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They are perfect “like porcelain”statues over the “stilling water”.The swans teach the human couplehow to negotiate troubles in theirrelationship.The water becomes a symbol ofcalm and restored unity “our handshad, somehow, swum the distancebetween us.”9Night WindowsThey become like the swans doingthe same actions; hands “folded,one over the other like a pair ofwings settling after flight.”A couple’s sexualrelationship / a couplealienated from one anotherwho find understandingthrough sex. Certainly, theyare aware that they may bewatched by neighboursacross the street, which ofcourse meant they could(see) too. The title isn’tabout ideal lovemaking, butabout the windows whichsuggests something nowquite satisfying about thelove-making itself and couldaccount for her sigh.Copyright poetryessay.co.ukSex and ess.Mystery?Impressionist through thin whitedrapes. Check out the technique ofthe impressionists (Monet, Manet,etc.)“curves of a distant landscape”“back arching like a bow”“drawn by an invisible tendon”“night windows oppositeperformed” – personification“like lightning.”“the dress of your shadow”“curves”, “performed”, “arching”Almost a continued metaphor ofdance or movement, a fluidity.Note the use of light and shadow:bar of light;Trailing the shadow or your dressbehind you.“That night weturned some ofthem off” etc. –a familiar tone,as if the readerknows exactlywhat’s beingsaid - adialogue/address?“body slick andvalleyed in theAugust heat” –intense/passionateNB the partsand shapes ofReads like arecollection.The poet isaddressing thelover possibly orjust recountingthe experiencefor the reader.Enjambment7 stanzas4 lines each7th stanza 3lines.S1 that nightthey tried tobe moreprivateleaving onlyone light on.S2 thewomanlowersherself tohim. NB thedistantlandscapeimage.S3 thevalleyedbody; thearching back.Enjambment.“.hallbulbbright” –alliteration.“sideswipes” –alliteration.7

Keyways10The poet and his lover arestanding in a locksmith’sshop waiting for him to cut aset of keys. The relationshipis over, so the poet needskeys to get into her flat andcollect his things while she isout. He recalls how he feltwhen they first met. Hedescribes how close theywere in a chapel, listening tothe Messiah. He would liemoulded into her sleepingshape like a key that fits aCopyright poetryessay.co.ukLoss.Grief.Alienation.An ending with animmanentbeginning for bothof them –separately.She is almost insubstantial.the human bodyare used bySheersinterchangeably. Sometimes itis that body thatis compared tothe place; atother times, theplace ispersonified.See SkirridFawr.Dominant images: the key andkeyways. See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key (lock)Very obvious.S1 standing in the locksmithsdivided in heart and purposewaiting for a set of your keys to becut.S2 the hot day presses (he feelsoppressed).Lights uncut keys like lucky charmsalong a bracelet.Here they aregetting keys cutwhen she ischanging thelock, mostlikely; theydon’t fittogether anymore.S4 theinvisibletendonimage ofintensity andphysicallychargedaction.S5 Suddencut to thewindowsopposite andthe Morsecode imageimplyingsecrecy andvoyeuristicpeeping.S6 contrastof the policecar strobe.The poet’swords areaddressed toher the “you” ofthe relationship.Enjambmentbetweenstanzas andcaesurasemphasise abrokenrelationship.She does notrespond. HeS1 Sets thescene andthe awfulreality of thesplit.Repetition ofwordsandphrasesS2 Heat light,the memoryof how hewas charmedin thebeginningandStrange,keys,keywaysand allthe partsof keysandlocks.8

lock perfectly. Their keywayswould fit. He realises it isuseless now to track backthrough events to the firsttime when one of us made aturn that failed to dock. Justas they changing the locks,(are trying to find a newarrangement ) they aremaking copies of the oldkeys.Poet remembers initial charmenchantment.S3 He was an uncut key thenwaiting your impression.Experiences would be milling andgroves in time until our keywayswould fit.S4 Siamese twins sharing one lungOur combinations matched, / ourtumblers aligned precisely to giveand roll perfectly/into the other’sempty spaces.S5 A master key fitWhen did the bolt slip?The blade break in the mouth?S6 A turn that failed to dockThe expected click which nevercame.Sad andoppressivetone.The poet feelsemotional painintensely.pours out hisgrief andpuzzlement in abrilliantlysustained set ofmetaphors,relating to keysand keyways.inexperienced too.S3 A magicalmoment ofonenesswhen theyattendedHandel’sMessiah in achapel.Unansweredquestions.S4, 5 He feltconvincedthey wereperfectlymatched.S5 Ends thestanzawonderingwhen it wentgo wrong.S6 Realises itis useless tounpick themonths.S7 A coupletreturning likea circle to hisfeeling ofpuzzlementand sadnessthat theyshould beCopyright poetryessay.co.uk9

11Border Countrycutting keysjust whenwe‘rechangingall the locks.The adult poet returns (2ndvisit?) to the quarry in/nearAbergavenny (Gwent)?*(“Traditional Gateway toWales” www) where he anda childhood friend grew up.They fished, played amongthe heaps of rusting cars,shouted. One-day tragedystruck and the poet ispropelled into adulthood.The poem is about lostchildhood and, it seems, thedeath of his friend.Certainly, there was atragedy that provides thetypical poetic border country– not just geographical, butthat of the end of childhoodand a life and the beginningof adulthood. The poetvisited the quarry sometimeafter the tragedy (1st visit?)to find nature taking overthe wrecks. An ascendingbuzzard raises the poet’simagination to the spiritualrealm. Is the boy on the lanethe ghost of his dead friend?Is he the poet trying toCopyright poetryessay.co.ukLoss.Grief.Searching foranswers.Death.Images of youth:Commas and apostrophes ofminnows and bullheads.Shouldering the kick of yourfather’s shotgun.Playing war in the barn.Dying (ironically again and again).Gap-toothed roof (children oftenlose teeth).Identified with the buzzardsstriking their cries.Images of death:Raised earth like the hummock of agrave.Headstone of trees.Wind-written epitaphs.Graveyard of cars.Reading aloud the names of thedead.An accident when life put on thebrakes and pitched you withoutnotice through the windscreen ofyour youth.The poppy – a symbol of the fallenWW1 young men.The buzzard – in childhood and atthe endNature: spittle sheep inkdot cowsExpectations,dreams andhopesunfulfilled.Searching forthe dead amongthe living.The triumph ofnature overman’s life andachievements.The tragic ironyof dying young.The tragedy of afather survivinghis deceasedson.The ghost of theboy still tryingto find his wayhome.The poetreturning homeA number ofregular . Thepoet is, after allsearching foranswers to oneof life’s mostcomplex issues:death.6 nine-linestanzas eachwith itstheme.1 return.2 a specificplace – thequarry.3 actualgames.4 where welostourselves inthe hoursLists stanzasbefore dark2,3,6. Thishints at thebuilds uptragedy andimages of thethe boy’swild irrationalfatherandfinding him.unpredictable5 Anotherplay of the boys visitand in 6 gives an sometimeaerial view.after.Nature isFantastic variety beginning toof verbs andtake overextensionand burrythrough similethe cars.Read thispoemaloudand youwill hearthe richmusic ofthevocabulary:AlliterationAhummock aheadstoneRustingto redSteel andstone.Assonanceagainandagain.Holes inthewindows10

return home to findanswers? Is the poet stillwandering in the bordercountry of his emotions andthoughts?Personification – the tractorwriting etc.searching foranswers.metaphor andpersonification.The tone is sadbut not morbid.It has a quietdignity. Weshare in the funand the shock.Important inrecounting pasttimes andinvites thereader to sharethe manyemotions.Elements ofcolloquialspeech:I can’t helpstanding at itsedge. Sheersoften stands atthe edge ofexperiences andrevisits them towork throughhis emotionsand thoughts.The poet usesfirst person possiblyaddressing hisfather in real lifeor in hisimagination.12FartherYou feel thepoet’s grief andpain.The poet recollects aparticular 27th Decemberwhen he climbed Skirrid Hillwith his father. They tookthe long way. They rested atan altar of rock, watched thedog run ahead and thencontinued over broken rock.He pauses to look at hisgrey-haired father and feltkeenly the age differenceand change between them.The dog returned. He took aCopyright poetryessay.co.ukFather son bonds.The theme ofseparation.Images and the Skirrid:the wood simplified by snowthe dry stone wall, its puzzle solvedby moss,the cleft of the earththe altar of rockImages of nature:watching the dog shrink over thehilla blade of wind from the eastthe sky rubbed raw over themountainTone of respectand an elementof sadness.Paradox (a formof irony in: or atleast a shallowhandhold in thethoughtthat with everystep apart, I’manother closerto youSentences quiteregular andvaried in type;simple,An indicationhere that thepoet returnsto findanswers todeep andtroublingquestions. The waythesentences movethroughtime andplacewith6 This stanza cinematois almostgraphicmystical. We precisionare invited to .journey on“and on overthe lanes” –to look downon the scene.Note theambiguity ofthe boy.The poettells a story,useschronologicalorganisation,but weavesin keythemes andimagery (Seeimagery).Alliterationsimplified bysnowShortandsharpRock restedRubbedraw11

photo of his father, realisingthere was something specialin the moment. He realisesthat though they aregrowing apart, he feelscloser to his father.Images of his father:your bent head the colour of therocksyour breath reaching me, short andsharp and solitaryInformal tone.compound andcomplex.He builds upto therealisation the paradoxat the end.Images of time and space:I felt the tipping in the scales of usshared the shock of a countryunrolled before usthe intersection of our ages13TreesImages of crossing a boundary:me reaching for some kind ofpurchaseor at least a shallow handhold inthe thoughtthat with every step apart, I’manother closer to youThe poet / persona isaddressing his father (mostlikely), possibly hisgrandfather or otherrelative. Obviously thefather has told him that hehas planted “an oak tree /inthe middle of the top field.”The poet asks how long itwill take to mature and thefather answers “some time”.The poet understands whatthe father means andrecollects that his father hadCopyright poetryessay.co.ukTime.Survival.Maturity.Border country ofbeginnings andendings.The simple diction creates imagesof father, son, three trees and nowa thin oak sapling that may one daymature into a vast oak tree.A long bow reminds one of the ageof bows and arrows, of archery.The image focuses on an arrowbeing shot from a long bow andlanding at some future far awaytarget.AssonanceChoosing woodSnowstoneShock pocketShallowhandhold rirony permeatesthe language,because wehave hopes anddreams that canbe foiled anddestroyedeither byourselves or byforces aroundus.Conversationaltone; directlyaddressed tothe father “You I)I realise I shouldhave knownTwo line stanzasemphasise thatnot much mustbe said onlyThe poetdoes nearlyall thetalking.The fathermerely says“some time”emphasisingthat we canonly hope tosee thetrees/humanlives mature.Simplicity;predominance ofmonosyllabicwords.The mostprofoundrealitiesaregraspedover a12

14Hedge Schoolplanted a tree for each childin the family to the northsouth and west of the house.The most recent sapling isdelicate and finger-thick buthas the potential, like thechildren to mature. It is“loaded with promise andsilhouetted against areddening sky.” The redcould represent the hope ofa beginning or the death ofand end.A sensuous poem aboutpicking blackberries on theway home from school. Thequotation is from Chaucer’sThe Pardoner’s tale. Thepardoner sells relics,promising the buyer thattheir time in Purgatory willbe shortened as a result. Infact, he doesn’t care whathappens to their souls. Themoney he receives should goto the church, but he keepsit for himself. A moderntranslation reads: “Whenthey (the individuals) aredead, why should I beworrying / whether or nottheir souls have goneblackberrying.” The poemsuggests that there isCopyright poetryessay.co.ukMetaphor of the reddening skywith its suggestions of blood, birthlife and death life and death.You nod your head – image ofsilent understanding. The fatherallows the son to reach a properunderstanding of the fragility ofour lives.Tasting thepleasures of life.Suggestion that he gets off the busat a certain point – perhaps adifferent point each day?Self-indulgence.Pleasure and selfawareness.Note the fact thatthe walk home “gotlonger”, suggestinghe spent more andmore time pickingblackberries andindulging in thesight, smells,textures and tastesof the fruit andexperimenting withthem. He learntabout himself andDeliberately planned activityStanza 1 (freeing up both hands).Lesson – each time he learnssomething new about theblackberries; eating them in theirvarious stages of development: thebitterness of the unripe red; therain-bloated looseness of the olderfruits.Simile: cobwebbed and dusty as aClaret cellarHeld a coiled black pearl necklace hedgerow caviar a suddensymphonyAnd rememberthat tragic ironyis the ruin of lifedreams – deathbeing aninevitabledestruction.realised andcontemplated.lifetimeofwaitingquietly.Words comenear to failing inthis poem.The fatherknows this andthe son / poetrealises it in thecourse of thepoem.The tone isconfessional butnot guilty;honest.Sheers is usingthe phrase toshow that helearnt lessonsfrom nature andhis relationshipwith asterArchives/hedgeschools.htmNarrative stanza1 is a compoundsentence, butthe remainingstanzas aremainly irregularsentencesreflecting,perhaps, lack ofself-knowledge.Stanza 1ThepreparationStanzas 3-5They show howhe wentthrough a seriesof sensory andsensualexperiments.Stanza 4Squeezing ahandful ofthem andexperiencingin the handwhat themouth feels.Thediscovery ofStanza 2The tasteStanza3HoardingthemRead italoud tohear thepoet’svoice: hisrichimagery,surprising diction,assonance andalliteration:Piling inthe palmCuppedandcoiled13

something sinful (but soenjoyable!) in blackberrying.It describes the sheer excess,self-indulgence andwastefulness of his actions.The boy discovers that thereis something dark in his soul.It is immensely pleasurablebut he senses somethingwrongful in this excess.his pursuit ofpleasure.Dark has asuggestion of thenegative, theimmoral orunacceptable.In his fist squeezing them andletting the skin on his handexperience the mouthfeel of juiceand the eyes of the berries.Simile: his hand as bloodied as abutcher’s or a farmer’s at lambing.This and otherwebsites onHedge Schoolswill give you aninteresting briefhistory of theuse of the termin 18 and 19thcentury Ireland.15Joseph JonesIronic that ittakes a simpleinnocentactivity while heis alone and in abeautiful spotto learn thatthere are forceswithin that areundisciplined,that show hispotential forexcess andselfish pursuits.The poem is a response to aquestion: Do you rememberJoseph Jones? The poetremembers him well as theultimate lad, muchpreoccupied with bodyimage, pulling power andmaking a name for himselfamong his mates and thegirls. He owned a fast Fordcar, which used to beCopyright poetryessay.co.ukIdentity built onthe pursuit ofimage.Failure to achievelong term skills.Joseph ’s dedication to body image:Fifty press-ups before a night outhair sheened with gelair dead with scentClaims to have been successfulwith the girls:Got his red wings over thebandstand railingsDespite his hardworkmaintaining hisimage, JosephJones has notachieved anylasting fame.The poetremembers hisas he was. Hadhe achievedNote theunusual verbsand adjectives: the busDiminishHoardCuppedBloodiedTracing theirvarietyUnripe ck redDark.his innerthoughts anddesires.Suddensymphonybloodiedas abutchers’.Scraps ofmemorypresented inlists:Unusualarrangementof lines foran unusualfellow.The listsandfragments serve toremindus of ashallowfellowwithshallowvalues.AppearanceSuccess with thegirlsDrinkingsessions14

popular with youths. He wasknown to have been in latenight fights. There was “atrial once”. Was this formembership of a footballclub? Or was it a court trialfor bad behaviour.Whatever. He didn’t achievemuch.His girlfriend is a Marilyn Munroeimage:Her skirt, an umbrella blown insideoutwhite tights shed to high heelsAmong his mates totally confidentand full of machismo at the bar:Stroking his chest with one handDrinking with the otheranythingworthwhile, hewould be wellknown.A trial once (anambiguousphrase).Entertaining, allthesame.Conversationaltone.16Late SpringSees celebrity as inevitable:The making of a small town mythXR2 suggests popular Ford ‘boyracer’ car. Did he crash it?Late night fights – fuelled by drinkA trial once – his one attempt ofmaking something of himself .Cardiff youth – possibly in a sportsclub.The poet recalls how he feltlike a man when he helpedhis grandfather castrate thelambs and dock their tails.He would stretch the O-ringsacross a castrating tool andwhile his grandfather wouldposition the lambs like acello. The grandfatherwould coax the testicles intothe lambs’ sack/scrotum andthen using the tool tie aband around the base of it.The scrotum, containing thetesticles, would fall off in aCopyright poetryessay.co.ukIdentity.Becoming a man.Man and nature.Learning the harshrealities of animalhusbandry.A hard orange O-rings.Made-to-purpose-tool heavy andsteel-hard in the sunGrandfather played (the lamb) likea cellowax them upLike a man milkingThe testicles two soaped beansinto a delicate purseSilent concentrationThe poet feelshe is becominga man whereasthe lamb isbeing deprivedof his malefunctions.Sentences areorganised in aninformal wayspeech-like.Enjambmentgives a feelingof a shared taskand of oneaction followedsystematicallyby another.S1 & 2 thepoet feelslike a manpreparingthe O-ringson the pliars.S3 a shift tothegrandfather’s ease as hepositions thelamb andprepares itAlliterationPicking plastic madeto purposeStretching steelhardPliars passed15

week. They would tie a bandaround the tail, too, and itwould fall off in a week. byfarms/Castrating.wmvwhile gesturing with his other for atool, a pliars in reverseforcastration.Stand stareThe poet is fascinatedwhich I’d pass to him then standand stareS4, 5 and 6the actualproceduredone withease andwithoutviolence.AssonanceLike milking17The EquationA week laterthe tails scattered like catkinsa windfall of our morning’s worka strange harvest of the seeds we’dsown.An equation is amathematical statement, insymbols, that two things areexactly the same onIn this poem a teacher tellsthe poet how he spends theafternoons teachinglogarithms, but in theafternoon when goes homehe changes into his overalls,feeds the hens and collect anegg later.Copyright poetryessay.co.ukA man in harmonywith nature. Thereis the suggestionthat both forms ofwork are equallyworthwhile andinteresting to him.A classroom image: waving awaythe blackboard’s hieroglyphicsSweet methane not usually apleasant smell sensationBefore scattering the grainHe fills his fist but som2 of thegrain falls out leaksAs the grain falls in a circularmovement it looks like a sail ofgrainA gentle the

pares her hooves and hammers on new shoes. Then they part and go their separate ways Almost a holy relationship: - Blessing. - The winds 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 .