Two Deaths

Credit: Devil's eye | by Il conte di Luna

The speaker sees two creatures who have died in a violent way, and reflects on the impression these shocking experiences have made on her.

It was only a film,
Perhaps I shall say later
Forgetting the story, left only
With bright images- the blazing dawn
Over the European ravaged plain,
And a white unsaddled horse, the only calm
Living creature. Will only such pictures remain?

The first lines of the poem show a speaker that appears to be reassuring herself after watching a film that was evidently shocking and made an impact on her feelings. She wonders if with time she will forget the story focusing on the fact that it was not real, and be only left  with “bright images”. The adjective “bright” seems to anticipate beautiful views, but there are many unsettling elements in the detailed description of the images that suggest that “bright” refers just to highly saturated colours: a white horse against the tones of red of a blazing dawn.  The word “ravaged” implies a war, and the phrase “(...) the only calm/ living creature” suggests that all the surroundings are full of destruction, pain, desperation, and death. The caesura after “living creature” seems to stress its isolation.

Remembering Fireworks

Credit: Pixabay

This poem focuses on the memory of an enjoyable experience that has just finished.

Always as if for the first time we watch

The fireworks as if no one had ever

Done this before, made shapes, signs,

Cut diamonds on air, sent up stars

Nameless, imperious. (...)

This first sentence is a description of the enthusiasm with which we watch fireworks.The first person plural seems to be a generalization which includes all human beings.  In the first line, there is a hyperbaton that  rearranges the order of the sentence to emphasise the first-time excitement people experience whenever they watch this spectacle. Even though we have seen fireworks before, we feel as if we are watching something completely new, “as if no had ever /done this before”.

In these lines, there are a number of caesuras at irregular intervals that create a staccato pace and reminds us of the explosions and different duration of the fireworks.

Warning to Parents

Credit: Christopher Combe photography

Save them from terror; do not let them see

The ghost behind the stairs, the hidden crime.

In the first lines, the speaker uses a list of imperatives to encourage parents to protect their children from childhood fears. The horrors from which they need to preserve their children belong both to the imaginary and to the real realms, as the second line illustrates.  

The Young Ones (Theme)

What is "The Young Ones" about?

Cross out the ones which don´t capture the essence of the poem:

-Travelling by bus
-commuters
-observing and being observed
-being young or old
-Youth today and in the past
-being bold or unsure

The Young Ones

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In this poem, the speaker watches some teenagers get on the bus where she is travelling. Some aspects of them catch her attention, because they contrast with her present self and also with the way she used to be when she was their age. By looking at them, she reflects on boldness and insecureness.

They slip on to the bus, hair piled up high.
New styles each month, it seems to me. (...)

In the first line, the persona describes the young ones succinctly. The words she uses suggest she admires them. Firstly,  she presents them by their smooth movements, evoked by the word “slip”. Secondly, she comments on their hairstyle, which, in her view, seem to be different every month.

Father to Son (Post Reading activity)

Imagine you are a family therapist and the persona of the poem has consulted you. Write a report summarising the reasons why his relationship with his son is not smooth. What piece of advice could you give him?

Father to son

This poem shows the estrangement between a father and his adolescent son. It seems to be a dramatic monologue, as the persona -the father- is addressing someone who is not present and his words reveal different aspects of his own personality.

I do not understand this child

Though we have lived together now

In the same house for years. I know

Nothing of him, so try to build

Up a relationship from how

He was when small. Yet have I killed

In the first stanza, the persona describes his relationship with his son: they are together and yet apart. The first line opens with the first person pronoun and finishes with the word “child”, which graphically shows the distance between them. Besides, the persona uses the phrase “this child” instead of “my son” to further emphasise their estrangement. It is as if the persona does not feel his son like his own but like someone else’s. In contrast, the words “together” and “same house” appear in the same stanza and suggest the opposite: their closeness. These set of words demonstrate that they are physically near but they cannot connect in an emotional way.