The Equation -
- Definite article “the” emphasises its significance
- “Equation” connotes resolve & answers
^ balance & togetherness
- Teacher = farmer
- Element of contrast - logic vs nature
- Science/mathematics vs rural life
- Poem follows chronological structure
- Depiction of speaker (Sheers’) grandfather
^ teacher & a hobby farmer
- Idealises his grandfather
- Form: three quatrains & single line stanza
- Quatrains often used in narrative poems - element of narrative
- Poem follows ‘Late Spring’ which reflects a sense of horror and cruelty
- ‘The Equation’ has a peaceful and serene tone
Stanza 1 -
- Opens with phrase, “he told me how” - reflects their close relationship, sense of learning
- “Soft afternoons” - gentle imagery
- “Logarithms” - mathematics
- “The blackboard’s hieroglyphs” - lack of understanding of mathematics, though sense of
respect and awe for his grandfather’s skill and knowledge
- “He’d return” - habitual past tense - routine
- “Home to the sweet methane of the chicken sheds” - oxymoron
- ^ portrays love of farming, “home” connotes comfort
- Teaching explored through sense of sight
- Farming explored through olfactory sense - smell - related most closely to emotion
Stanza 2 -
- “He’d change” - duality of his everyday routine
- Definite article “the” emphasises its significance
- “Equation” connotes resolve & answers
^ balance & togetherness
- Teacher = farmer
- Element of contrast - logic vs nature
- Science/mathematics vs rural life
- Poem follows chronological structure
- Depiction of speaker (Sheers’) grandfather
^ teacher & a hobby farmer
- Idealises his grandfather
- Form: three quatrains & single line stanza
- Quatrains often used in narrative poems - element of narrative
- Poem follows ‘Late Spring’ which reflects a sense of horror and cruelty
- ‘The Equation’ has a peaceful and serene tone
Stanza 1 -
- Opens with phrase, “he told me how” - reflects their close relationship, sense of learning
- “Soft afternoons” - gentle imagery
- “Logarithms” - mathematics
- “The blackboard’s hieroglyphs” - lack of understanding of mathematics, though sense of
respect and awe for his grandfather’s skill and knowledge
- “He’d return” - habitual past tense - routine
- “Home to the sweet methane of the chicken sheds” - oxymoron
- ^ portrays love of farming, “home” connotes comfort
- Teaching explored through sense of sight
- Farming explored through olfactory sense - smell - related most closely to emotion
Stanza 2 -
- “He’d change” - duality of his everyday routine
