Topic:
Effects by Alan Jenkins
Key Points/Arguments
Themes Literary/Dramatic Devices Techniques of whole poem
Battle scars of family life ‘I held her hand’ – alliteration shows first action Lack of rhyme scheme shows unstable
Mother who worked hard and ‘knives that lay in wait’ – foreshadows trauma relationship
suffered to keep life enjoyable for ‘scarred…raw…knuckles reddened, rough’ – lexical field of Entire poem is asyndetic listing
hr children hard work, that’s how she expressed love
‘long-forgotten things’ became ‘saucepan, frying pan, cup and plate’ – semantic field of Two sentences, an outpouring of the
important after her husbands cooking, stereotypical mother role sons emotions, memories recalled
death ‘taken off her rings, / the rings’ – anadiplosis through a range of complex sentences
Mother mistrustful of his ‘(scent-sprays, tortoise-shell combs, a snap or two’ –
generation, alienation in ‘she’d asyndetic listing miscellaneous and cluttered Some couplets and rhymes scattered
heard’, old’fashioned food’, and ‘know she was his wife’ – pronouns show bitter tone and across the poem, like the effects he has
‘young people’ distance been forced to collect
Later her life becomes a chore, ‘only now he is dead.’ – caesura, realises problem when Distance between closeness made
beginning to drink after her father is dead, volta apparent through rhyme scheme
husband’s death, ‘her way to be ‘stared unseeing…upright, blinked and poured’ – more reflecting tensions due its irregularity
with him again’ passive verbs due to grief
May be a psychiatric ward as ‘when he was alive, she wouldn’t touch’ distance Progress by the end, the use of rhyme
effects can refer to both her ‘A nurse bring a little bah of her effects to me.’ – 2nd full stop increases with a triple rhyme at the
physical belongings and the in the last line of the poem, represents her death endn indicating the speakers final
impact of her illness o her son. acceptance of his mother’s death
Effects by Alan Jenkins
Key Points/Arguments
Themes Literary/Dramatic Devices Techniques of whole poem
Battle scars of family life ‘I held her hand’ – alliteration shows first action Lack of rhyme scheme shows unstable
Mother who worked hard and ‘knives that lay in wait’ – foreshadows trauma relationship
suffered to keep life enjoyable for ‘scarred…raw…knuckles reddened, rough’ – lexical field of Entire poem is asyndetic listing
hr children hard work, that’s how she expressed love
‘long-forgotten things’ became ‘saucepan, frying pan, cup and plate’ – semantic field of Two sentences, an outpouring of the
important after her husbands cooking, stereotypical mother role sons emotions, memories recalled
death ‘taken off her rings, / the rings’ – anadiplosis through a range of complex sentences
Mother mistrustful of his ‘(scent-sprays, tortoise-shell combs, a snap or two’ –
generation, alienation in ‘she’d asyndetic listing miscellaneous and cluttered Some couplets and rhymes scattered
heard’, old’fashioned food’, and ‘know she was his wife’ – pronouns show bitter tone and across the poem, like the effects he has
‘young people’ distance been forced to collect
Later her life becomes a chore, ‘only now he is dead.’ – caesura, realises problem when Distance between closeness made
beginning to drink after her father is dead, volta apparent through rhyme scheme
husband’s death, ‘her way to be ‘stared unseeing…upright, blinked and poured’ – more reflecting tensions due its irregularity
with him again’ passive verbs due to grief
May be a psychiatric ward as ‘when he was alive, she wouldn’t touch’ distance Progress by the end, the use of rhyme
effects can refer to both her ‘A nurse bring a little bah of her effects to me.’ – 2nd full stop increases with a triple rhyme at the
physical belongings and the in the last line of the poem, represents her death endn indicating the speakers final
impact of her illness o her son. acceptance of his mother’s death
