes of slicing through butter and cutting celery. Knows how much to say – image of how to pare his speech. Kills off words as he might the enemy in war: as he might men/ were he pushed to fight. Simile of the lightning striking a tree suggests this work is killing him. His heart / humanity is like the wood in the tree unprotected, just as a fish outside the water would be biting the air for water.

A sad tone showing the psychological and emotional damage of being alienated from nature. Note the customers, too, seem to shape his responses as many of them would find the bloody deeds disgusting / repulsive.

A variety of sentences regular S1, 2, 3 and one irregular sentence in S4,5,6. Enjambment within and between three-line stanzas.

S1 details about the fishmonger’s appearance and his canny understanding of the “punters”. S2/3 he knows the fish well by touch and sight. S3 suggestion that he is affected by the killing of the fish – even in his heart rate. S4 emphasises his understanding of the fish’s anatomy.

Alliteration measuring their movements Smarting in the salty water. Onomatopoeia Slice pare struck gasps.


http://www.aquatext.com/images/fish%20etc/intanat.htm

http://www.aquatext.com/images/fish%20etc/intanat.htm


S5 says little – just gets on with the job. S5/6 emphasises that this work is destroying him and killing him at some level. He is like a fish out of his element.

38

Stit

ch in

Tim

e

A young man (of Indo-Fijian descent) has returned alone from Gujerat (India) having married a 15-year old wife there. He lives on the Fijian island of Taveuni - special because the 180°Meridian runs down the island. He works as a tailor. He must be skilful because the chief orders a suit from him and in return gives him an acre of ground – his own piece of land. Everything he does he does for his wife and the day when he can bring her home. He understands the Meridian pinstripe immediately. Over ten years he becomes rich (owns a

Perseverance. Separation. Beginning and end.

Garden Island of Taveuni. Moved about the dummy’s baste (Baste = tacking a garment with loose stitches). Like a musician round his double bass. Worked into the night Hurricane lamp’s sepia… cutter, coatmaker and sepia Meticulous: checking again and again his stab and pad stitch … Plans for his wife (he thinks of his wife, his wife) Seizes upon the fact that the invisible Meridian passes through his land; appreciates lines and stripes.

Admiration. Narrative style with a variety of sentence constructions and use of metaphorical extensions and parenthesis. Listing.

A biography S1 return from the wedding. S2 the Garden Island of Taveuni. S3-7 his tailoring trade. S8-11 he plans to build businesses inspired by

Rhyming of the couplets illustrates his self-discipline discipline, imagination and creativity. Repetition of Meridian.



store a garage and a taxi business). He fetches his wife and they have 4 daughters and 1 son. Years later he goes to London, walks one morning to Greenwich to see the original 0° the source, the still point after the strife, the first stitch in the pattern to which he’d cut his life.

Builds a fortune (Meridian store, Cinema, Garage) inspired by the image of the imaginary line the imaginary chalk mark where here, tomorrow starts, and here today is ending, he felt it in his heart. The pinstripe of longitude, the balance, the symmetry, bisecting time and space, he understood it immediately Even the sign was his, the arrow pointing each way Joints as stiff as his old scissors 0° the first stitch in the pattern to which he’d cut his life.

the Meridian. S12 brings his wife to Taveuni. S13 16 shows her what he has created. S17 his family now grown up. S18-20 visits Greenwich like an explorer discovering the source.

39

L. A

. Eve

nin

g

A woman, a former star/actress, goes through the daily evening ritual of looking at her photograph collection. They show her acting parts with famous male actors (Olivier and Brandon), she in the role of Ophelia and Sarah. She has two with royalty - the Queen Mother in one and Queen Elizabeth 11 in the other. She is now alone, the famous

Passing of time. Loneliness. Isolation. Alienation.

LA well known City of angels Centre of motion pictures, television and recorded music Youthful image rollerbladers Crime-ridden sirens Has beens She sits to the screening of her photographs The retired actress worked with the great names: Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando performed Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Despite all her earlier fame, she is now alone with an audience that does not even know her. After all the exposure, she has become a recluse.

A number of complex sentences; a listing of photos.

S1 the evening arrives – the ritual revisiting the past in the photos. S2 the list of photos. S3 the sun goes down –

Alliteration sirens…sun…sits Freeze frames Faces … friends Internal rhyme



names (Olivier, Brando) are dead. Others are now performing the old roles in new versions of the old films, and imitating the facial expressions of the great actors. They speak in the informal tones of the great ones, not in the polished voices that once belonged to professional acting. She does not feel any interest in knowing the names of modern actors; she skips the credits. She dims the lights, sorts out the animals, checks the intruder light.

Mixed with the best queen Freeze frames - perhaps she finds it impossible to look at modern actors as she considers her contemporaries as superior, the best. She lives a lonely, fearful life. She is frozen in the past and has only three preoccupations: Dwelling on past glories, looking after her animals and guarding herself and her property against intruders.

as does her life. S4 gets ready for bed.

screening…Scenes

40

The

Sin

gin

g M

en

An elegy to singing men -those who have lost everything but continue to sing. All over the world. Not much money earned or much to eat or drink, but the remarkable luxury of one gold can of Extra

Loss. The power of song to retain humanity.

Singing to swallow the moon The tendons in their necks making valleys in their stubble They’d squeeze a little music in, between the lovers the kids the wives But now it’s just the songs that are left to keep them threaded to the earth. Image of poverty and age Beard scribbled over his chin, dirt like grain in the wood.

Elegiac. Sad. Admiring.

Conversational to some extent - just for the hell of it. Listing of places where you will hear them sing.

Two-line stanzas. S1 What they do in every city. S2 corners. S3 energetic singing. S4 from memory. S5 their past lives. S6 only songs left in the memory S7 They sing in USA GB and Russia

Repeated use of song, singing humming and vocabulary to do with singing. List all these words and be able to suggest how the



Despite the singer’s losses his song is welcoming commuters home.

S8 in Balham tube station in south London S9 the sound travels; his costume ( reduced to clown status??) S10 dirty but welcoming

diction says something about the past of these men and their motivation to continue singing. References to global phenomenon.

41

The

Wak

e

Title: Wake - a lamentation (sometimes a party) after the death of someone. Also, the track left on the water’s surface by a moving ship. The poet visits his ninety-year-old dying grandfather. The old man tells him he doesn’t want to die this way. He has been a doctor or surgeon and studied the X-rays of countless sufferers of lung disease. Now he is a sufferer and he knows too much about what is

Grief. Loss. Separation. Death. Ending and beginning.

The grandfather is folded into his favourite chair Doesn’t want the doctor to plumb into his scarred lungs. He knows the storms gathering there…the squalls and depressions His lungs are two pale oceans/ rising and falling in the rib cage’s hull His medical knowledge is driftwood/collected on the shore of the century The poet’s words mean little to the dying man My words are spoken/ into a coastal wind long after the ship has sailed NB the sea imagery.

Ironic that the old man should die of the same disease which he had diagnosed, treated and operated upon in his professional career. Even as we live we are confronted with the ultimate irony: death.

Note the use of the present tense. It is as if the poet is living through the experience or commenting on it in the way you would comment on photographs or a film of an experience. Complex sentences spanning several stanzas

Like a film. S1 sets the scene. S2 reports the old man’s unhappiness at having to die this way. S3, 4 & 5 the poet focuses on the old man’s past career and the

Alliteration: folded…favourite Ship…shows Stern strangely Settled sea



happening in his lungs. The poet tries to say calm and comforting things, but he realises that his words are lost on the old man. Both know the inevitable is happening there has already been a passing. He feels a calm and newness – a kind of beginning.

S8 the second image of wake. The water / life becomes new and the poet is reminded of the first seas. There is the image of the sea / the birth / death cycle going on for ever.

Poet senses a newness, a beginning in the passing of his grandfather.

at a time emphasise the complexity of the life / death issue. Use of parenthesis as the poet uses metaphorical images to express his grief and amazement.

knowledge he gained. S6 The poet tries to make normal conversation but he feels at sea. S7 They part both knowing the old man has moved on. S8 The poet describes the passing as the wake of a moving ship. S9 the restoration of normality – a newness. S10 Final line focuses on the future.

42

Skir

rid

Fa

wr

Fawr is the Welsh for big. (Rhymes with hour). The poet returns to the Skirrid again (a recurring

Nature nurtures, shapes consciousness and sensibilities. It

Simile: The poet returns for the answers / to every question I have ever known, just like the farmers

Irony is in the return to his roots, for the

All the sentences except the first are irregular,

S1, 2 finds a precedent in the ancient farmers who

Alliteration Scoop…scar



theme in the collection), looking for answers, trying to read the meaning of life in the environment that shaped his consciousness. This is a kind of love relationship, much more enduring than the various lovers he infers in several poems. As a poet, he translates / transforms the geology and relief of Skirrid Fawr in metaphorical language. Features of the environment become identified with human behaviour or speech. Skirrid Fawr has a weight of wisdom, but only the poet can express it if he can discover her answers to his questions.

needs to be understood and learnt if the poet is to fulfil his identity.

who in times past took soil from Skirrid Fawr’s scar. Her slopes are a sentence Her borders, vernaculars (indigenous language). Her withers is an image taken from a horse’s anatomy (the highest point of its body just above its shoulders). The blunt wind glancing from her withers personifies the wind She has a broken spine and a cleft palate, part hill, part field Sheers compares Skirrid Fawr to a lonely hulk (a ruined ship) adrift through Wales Another horse image in flanks Her east-west flanks, one dark, one sunlit, her vernacular of borders. Opposition here implied. Welsh/English? She is big, weighty, full of the wisdom of time.

answers life should provide. Whereas lovers disappoint and relationships fade, Skirrid Fawr remains.

unfinished, just like all the puzzles of life.

would scoop handfuls of soil from her holy scar. S3-7 description of parts of the Skirrid using a variety of personification and metaphor. S8 Skirrid Fawr is heavy with meaning but cannot express her identity her wisdom words, because she has an unlearned tongue. The poet can though, if only he can get answers from her. Is he the one with the

Internal rhyme part hill, part field One dark, one sunlit Unspoken …unlearned



unlearned tongue? He doesn’t even know the questions to ask I so I am still drawn to her back (lover image) for the answers /to every question I have never known Is Skirrid Hill the wise one?


Owen Sheers – 'Skirrid Hill' – Poems Analysed

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