‘In the lamplight of the street’,
creates a sense of darkness, as we think of lamplight as being dim, anything but the brightness at the beginning of the poem, and it’s strange to read how much the atmosphere has changed. It also focuses our attention on what’s under the light, and leaves us wanting to read more.
The next line:
‘And expert in his field, he works’,
is certainly true, as we know he has had a lot of practice with ‘cultivation’ as he spends a lot of time on his ‘hobby’.
‘An arm about her shoulder,
a fingertip touching her cheek.’
This phrase tells us that the ‘grown’ man has something new cultivate, or nurture, but this time instead of a butterfly it’s a woman. This means that although he still enjoys cultivating, his interests have changed.
The poet is clever in these lines; he makes it sound like the man is normal, and that he really cares for this woman. However in the next stanza we find out something else:
‘But he knows some day he will take her too,’
And so now, just like he would ‘take one’ of the butterflies, he will take his girlfriend and abuse her because he was into the habit of destroying beautiful things. It’s just the fact that he knows what he’s going to do, that he’s planning it just like with the butterflies that seems cruel, even evil.
The very last lines:
‘and cultivate her skin
into a pattern of dusty bruises,
black on red, like the marks
of an Admiral’s wing.’
are very effective, describing what the man does, and comparing the bruises to an ‘Admiral’s wing’ which is a type of butterfly.
There is a lot of internal patterning from the first stanza in these closing lines. The ‘patterned satin’ is now a ’pattern of dusty bruises’, and the word ‘dusty’ that was used for beauty has been used to create a depressing reminder of what this man is capable of. The boy has become evil, and so have the descriptions.
I chose this poem because I was struck by the cruelty issue raised in it, and I liked the way that Owen Sheers described the actions of this boy, this man, who does such cruel things.
The lines and rhythm in this poem can be very irregular in some parts, however in each stanza there is always five lines. The poet also uses a variety of short and long sentences, which make the poem more varied and original. For example:
‘But he knows one day he will take her too,
and cultivate her skin.’
This sort of irregularity is continued throughout the poem, especially in the first and last stanzas, maybe because they are the most important as they create our first and last impressions of the poem.
The poet also uses soft, soothing consonant sounds, which slow down the pace of the poem, and helps us to think about the words used. For example:
‘watched the slow hatching’
The use of the word ‘slow’ really does slow the poem down in the first stanza; this is why the words Owen Sheers uses are so effective.
My favourite phrase in ‘Cultivation’ is:
‘giving birth to hanging candelabras’
because instead of just saying what they are, Owen Sheers compares these objects to ‘candelabras’ which makes them sound elegant and beautiful.
Antonia’s Story
When you read ‘Antonia’s Story’, you can see why I chose to compare it to ‘Cultivation’. In both poems there is a lot of repetition, but in Antonia’s Story it’s very clear, whereas in Cultivation it is subtler.
The mood of ‘Cultivation’ starts off quite uplifting, but in ‘Antonia’s Story’ there is an immediate negative atmosphere with the line:
‘She told me how she fell to sleep with the sound of his fists
on the door’
which creates an image of abuse and an unstable household. This line also tells us that the poet knows this woman, with the words ‘she told me’, and quite personally, as she has obviously told him personal things about her boyfriend or lover.
‘Dull thuds that echoed on the stairs’,
this line creates a dark atmosphere, with the words ‘dull’, ‘thuds’, and ‘echoed’. We also get a clearer picture in our heads of the house, and the situation that the poem is set in.
‘that became the beat of her heart on the sheet’
tells us that she is panicked by the ‘dull thuds’, so much so that they ‘become’ her heartbeat. ‘On the sheet’ means that she’s in bed, but the ‘beat of her heart’ is probably preventing sleep because the noise is so loud.
The last line of the second stanza is:
‘the rustle of blood in her ear on the pillow, then sleep.’
which is very different to ‘Cultivation’ as by the end of the second stanza we already know what the madman does, whereas here the story is only beginning, and we’re not really sure what’s going on yet.
‘Of how she slept a dark sleep with only one dream,
of an apple ripening, then falling a fall.’
In these lines, I was struck by the way that the poet uses the word ‘dream’ when it’s clearly a nightmare, which we can tell by the word ‘dark’ being used to describe her sleep. But I think the use of the word ‘dream’ makes the poem more of a mystery. The actual ‘dream’ itself doesn’t make much sense at the moment, but as we read on, we find it holds a surprising relevance to the events that happen. Again, she dreams ‘only one’ dream, meaning this event, this thing that is hiding in her sub-conscious, is haunting her every night. We also know this because of the next few lines:
‘It’s loud thud echoing on in the night
in the beat of her heart on the sheet.’
And also where we find even more repetition, used effectively to describe Antonia’s struggling nights alone. You can tell she is worried about something as her heart is beating so loud ‘on the sheet’ from the dream, and from the ‘sound of his fists on the door’, which wake her in the next line.
‘and how she was surprised by the persistence of love’
So we can see that Antonia can’t believe that this man still loves her, even though she probably wants the relationship to end, he still bangs his fists on the door to get to her, and a lot more as well.
The first half of this poem moves quite slowly, and it’s only in the next two lines when something new and quite unexpected happens:
‘and how she thought why is he lying on the lawn, so pale,
and quiet?
Why is he lying asleep and covered in dew?’
These lines tell us that he has been there a while, as he is ‘covered in dew’. Also he’s ‘pale’ and ‘quiet’ which leads us to think that maybe he’s dead, especially if he’s ‘pale’. But Antonia thinks he’s asleep, even though he’s ‘quiet’ which means he’s probably not breathing. She doesn’t seem to realize what has happened. The quietness and calmness of these lines is a big contrast to the ‘beating’, and ‘thuds’ that happen at night.
‘She saw the broken drainpipe he had tried
to climb’
This brings us to the conclusion that this man, this boyfriend or lover, must have been drunk, mad, or just blinded by love to have tried to climb a ‘broken drainpipe’ in order to get to Antonia.
‘And how she knew he had fallen, ripe in the night’
The word ‘ripe’ refers back to Antonia’s dream, so the man fell ‘ripe’ like the apple. But as an apple that is ‘ripe’ is ready to eat, does it mean that this man was ready to die? Maybe he had done something to deserve death, maybe abuse, like the ‘sound of fists on the door’ suggests.
‘From the broken drainpipe, which still swung wild,
a madman’s finger preaching in the wind.’
I liked the way that Owen Sheers compared the drainpipe to a madman’s finger in these lines, as it suits the poem really well. I also like the idea of the drainpipe swinging like a preaching finger, as it’s quite an unusual simile and gives the poem originality.
‘And then she told me how now each night she unlocks
the door’
This line brings us to the present, with the word ‘now’ and this line and the following lines describe how the accident has affected Antonia, and how her life has changed, e.g., she now ‘unlocks the door’, maybe to prevent anything like this from happening again.
The next line:
‘which sometimes get blown, wild in the wind’
repeats the word ‘wind’ but this time to describe the door instead of the drainpipe.
The last lines in ‘Antonia’s Story’ are mainly repeats of the previous ones, and this internal patterning is very effective as it casts our attention back to the beginning of the poem and everything that has happened to Antonia.
For example,
‘How her feet echo, dull on the stairs, as she climbs to bed.’
Repeats the words ‘echo’, ‘dull’, and ‘stairs’ that help keep up the depressing atmosphere of the poem.
‘Where she falls to sleep, the rustle of blood in her ear.
And how each night she sleeps a dark sleep with only
one dream.’
Of an apple, which falls, ripe in the night.’
Now we know that although some things have changed, the way Antonia sleeps has not. She still has the ‘rustle of blood’ in her ear, and she still ‘sleeps a dark sleep with only one dream’, and the dream is exactly the same.
‘And of how she wakes with the beat of her heart on the sheet,
surprised by the persistence of love.’
These closing lines tell us that though he may be dead, and he’s done terrible things to her, she still loves him, and that’s another thing that hasn’t changed.
Comparison
I chose to compare these two poems because I liked them both and they seemed to be closely linked. For example, both poems are about ‘mad’ men, and what they do for love. In ‘Cultivation’, the boy loves killing butterflies, and in ‘Antonia’s Story’ a man dies trying to get to the woman he loves. However I think that the main similarity between the two poems is the abusive issue that’s raised, and used to tell a story over time, about how abuse affects people’s lives and how it changes them.
When analysing the two poems, I came across more similarities that aren’t so obvious, but still important.
For example, in both of these poems we never find out the man’s name, they are always referred to as ‘him’ or ‘he’, creating a mysterious atmosphere. Also, both stories are told from Owen Sheer’s viewpoint, for example, in ‘Cultivation’ he ‘watches’ the cultivator, but in ‘Antonia’s Story’ he is told all the details personally.
There are also of course many differences between the poems, but the one that stands out most is the structures. ‘Cultivation’ is made up of regular stanzas of five lines, very different to the irregular and unusual patterning found in ‘Antonia’s Story’, making it more unique.
Of both the poems I analysed, I would have to say that I preferred ‘Cultivation’, as I found it had more varied descriptions than ‘Antonia’s Story’ which was mostly repeats of the lines. I also found the structure of ‘Cultivation’ made it easier to follow. However I enjoyed both of the poems in different ways. ‘Cultivation’ because of the imaginative descriptions, and ‘Antonia’s Story’ because of it’s originality. Even though there were some similarities, they were very different poems.
