‘The gun’
The poem explores the concept of power through the use of destructive hunting imagery, and it is
the speaker’s recollection of the time when her husband brought home a gun, which began to
change the atmosphere of the whole house.
The key elements of form and structure:
1. Key moments of caesura in the poem, bringing the reader to reflect on certain ideas- for
example ‘stretched out like something dead itself: the grainy…’ ‘your hands reek of gun oil
and entrails.’ The caesuras unnaturally jar the poems flow and perhaps this mirrors the
unnatural impact guns have and the nervousness it brings to the speaker.
2. The poem contains 2 single lines, which act as topic sentences for the rest of the poem-
‘Bringing a gun into a house changes it’ and ‘A gun brings a house alive’. By having the
speaker’s nonchalant statements on their own, the poet is able to highlight the significant
effect that guns have- these ideas are made more poignant by not having them embedded
within a stanza.
3. The poem is in free verse- the structure almost has freedom in the same way the gun has a
lack of boundaries to the damage it can create. This structure could also reflect how things
are quickly shifting and the structural looseness means the lines in the poem are hard to
predict – they are not following a predetermined pattern which the ear and the eye can
anticipate.
Key methods used by the writer to convey their ideas:
The speaker uses a change in tone to convey how the level of violence has escalated unnervingly
fast, and the gun has power over the man, dominating him and almost tempting him to take more
risks.
The tone in stanza three begins more conversational and casual sounding- ‘At first it’s just
practice’. But this stanza moves very swiftly and suddenly the man changes from harmlessly
shooting inanimate objects to- ‘then a rabbit shot clean through the head.’ By highlighting
this rapid change in her husband through this violent imagery, it shows the hypnotic nature
of the gun as it gains control.
The rapid change in tone that appears in the third stanza highlights the addictive elements of
this weapon, and just how quickly it has hold over the speaker and her partner.
At beginning, speaker afraid of the ‘shadow’ the gun has cast, but by the end finds
excitement in the change it has brought about in her husband.
Anaphora in the opening line: ‘bringing a gun into a house changes it.’ Towards the end
however: ‘A gun brings a house alive’. This is a very unnerving thing to say after the
previous stanza filled with dead animals and merciless killing.
Ominous dark imagery to suggest the potential danger and power of the gun:
‘Stretched out like something dead’- Although it is inanimate, and even in this simile
appears dead, there is something lifelike about the object. It has an inherent sense of danger
around it, just like a wild animal would. These lines cast the gun in a negative light, making it
seem as though one should be afraid of its presence.
The poem explores the concept of power through the use of destructive hunting imagery, and it is
the speaker’s recollection of the time when her husband brought home a gun, which began to
change the atmosphere of the whole house.
The key elements of form and structure:
1. Key moments of caesura in the poem, bringing the reader to reflect on certain ideas- for
example ‘stretched out like something dead itself: the grainy…’ ‘your hands reek of gun oil
and entrails.’ The caesuras unnaturally jar the poems flow and perhaps this mirrors the
unnatural impact guns have and the nervousness it brings to the speaker.
2. The poem contains 2 single lines, which act as topic sentences for the rest of the poem-
‘Bringing a gun into a house changes it’ and ‘A gun brings a house alive’. By having the
speaker’s nonchalant statements on their own, the poet is able to highlight the significant
effect that guns have- these ideas are made more poignant by not having them embedded
within a stanza.
3. The poem is in free verse- the structure almost has freedom in the same way the gun has a
lack of boundaries to the damage it can create. This structure could also reflect how things
are quickly shifting and the structural looseness means the lines in the poem are hard to
predict – they are not following a predetermined pattern which the ear and the eye can
anticipate.
Key methods used by the writer to convey their ideas:
The speaker uses a change in tone to convey how the level of violence has escalated unnervingly
fast, and the gun has power over the man, dominating him and almost tempting him to take more
risks.
The tone in stanza three begins more conversational and casual sounding- ‘At first it’s just
practice’. But this stanza moves very swiftly and suddenly the man changes from harmlessly
shooting inanimate objects to- ‘then a rabbit shot clean through the head.’ By highlighting
this rapid change in her husband through this violent imagery, it shows the hypnotic nature
of the gun as it gains control.
The rapid change in tone that appears in the third stanza highlights the addictive elements of
this weapon, and just how quickly it has hold over the speaker and her partner.
At beginning, speaker afraid of the ‘shadow’ the gun has cast, but by the end finds
excitement in the change it has brought about in her husband.
Anaphora in the opening line: ‘bringing a gun into a house changes it.’ Towards the end
however: ‘A gun brings a house alive’. This is a very unnerving thing to say after the
previous stanza filled with dead animals and merciless killing.
Ominous dark imagery to suggest the potential danger and power of the gun:
‘Stretched out like something dead’- Although it is inanimate, and even in this simile
appears dead, there is something lifelike about the object. It has an inherent sense of danger
around it, just like a wild animal would. These lines cast the gun in a negative light, making it
seem as though one should be afraid of its presence.
