POEM
PoemAnd if it snowed and snow covered the drive
he took a spade and tossed it to one side.
And always tucked his daughter up at night
And slippered her the one time that she lied.
And every week he tipped up half his wage.
And what he didn't spend each week he saved.
And praised his wife for every meal she made.
And once, for laughing, punched her in the face.
And for his mum he hired a private nurse.
And every Sunday taxied her to church.
And he blubbed when she went from bad to worse.
And twice he lifted ten quid from her purse.
Here's how they rated him when they looked back:
sometimes he did this, sometimes he did that.
Simon Armitage
he took a spade and tossed it to one side.
And always tucked his daughter up at night
And slippered her the one time that she lied.
And every week he tipped up half his wage.
And what he didn't spend each week he saved.
And praised his wife for every meal she made.
And once, for laughing, punched her in the face.
And for his mum he hired a private nurse.
And every Sunday taxied her to church.
And he blubbed when she went from bad to worse.
And twice he lifted ten quid from her purse.
Here's how they rated him when they looked back:
sometimes he did this, sometimes he did that.
Simon Armitage
poem__simon_armitage__notes.docx | |
File Size: | 124 kb |
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Notes:
This poem comes from Kid, 1992. It is all written in the past tense as though the poet is looking back on this man's life and assessing it.
He appeared to have two very different sides to him. He was a good neighbour, a loving father, a thoughtful husband and a dutiful son. However, as soon as he is shown in one of these roles, the image is destroyed by a glimpse of a darker side to him. He was violent to his daughter and his wife, and twice he stole from his mother.
Stanza one shows him as a neighbour shovelling snow from his drive, and as a loving father who “always” tucked his daughter up at night. Then the last line tells us that he “slippered” her when she lied. Stanza two shows him as a husband who automatically gave up half of his wages each week for housekeeping. Anything that he didn't spend, he would save. After “every meal” he praised his wife. This all sounds very good until “once” when he punched her because she laughed.
Stanza three shows him in his role as a son who hired a private nurse for his mother, regularly drove her to church, and cried when her condition worsened. Then we hear that twice he stole from her.
The final couplet finishes off the poem in a fairly casual way, as if "they" were not particularly interested in judging him and his life. The title “Poem” is also fairly casual, as if Simon Armitage was not particularly interested or involved.
Simon Armitage asks:
“How can you judge this person? Here's somebody who for three-quarters of his life, or for three lines in every quatrain, did something good and then he did something bad and in one case, something that would be seen as unforgivable; so how do we judge him in the end? I'm declaring the right not to answer that question, just to ask it."
The form of the poem is an imperfect sonnet. It has fourteen lines, which are divided up into three quatrains (four line verses), followed by a couplet. However, it does not have a strict rhyme scheme but instead uses assonance. Each stanza has a distinct vowel sound that is deliberately repeated for effect.
The rhymes are imperfect, the sonnet is imperfect (because it fails to rhyme and perhaps also because it is not a traditional love poem), and this helps us to see that this man is not perfect either.
Out of the fourteen lines, we also notice that eleven of them begin with “and”. This breaks a traditional rule of grammar and creates repetition. Perhaps this makes us consider the repetitive nature of the man's life. He seems to have been a creature of habit, always doing the same thing, week after week -except for when he did the bad things.
You may think about how the form and structure affect the meaning of the poem.
The language is probably that of the man himself. Most of it is colloquial in style, using everyday terms such as the verbs “slippered”, “blubbed”, and “lifted”. The words are short and simple and there are no metaphors at all. In lots of ways, it is not very (conventionally) “poetic”. Again, perhaps this reflects the man himself?
This poem comes from Kid, 1992. It is all written in the past tense as though the poet is looking back on this man's life and assessing it.
He appeared to have two very different sides to him. He was a good neighbour, a loving father, a thoughtful husband and a dutiful son. However, as soon as he is shown in one of these roles, the image is destroyed by a glimpse of a darker side to him. He was violent to his daughter and his wife, and twice he stole from his mother.
Stanza one shows him as a neighbour shovelling snow from his drive, and as a loving father who “always” tucked his daughter up at night. Then the last line tells us that he “slippered” her when she lied. Stanza two shows him as a husband who automatically gave up half of his wages each week for housekeeping. Anything that he didn't spend, he would save. After “every meal” he praised his wife. This all sounds very good until “once” when he punched her because she laughed.
Stanza three shows him in his role as a son who hired a private nurse for his mother, regularly drove her to church, and cried when her condition worsened. Then we hear that twice he stole from her.
The final couplet finishes off the poem in a fairly casual way, as if "they" were not particularly interested in judging him and his life. The title “Poem” is also fairly casual, as if Simon Armitage was not particularly interested or involved.
Simon Armitage asks:
“How can you judge this person? Here's somebody who for three-quarters of his life, or for three lines in every quatrain, did something good and then he did something bad and in one case, something that would be seen as unforgivable; so how do we judge him in the end? I'm declaring the right not to answer that question, just to ask it."
The form of the poem is an imperfect sonnet. It has fourteen lines, which are divided up into three quatrains (four line verses), followed by a couplet. However, it does not have a strict rhyme scheme but instead uses assonance. Each stanza has a distinct vowel sound that is deliberately repeated for effect.
The rhymes are imperfect, the sonnet is imperfect (because it fails to rhyme and perhaps also because it is not a traditional love poem), and this helps us to see that this man is not perfect either.
Out of the fourteen lines, we also notice that eleven of them begin with “and”. This breaks a traditional rule of grammar and creates repetition. Perhaps this makes us consider the repetitive nature of the man's life. He seems to have been a creature of habit, always doing the same thing, week after week -except for when he did the bad things.
You may think about how the form and structure affect the meaning of the poem.
The language is probably that of the man himself. Most of it is colloquial in style, using everyday terms such as the verbs “slippered”, “blubbed”, and “lifted”. The words are short and simple and there are no metaphors at all. In lots of ways, it is not very (conventionally) “poetic”. Again, perhaps this reflects the man himself?