Summary All 20 'Poems of the Decade' revision analysis notes

All Poems of the Decade revision notes for A-Level English Literature
(blue = quotes/AO1, red = language analysis/AO2)

‘A Minor Role’ - UA Fanthorpe

Main ideas:
Shows a concern about how we speak truthfully in life's most difficult moments
-​ The metaphor of the stage and narrators minor role within a play is used to explore ideas of social
pretence as in the face of serious illness the narrator carries on acting


Analysis of language:
-​ ‘Exits and entrances’ shows that in her minor role absences are more prominent than presence, the
orthodox phrasing is upturned as she is preoccupied with departure due to her illness
-​ The ‘Yes, sir. O no, sir’ is reminiscent of scripted stage directions and performative exchanges have
pantomimic quality
-​ ‘These midget moments wrong, the monstrous fabric shrinks to unwanted sniggers’ shows the tissue of
conventional exchanges is smothering, stifling and distorting, the alliteration comically lays bare the
insignificance of her efforts
-​ The weight and monotony contrasts former fluidity on stage ‘my heart’s in the unobtrusive’ as she
prefers to remain inconspicuous and her valued is self-denial
-​ She lists the inventory of actions rather than being the master of them all ‘driving to hospitals, parking
at hospitals’
-​ ‘Holding hands under veteran magazines’ shows that this is equated to battle or war in the stagnant
environment
-​ ‘Sustaining the background music of civility’ shows how she contributed to the fabric of polite
exchange and deliberately operates in the background
-​ ‘O, getting on, getting better my formula for well-meant intrusiveness’ shows her increasingly
expanding fissure between social life and isolation, she deliberately disconnects from her own
existence
-​ The sequencing of imperatives ‘answer the phone’ ‘be wary’ ‘contrive’ tack down’ ‘find’ ‘cance’ ‘tidy’
‘pretend’ ‘admit’ track the dwindling illusion as the speaker is both the audience and the speaker at the
same time as she watches and gives herself directions
-​ ‘Learn to conjugate all the genres of misery’ sees the conjugation make visual different tones and
shades of her dejection
-​ The ‘ceremonial delays’ take on ritual observances and guide her to death through ceremony
-​ The dramatic tonal shift ‘it would have been better to die. No it wouldn’t!’ shows a rebuff to sliding
submissively into death
-​ The final monostich ‘I am here to make you believe in life’ is structurally isolated as no longer the
minor role but the main with a carpe diem note and the timelessness suits the message, the poem ends
on metaphysical affirmation

Structure, form and technique:
-​ Silence becomes more prominent in the poem as it progresses to see semicolons shift to full stops as she
becomes more and more isolated, could also lead to her final moment breaking the silence in a
metaphysical affirmation

, -​ The poem is broken into 6 unequal stanzas with irregular line length and stanza shape, there is no
rhyme scheme and lines are often enjambed to increase the flow
-​ The truncated lines, sometimes enjambed and sometimes broken by caesuras bring a chaotic rhythm to
the poem as if Fanthrop is freely speaking with the unmelodic poem a reflection of her thought process
-​ The poem suggests a wider refusal of society to look death in the eye as Fanthrope established a dual
perspective of herself as the actor and the audience watching as the action unfolds


‘An Easy Passage’ - Julia Copus

Main ideas:
The poem explores the shift from youth to adulthood symbolised in the daring climb of a young girl under the
watch of her friend
-​ It explores the future of the two girls who find themselves on the cusp of adulthood


Analysis of language:
-​ The narrative begins in the middle of the action and the girl is described as vulnerable ‘crouched in her
bikini on the porch roof of her family’s house, trembling’, this shows her current fear as she undertakes
a risky act
-​ ‘She knows that the one thing she must not do it think’ as she attempts to block out fears associated
with being on the roof and the ‘narrow windowsill, the sharp drop of the stairwell’ with the ‘s’ and ‘w’
sounds creating a sharp sonic texture to mimic the risk of the fall and create thrill and terror
-​ The enjambment creates energy and fluidity where the use of commas allow her to think and adds
edge to the situation
-​ ‘The friend with whom she is half in love’ is mentioned very fast, perhaps speaking to the complexity
of the love affair or the fleeting nature of love in youth, her present position mimes the danger of
falling in love in youth, the ‘blond gravel’ perhaps is part of her
-​ Repetition of ‘keep her mind’ attempts to ground the girl and keep her mind on the act rather than the
fear, the enjambment here creates urgency as she is in the perilous position
-​ The ‘open window and the flimsy, hole-punched, aluminium lever’ maintain her perilous state and the
enjambment creates the energy she needs to reach over the lines when ‘she will reach with the length of
her whole body’
-​ ‘Whole body’ and the ‘warm flank of the house’ create a sense of bodily attraction and connect the girls
to a sexuality that will certainly capture them in adulthood
-​ Heat is important in this scene with the ‘warm flank’ ‘graines of the asphalt hot beneath her toes and
fingertips’ seeing her radiate sexual heat but also the overbearing power of the sun on her, references to
sand also see the poem focus on its key theme of the passage of time with reference to the ‘petrified
beach;
-​ ‘Tiny breasts rest lightly on her thighs’ indicate both her sexual potential but also sees her on the
border of a transition to adulthood, this moment is immediately followed by a question that asks ‘what
can she known of the way the world admits us less and less the more we grow’ triggering a
questioning into how the world becomes harder to contend with the more one ages
-​ The girls are still illuminated with childhood light as they have not yet been confronted with the world
‘seemed lit as if from from within’ ‘their hair and gold stud earrings in the first ones ears’ sees flashes
of light indicate their innocence and how for now the world works for them ‘the house exists only for
them’

, -​ The semicolon divides the poem as it delves into the adult world ‘long, grey eve of the street’ which
juxtaposes previous flashed of childhood light and innocence where instead the world watches, judges
and unpleasantly looms with enforced monotony
-​ ‘The mother who does not trust her daughter with a key’ sees the key as a sense of liberation to
adulthood, yet the mother withholds it from her to keep her innocence
-​ Use of ‘b’ and ‘d’ sounds shows the ‘workers about their business in the drab electroplating factory’
appear dull and monotonous and use of commas destroy anticipation and reaching in childhood
-​ ‘Far too, most far, from the flush-faced secretary’ seeing ‘f’ sounds repeated to describe dull and
frustrating monotony of adulthood, perhaps this speaks of the menopause and the loss of sexuality and
beauty that will come for the girls
-​ The secretary ‘plans to take a trip of a lifetime’ to indicate how adulthood becomes static in a state of
planning, but never acting seeing her trapped with the ‘omens of the astrology column’ wishing for
something bigger than her current caged in life
-​ She sees ‘a girl - thirteen if she’s a day - standing in next to nothing in the driveway opposite’, the
secretary may feel envy and admiration for the girl as she is able to tell a large amount of detail from
her position, perhaps underscoring the shared experience of womanhood in society as they grow
-​ ‘One shielding her eyes’ is symbolic as it represents the struggle she will go through with her sight
blocked she cannot see what is going on, symbolic of how she will not see adulthood coming and may
also lose her sight again when she is old
-​ The ‘silver anklet and the five neat shimmering-oyster-painted toenails’ show how conscious the girl is of
how she presents herself and the light reflecting ‘catch[ing] the sunlight’ shows their luminescence in
youth, silver is also often connected with precious things and femininity showing her precious
youthful femininity gleaming with beauty and hope
-​ They are like a ‘flash of armaments’ in a final defence against adulthood but finally ‘drop[s] gracefully
into the shade of the house’ seeing her graceful descent somewhat acceptant of adulthood but still end
up in a darker place where something will be lost, the light of youth is dimed

Structure, form and technique:
-​ The poem is formed as one continuous block of text with lines lacking in pattern or rhyme, it is written
in free verse and is almost a stream of consciousness style making it seem as through the two build up
to something whilst navigating the emotional and physical barriers of life
-​ There are moments of rhyme such as ‘know’ and ‘grow’ creating unity and a lyrical nature, these are
often internationally placed
-​ The tone of the poem is withdrawn but also conversational as the reader’s perception of tone and
phrases merge to become more lyrical and abstract, many moments are vivid and meaningful but also
are retold so creates distance between the speaker and main character
-​ The use of enjambment in the poem sees cliff hangers formed and gives greater impact to the most
important lines
-​ The unstoppable enjambment also shows that the march towards adulthood cannot be stopped even as
the poet attempts to use poetry to stop this and the symbolism of light allows the children to remain in
hope and innocence, the poem ultimately must come to its end in the ‘shade of the house’ and darkness
in adulthood


‘Chainsaw versus the Pampas Grass’ - Simon Armitage

Main ideas: