Eat Me (Patience Agbabi)
Ao1: Poet’s Message
The exploration of feminine power dynamics (codependency) within unhealthy relationships. She
presents the struggle of escaping unhealthy relationships.
Interpretation 1: She is powerful over him -> He needs her as his safe spot
Interpretation 2: He is powerful over her-> controls his eating habits, makes her destructive and
self loathing, objectifies her- she becomes an object to kill him.
Ao2: Domestic female presentation of safehold:
“His desert island after shipwreck” (anaphora)
“Bigger the better… girls I can burrow inside”
“His pleasure, to watch me swell like forbidden fruit.” (alliteration)
Presentation of female power:
“I allowed him to stroke my globe of a cheek”
“Broad belly wobble, hips judder like a juggernaut” (plosives)
“My cook” (personal pronoun)
“Forbidden fruit” (fricatives)
“cake/weight” (consonance, throughout)
“He drowned in my flesh. (...) I drowned his dying sentence out”
Presentation of subservience and control:
“Did what I was told. Didn’t even taste it.”
“Open wide” (imperative)
“Too fat to leave” (anaphora)
Tercets
Ao4: Themes to connect:
Power & codependency, Female identity, Gender, Obsession, Rejection
Chainsaw versus the Pampas Grass (Simon Armitage)
Ao1: Poet’s Message: David and Goliath take on a chainsaw destroying Pampas grass.
Interpretation 1: GENDER, About the power dynamics masculinity VS femininity.
Interpretation 2: SOCIAL INJUSTICE, How upper class inevitably win untouched.
Interpretation 3: Industrial VS archaism- the unchangeable power of nature and archaism.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“Gunned the trigger”(lexical cluster violence) “bloody desire”(plosives) “pockets of dark, secret
warmth” (triple) , “cut and raked, cut and raked”(repetition, wordplay) “seethed”
(personification), “chainsaw” (phallic imagery)
“Stalk that swooned”(sibilance), “ludicrous feathers”(lexical cluster femininity), “plant-juice”
(anatomical) “tangle with cloth, or jewellery or hair” (syndetic listing)
Interpretation 2/3:
“Weightless wreckage of wasps and flies” “beats / second drumming in its heart” “drive-wheel
gargle in its throat”(onomatopoeic language, guttural) “man-made dreams”, “this was a game”
“Taking the warmth and light”, “twelve-foot spears”,( archaic language vs gun) “wearing a new
crown”, “midday moon/shading itself”(mirrors oxymoronic sun in stanza 3) “Corn in Egypt”
(royalty)
STRUCTURE: looks like pampas grass/ chainsaw tilt it.
Ao4: Themes to connect:
Gender, Power, social injustice, Violence, Industrialism, Inevitably.
, Material (Ros Barber)
Ao1: Poets message: Self acceptance and the ever changing dynamic of community and family.
Interpretation 1: Nostalgia and preference for the life before, sentimentality of the past.
Interpretation 2: The disposable, intangible nature of the present- self loathing.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“One,always, up her sleeve.” (caesura), “Hanky Queen (...) not paper tissues// your material do
with what you will” (cyclicality) “fell in love and mated, raising little squares.”(humorous tone)
“greengrocer George”(alliteration) “step-together, step-together, step-together, point!” (lyrical,
repetition)
Interpretation 2:
“Brood to cling on”(enjambment) “bought biscuits I would bake if I’d commit to being
home”(plosives) “spittled and scrubbed against my face (...) neglected looking kids” (sibilance)“I
miss material handkerchiefs (...) hidden history” (alliteration)
BOTH:
“purified/stores/died” XAXA rhyme- becomes more consistent towards the end as she becomes
more in touch to her material
Ao4: Themes:
Family, Nostalgia, Motherhood and nurture, the past, memories.
History (John Burnside)
Ao1: Poet’s Message
The existence of history is a liminal and transient place, personal experience and social relevance
determines which pieces of history are more memorable.
Interpretation 1: Society and culture dictates history
Interpretation 2: Personal experience dictates history, as it defines our own mortality and
importance.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“September 2001” “Today/Today”(Anaphora) “gasoline smell/watch”(sensory language) “stopping
to watch as the war planes cambered and turned” ( tangible permanent moment)“finding
evidence of life in all this” “sand spinning off in ribbons along the beach” (slows the pace)
Interpretation 2:
“Smudges of weed and flesh on tideworn stone.”( only sentence, connects individual and bigger
ideas) “something lost between the world we own and what we dream about behind the names”
(connection of concrete with abstraction) “tethers us to gravity and light” “I am dizzy with the
fear of losing everything” “all living creatures, forests estuaries: (...) we scarcely register (...)
scarcely apprehend the moment as it happens: shifts of light and weather”(reception, caesura)
“quiet local forms of history”, “gold/goldfish” (beauty in personal)
Ao4: Themes to connect:
Social and culture, Transience, Identity, Morality, Abstract VS concrete.
, An Easy Passage (Julia Copus)
Ao1: Poets Message: The liminal space in which the freedom and adventure of youth, the transition
from youth to adulthood.
Interpretation 1: The excitement and freedom of youth, the girls.
Interpretation 2: Other women, controlling femininity.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“Crouched in her bikini” (vulnerability and confidence)“she will reach with the length of her whole
body” (movement, dynamic) “both girls seem lit as in from within, their hair and the gold stud
earrings”( glowing youth) “only for them”(self importance) “tiny breasts” “one hand flat against
her stomach” “silver anklet and the five neat shimmering-oyster- pained toenails” “flash of
armaments” (weapons against conforming reality)
Interpretation 2:
“What can she know of the way the world admits us less and less the more we grow?” (RQ) “the
mother who does not trust her daughter with a key”, “flushed-face secretary”(fricatives), “she's
halfway up there”(transitional period)
Ao4: Youth, freedom, transition, self identity, femininity
The Deliverer (Tishani Doshi)
Ao1: Poet’s Message
Spreading the awareness of feminine cruelty, ideas of culture and self identity. Presents the
incompleteness of dual identity.
Interpretation 1: Abuse of female
Interpretation 2: Cultural and self identity
Ao2: Interpretation 1: “crippled or dark or girls”(syndetic listing) “covered in garbage, stuffed in bags,
Abandoned at their doorstep.”(asyndetic listing) “dug up by a dog”(plosives), “something to
chew”, “squeeze out life, (...) Watch body slither out from body”(sibilance) “Trudge home to lie
down for their men again” “penis no penis”(repetition) “desolate hut”
Interpretation 2: “American so they know about ceremony And tradition, about doing things right.
”(anaphora) “they are crying” “fetish for plucking hair off hands” “passed from women to
women”(repetition) “twilight corners”
Ao4: Femininity, abuse, identity, culture
To my Nine Year Old Self (Helen Dunmore)
Ao1: Poet’s message: Reminisces the freedom of childhood, depicts confidence. Area 1: The freedom
and happiness of childhood. Area 2: The distance to childhood self.
Ao2: Area 1: “rather run than walk”(repetition), “rather climb than run rather leap from a height than
anything.” “we’d jump straight out of the ground floor window- into the summer
morning”(summer imagery, dynamic verbs)“a baby vole, or a sherbet lemons- and besides, that
summer of ambition(...)” “time to hide down scared lanes”( transferred epithet- breaks the
complete purity of childhood) “ecstasy of concentration slowly peeling a scab from your knee to
taste on your tongue.” (enjambment)
Area 2: “spoiled this body we once shared”(sibilance), “nothing in common”, “careful of a bad
back or a bruised foot”(plosives), “I have fears enough for us both-” (caesura) “You I” “we” “I and
you” (pronouns, definite connection but definite loss, connection = nostalgia)
Ao4: Nostalgia, childhood, fear, ageing, Summer
Ao1: Poet’s Message
The exploration of feminine power dynamics (codependency) within unhealthy relationships. She
presents the struggle of escaping unhealthy relationships.
Interpretation 1: She is powerful over him -> He needs her as his safe spot
Interpretation 2: He is powerful over her-> controls his eating habits, makes her destructive and
self loathing, objectifies her- she becomes an object to kill him.
Ao2: Domestic female presentation of safehold:
“His desert island after shipwreck” (anaphora)
“Bigger the better… girls I can burrow inside”
“His pleasure, to watch me swell like forbidden fruit.” (alliteration)
Presentation of female power:
“I allowed him to stroke my globe of a cheek”
“Broad belly wobble, hips judder like a juggernaut” (plosives)
“My cook” (personal pronoun)
“Forbidden fruit” (fricatives)
“cake/weight” (consonance, throughout)
“He drowned in my flesh. (...) I drowned his dying sentence out”
Presentation of subservience and control:
“Did what I was told. Didn’t even taste it.”
“Open wide” (imperative)
“Too fat to leave” (anaphora)
Tercets
Ao4: Themes to connect:
Power & codependency, Female identity, Gender, Obsession, Rejection
Chainsaw versus the Pampas Grass (Simon Armitage)
Ao1: Poet’s Message: David and Goliath take on a chainsaw destroying Pampas grass.
Interpretation 1: GENDER, About the power dynamics masculinity VS femininity.
Interpretation 2: SOCIAL INJUSTICE, How upper class inevitably win untouched.
Interpretation 3: Industrial VS archaism- the unchangeable power of nature and archaism.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“Gunned the trigger”(lexical cluster violence) “bloody desire”(plosives) “pockets of dark, secret
warmth” (triple) , “cut and raked, cut and raked”(repetition, wordplay) “seethed”
(personification), “chainsaw” (phallic imagery)
“Stalk that swooned”(sibilance), “ludicrous feathers”(lexical cluster femininity), “plant-juice”
(anatomical) “tangle with cloth, or jewellery or hair” (syndetic listing)
Interpretation 2/3:
“Weightless wreckage of wasps and flies” “beats / second drumming in its heart” “drive-wheel
gargle in its throat”(onomatopoeic language, guttural) “man-made dreams”, “this was a game”
“Taking the warmth and light”, “twelve-foot spears”,( archaic language vs gun) “wearing a new
crown”, “midday moon/shading itself”(mirrors oxymoronic sun in stanza 3) “Corn in Egypt”
(royalty)
STRUCTURE: looks like pampas grass/ chainsaw tilt it.
Ao4: Themes to connect:
Gender, Power, social injustice, Violence, Industrialism, Inevitably.
, Material (Ros Barber)
Ao1: Poets message: Self acceptance and the ever changing dynamic of community and family.
Interpretation 1: Nostalgia and preference for the life before, sentimentality of the past.
Interpretation 2: The disposable, intangible nature of the present- self loathing.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“One,always, up her sleeve.” (caesura), “Hanky Queen (...) not paper tissues// your material do
with what you will” (cyclicality) “fell in love and mated, raising little squares.”(humorous tone)
“greengrocer George”(alliteration) “step-together, step-together, step-together, point!” (lyrical,
repetition)
Interpretation 2:
“Brood to cling on”(enjambment) “bought biscuits I would bake if I’d commit to being
home”(plosives) “spittled and scrubbed against my face (...) neglected looking kids” (sibilance)“I
miss material handkerchiefs (...) hidden history” (alliteration)
BOTH:
“purified/stores/died” XAXA rhyme- becomes more consistent towards the end as she becomes
more in touch to her material
Ao4: Themes:
Family, Nostalgia, Motherhood and nurture, the past, memories.
History (John Burnside)
Ao1: Poet’s Message
The existence of history is a liminal and transient place, personal experience and social relevance
determines which pieces of history are more memorable.
Interpretation 1: Society and culture dictates history
Interpretation 2: Personal experience dictates history, as it defines our own mortality and
importance.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“September 2001” “Today/Today”(Anaphora) “gasoline smell/watch”(sensory language) “stopping
to watch as the war planes cambered and turned” ( tangible permanent moment)“finding
evidence of life in all this” “sand spinning off in ribbons along the beach” (slows the pace)
Interpretation 2:
“Smudges of weed and flesh on tideworn stone.”( only sentence, connects individual and bigger
ideas) “something lost between the world we own and what we dream about behind the names”
(connection of concrete with abstraction) “tethers us to gravity and light” “I am dizzy with the
fear of losing everything” “all living creatures, forests estuaries: (...) we scarcely register (...)
scarcely apprehend the moment as it happens: shifts of light and weather”(reception, caesura)
“quiet local forms of history”, “gold/goldfish” (beauty in personal)
Ao4: Themes to connect:
Social and culture, Transience, Identity, Morality, Abstract VS concrete.
, An Easy Passage (Julia Copus)
Ao1: Poets Message: The liminal space in which the freedom and adventure of youth, the transition
from youth to adulthood.
Interpretation 1: The excitement and freedom of youth, the girls.
Interpretation 2: Other women, controlling femininity.
Ao2: Interpretation 1:
“Crouched in her bikini” (vulnerability and confidence)“she will reach with the length of her whole
body” (movement, dynamic) “both girls seem lit as in from within, their hair and the gold stud
earrings”( glowing youth) “only for them”(self importance) “tiny breasts” “one hand flat against
her stomach” “silver anklet and the five neat shimmering-oyster- pained toenails” “flash of
armaments” (weapons against conforming reality)
Interpretation 2:
“What can she know of the way the world admits us less and less the more we grow?” (RQ) “the
mother who does not trust her daughter with a key”, “flushed-face secretary”(fricatives), “she's
halfway up there”(transitional period)
Ao4: Youth, freedom, transition, self identity, femininity
The Deliverer (Tishani Doshi)
Ao1: Poet’s Message
Spreading the awareness of feminine cruelty, ideas of culture and self identity. Presents the
incompleteness of dual identity.
Interpretation 1: Abuse of female
Interpretation 2: Cultural and self identity
Ao2: Interpretation 1: “crippled or dark or girls”(syndetic listing) “covered in garbage, stuffed in bags,
Abandoned at their doorstep.”(asyndetic listing) “dug up by a dog”(plosives), “something to
chew”, “squeeze out life, (...) Watch body slither out from body”(sibilance) “Trudge home to lie
down for their men again” “penis no penis”(repetition) “desolate hut”
Interpretation 2: “American so they know about ceremony And tradition, about doing things right.
”(anaphora) “they are crying” “fetish for plucking hair off hands” “passed from women to
women”(repetition) “twilight corners”
Ao4: Femininity, abuse, identity, culture
To my Nine Year Old Self (Helen Dunmore)
Ao1: Poet’s message: Reminisces the freedom of childhood, depicts confidence. Area 1: The freedom
and happiness of childhood. Area 2: The distance to childhood self.
Ao2: Area 1: “rather run than walk”(repetition), “rather climb than run rather leap from a height than
anything.” “we’d jump straight out of the ground floor window- into the summer
morning”(summer imagery, dynamic verbs)“a baby vole, or a sherbet lemons- and besides, that
summer of ambition(...)” “time to hide down scared lanes”( transferred epithet- breaks the
complete purity of childhood) “ecstasy of concentration slowly peeling a scab from your knee to
taste on your tongue.” (enjambment)
Area 2: “spoiled this body we once shared”(sibilance), “nothing in common”, “careful of a bad
back or a bruised foot”(plosives), “I have fears enough for us both-” (caesura) “You I” “we” “I and
you” (pronouns, definite connection but definite loss, connection = nostalgia)
Ao4: Nostalgia, childhood, fear, ageing, Summer
