Zoe Pearson
Moving through the silent crowd by Stephen Spender
Poet: British poet, novelist+essayist- concentrated on themes of social injustice +class struggle
1.Moving through the silent crowd Creates immediate dramatic tension by placing speaker+readers
in middle of action
Tension heightened as crowd described as silent
Oxymoron: crowds usually loud, bustling+noisy, ominous
Strange aerie mood- not sure what happen
2.Who stand behind dull cigarettes standing : no movement, loitering/hang around
Subdued, like cigarettes they’re smoking- lack energy/agency
Behind cigarettes: -men seem even less significant to society,
almost positioning cigarettes as more nb, as focal pt, not name
Dull: objects lit+burn- emphasise mood of crowd as dull,
listless+muteded
transferred epithet- takes adjective transfers from thing
actually describing, supposed to be attributed to men
3.Those men who idle in the road, Confirms crowd of men[absence w+children-not celebration]
Idle: initially appears criticizing for lazy+blocking passage of
vehicles+pedestrians, connotation of laziness
[cars idling:move at any moment, menacing-potential to stir
Sad- they are stuck, pointing to their lack of purpose, got no job
to go to. standstill
4.I have the sense of falling light. Evocative image highlight gloomy+ominous mood
Falling light- literally , getting dark, [disullionenment, situation
Figurative- hopelessness, light falling- situation of men incrs in
hopelessness, [allude state of affirs]
5.They lounge at corners of the street Image appears to confirm men are unemployed bcs suggests
they are standing on street for extending periods of time.
‘lounge’ :simplest standing in relaxed/lazy manner.
connected to idle, cld be mistaken for believing men are
lazy[Maybe society’s perception]
Suggests unemployed for great deal of time, long enough to
bcm relaxed+accustomed to standing around on streets
Lounge: how Slumping over- completely defeated, [no job]
6.And greet friends with a shrug of shoulder ‘shrug of shoulder:
-Less menacing, friendly, introduces sense of camaraderie,all in
same position, all lost jobs+been stripped of purpose
- apathy, men little or nothing to say, resigned to situation
-> even though tog, isolated in suffering, no capacity to
empathise, sense of detachment/isolation
Moving through the silent crowd by Stephen Spender
Poet: British poet, novelist+essayist- concentrated on themes of social injustice +class struggle
1.Moving through the silent crowd Creates immediate dramatic tension by placing speaker+readers
in middle of action
Tension heightened as crowd described as silent
Oxymoron: crowds usually loud, bustling+noisy, ominous
Strange aerie mood- not sure what happen
2.Who stand behind dull cigarettes standing : no movement, loitering/hang around
Subdued, like cigarettes they’re smoking- lack energy/agency
Behind cigarettes: -men seem even less significant to society,
almost positioning cigarettes as more nb, as focal pt, not name
Dull: objects lit+burn- emphasise mood of crowd as dull,
listless+muteded
transferred epithet- takes adjective transfers from thing
actually describing, supposed to be attributed to men
3.Those men who idle in the road, Confirms crowd of men[absence w+children-not celebration]
Idle: initially appears criticizing for lazy+blocking passage of
vehicles+pedestrians, connotation of laziness
[cars idling:move at any moment, menacing-potential to stir
Sad- they are stuck, pointing to their lack of purpose, got no job
to go to. standstill
4.I have the sense of falling light. Evocative image highlight gloomy+ominous mood
Falling light- literally , getting dark, [disullionenment, situation
Figurative- hopelessness, light falling- situation of men incrs in
hopelessness, [allude state of affirs]
5.They lounge at corners of the street Image appears to confirm men are unemployed bcs suggests
they are standing on street for extending periods of time.
‘lounge’ :simplest standing in relaxed/lazy manner.
connected to idle, cld be mistaken for believing men are
lazy[Maybe society’s perception]
Suggests unemployed for great deal of time, long enough to
bcm relaxed+accustomed to standing around on streets
Lounge: how Slumping over- completely defeated, [no job]
6.And greet friends with a shrug of shoulder ‘shrug of shoulder:
-Less menacing, friendly, introduces sense of camaraderie,all in
same position, all lost jobs+been stripped of purpose
- apathy, men little or nothing to say, resigned to situation
-> even though tog, isolated in suffering, no capacity to
empathise, sense of detachment/isolation
