Tuesday 21 May 2013

Annotating the unseen poem - and example answer

These are the words and phrases I highlighted when I first read the poem:

Stealing

The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.              Use of rhetorical question to involve reader
Midnight. He looked magnificent; a tall, white mute          Use of 'Midnight' sets time and makes the action seem mysterious
beneath the winter moon. I wanted him, a mate            Almost personifies the moon, like it is looking down on him
with a mind as cold as the slice of ice                     Makes the poet sound unfeeling and a bi psychopathic
within my own brain. I started with the head.          Makes him sound like he has split personality/ brutal

Better off dead than giving in, not taking           Makes him sound criminally insane, stubborn
what you want. He weighed a ton; his torso,     Snowman is personaified to make it sound more real and brutal
frozen stiff, hugged to my chest, a fierce chill       Emotive language 'hugged' makes us wonder if he has been neglected
piercing my gut. Part of the thrill was knowing
that children would cry in the morning. Life's tough.   Image makes us dislike him - use of cliche shows him to be uncaring

Sometimes I steal things I don't need. I joy-ride cars    Enjambment makes the line flow like he can't stop confessing
to nowhere, break into houses just to have a look.
I'm a mucky ghost, leave a mess, maybe pinch a camera.     Metaphor makes him seem invisible - frightening but makes us pity him

I watch my gloved hand twisting the doorknob.    strange use of tense/person makes him sound like he can't control his actions

A stranger's bedroom. Mirrors. I sigh like this - Aah.  Structure of sentences makes him seem panicked.
Use of audial imagery/onomatopoeia helps us imagine his reaction but makes him seem sarcastic.

It took some time. Reassembled in the yard,
he didn't look the same. I took a run
and booted him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out     Violent lexical field to add tension
in rags. It seems daft now. Then I was standing       Insignificant word 'daft casuses juxtaposition with violent imagery
alone among lumps of snow, sick of the world.    Use of juxtasposition allows 'alone' to appear in a more important place.

Boredom. Mostly I'm so bored I could eat myself.          Isolated word seems to sum up the point of the poem.
One time, I stole a guitar and thought I might
learn to play. I nicked a bust of Shakespeare once,      Juxtaposition of class/ crime causes effect.
flogged it, but the snowman was the strangest.              'nicked'/'flogged' sound working class.
You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?           Another rhetorical question to finish


Language/Imagery:

Rhetorical questions
Metaphors
Unusual Lexical Field
Imagery
Onomatopoeia
Emotive Langauge
Working class vocab
Cliche

Structure:

Enjambment
Isolation of important words
Shortened sentences to add emphasis to certain themes
No rhyme
Equal length stanzas


Done - in 5 minutes!

No comments:

Post a Comment