This compares to "Innocent's Song" which is also written as a ballad as it has the same rhyme scheme. This has the same effect of making you read it in a sing-songey way, and it almost sounds like a child’s nursery rhyme. It sounds innocent. There is a change of rhyme scheme at the end of the last stanza unlike "Ballad of the Bread Man" and this shows that this stanza is different. The 1st and 3rd lines rhyme as well as the 2nd and 4th and it has the effect of changing the rhythm and tone as well. This is because it sounds like an answer to the questions that have been asked throughout the poem. There is a gap between the last stanza and the last line in the poem. This shows that this line is the answer to all these questions, and it just finishes the poem off. All the way through the poem you feel that the questions must be leading somewhere, and now we finally find out.
In "A poem for Christmas" however, there is no rhyme scheme and no rhythm. This has the effect of making it sound jumbled and chaotic when you read it, like there is no order. There are also no false stops, and this make you read it fast. It feels like you are in the poem rushing around trying to do all of the shopping. There is a feeling of speed and rush about this poem, and it just sounds like noise. There is Enjambement and this makes the lines run into each other like the blur of images, noise, music, conversations and shouts that you hear when you are walking in and out of shops. The Poem is also written like a shopping list, with one item listed under another, so it seems like you are rushing around trying to buy all the things on this list, and straight away when we see this poem we think of shopping. This backs up the poems meaning, because shopping is all we ever think about now. The tone of this poem is in a busy shopping centre just before Christmas. It is also an excited tone, but it makes us feel guilty that the true Christmas message has been lost somewhere as the tone in "Ballad of the Bread Man" is much more comical as this poem is meant to be humorous. At then end it is set out like a christmas card and this backs up the idea that all we care about is the commercialism of Christmas. The “Merry Christmas Suckers” is an exclamation mark in itself. This compares to "Innocent's Song" because the tone of "Innocent's Song" is uneasy, uncomfortable and suspicious. Also , in this poem there are lots of questions which back up the idea that it is being told by a child and backs up the theme of innocence, as children are always asking why this, why that, as they are trying to understand what is going on around them. This also makes you feel uneasy, and adds to the tone because there are so many questions being asked about the stranger, it seems like the narrator doesn’t trust him and so neither do we. The poem is written using complex, adult language that children would never use, but the things that are written are exactly the things that a child would think. This poem is written so that at first we think everything is fine and we are quite trusting, just like the children. This links in with the theme of misinterpretation as both us and the children misinterpret the stranger. Then we take a closer look and we start noticing things aren’t quite right. “Presents lying on the kitchen floor”. At first I thought that this was all the presents that Santa had left for the children but then reading it again it gave the impression that the presents had been knocked off and strewn aside and it was a scene of devastation. This happens all the way through the poem and backs up the meaning that things aren’t what they first appear to be. Like "Innocent's Song" "A poem for Christmas" is similar in a way as in both the poems there is a change in the layout and look of the poem to make a particular important point stand out. “ONLY TWO SHOPPING DAYS” The capital letters make it stand out and differ from the rest of the lines in the poem and it is almost like a desperate shout which emphasises that this is what Christmas is all about and you can’t escape it or hide from it because it is so loud that you can’t forget about it. It’s like Christmas is bashing you round the head. It also emphasises the noise around the shops with all the market traders shouting at you to buy their product and all the shop signs telling you and shouting at you to come into their store and spend your money there. Also the money is written in figures “2.50” to make it stand out so it is one of the first things you notice. It therefore echoes real life as price tags are the first thing you notice when you do your Christmas shopping as everything is about money.
The poem "Ballad of the Bread Man" is a partially modernised version of the Christmas story. Examples of the modernisation are “bullet proof limousine”, “television news” and “with rifle and bomb and gun”. The effect of this is that it simplifies the story and makes it accessible, interesting and exciting to a modern audience. It makes the poem much more comical and gives us childlike images in our heads when we read it. “An angel flew in through the window”. It is also an original way of presenting a story that has been told millions of times. Unlike "Ballad of the Bread Man" "Innocent's Song" has not been modernised for comedy. The only way in which it is modernised is that when you read it the images that you get in your head are modern ones “Lying on the kitchen floor”. You get an image of a modern kitchen not an old fashioned one and like in "Ballad of the Bread Man" it makes it more accessible and vivid to a modern reader as they can imagine it and relate to it more. "A poem for Christmas" however is SHOWING how Christmas has changed and become very modernised and not traditional and holy like it was before. It reinforces the differences between now and then. It is half modernised as it has traditional Christmas carols but on the end of it has a modern commercial phrase. “Peace on earth and mercy to all cash customers”. This shows that the meaning of Christmas is slowly being forgotten and buried under all the modern meaning of Christmas. It shows how the commercialism and religion of Christmas are all tangled together and jumbled up and it shows clearly that the atmosphere at Christmas has changed dramatically as before there was time to sing carols and it was peaceful and quiet but now it is full of stress and running around frantically spending hundreds of pounds. Also peace on earth has become quite ironic at this time of year as this the time when there are the most muggings, suicides, burglaries and stress and people get themselves into debt just so they can buy into the commercialisation. This is the reason why Soutster finishes the poem with “Merry Christmas Suckers” as we put ourselves through this every year because we all want to buy into the hype of Christmas and because it’s all our own fault. This shows how our priorities have changed over the years as back then the most important thing was remembering Jesus and being with friends and family and now people buy presents just for the sake of buying them as they think that’s what Christmas is all about. “Monumental junkpile of Christmas” This line is talking about all those gifts that no one really wanted that were given just so people had something to give as presents are the most important aspect of a modern Christmas. The modernisations of the Christmas carol lines also serve the purpose of comparing the two times to each other.
"Ballad of the Bread Man" begins with “Mary was in the kitchen baking a loaf of bread” This is a very familiar image and it is easily imaginable and very vivid. It sets the scene and the warm tone of the poem. It also starts like this because that is the start of the Christmas and Easter story that the poem is trying to tell. It is quite a simplified image and very childlike. “An angel flew in through the window we’ve a job for you he said” This is a very comic image as when you imagine the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary you don’t imagine him flying through the window as this angel is meant to be holy and good and pure and you expect him to appear in a blinding, bright light with a heavenly choir singing beautifully. So right from the beginning it is taking the mickey and is very modernised, simplified and humorous. This is different to both "Innocent's Song" and "A poem for Christmas" because in "Ballad of the Bread Man" from the first line you know what it will be about straight away and it sets the tone and the tone stays the same for the whole poem whereas in these two poems from the first lines “The twenty fifth of December” and “Who’s that knocking on the window” you think it will be a positive poem about Christmas. Then you carry on to read a few more lines and it changes to being a negative view of Christmas. You are tricked by the beginning of both of these poems into believing the opposite of what it is so this backs up the theme of misconceptions. The beginning of "Innocent's Song" is similar to that of "Ballad of the Bread Man" though as it is childlike because of all the questions. "A poem for Christmas” however is not childlike as a child would never be able to understand “the monumental junkpile of Christmas” and it isn’t something a child would think either as they’d be pleased to get presents not complaining about how the true meaning has been lost so this poem is different to the other two as it isn’t child like at all and children aren’t involved anywhere.
"Ballad of the Bread Man" is told by a narrator while "Innocent's Song" is told by a child and even though it is written in an adult way it captures their innocence where as "A poem for Christmas" is told by the poet and so they are all different in that respect.
There is lots of imagery used in these poems and a lot of them I found very effective. In "Ballad of the Bread Man" I found the bit where it said “That girls been up to no good” effective because it is suggesting that Mary cheated on Joseph and was anything but a virgin and this is completely different to how we think of Mary as pure and innocent and we always think of her as a virgin as that was part of the reason the story is so amazing and this is a side to the story that you never usually hear. It shows Causley thinks about then story a different way. Also it makes you wonder how Joseph must feel if his wife suddenly gets pregnant and he knows it isn’t his. This part always gets left out the story as well so this makes the poem an even more original way of telling the story. The same goes for the line “Mary shook and trembled”. This is very vivid and describes her feelings something which is never mentioned in the bible. It shows she’s scared and also that she has no choice in the matter because of the way the angel says “The baby’s on its way”. It shows she’s powerless which links back to the main theme of power. Also I liked the bit about “Nobody saw the god in himself quietly standing there” as nobody saw Jesus for what he really was. This emphasises the fact that he wasn’t recognised in his lifetime and he was so special but nobody could see past the outside, which links to the theme of prejudgement, and it is a contradiction that he is so silent but so powerful at the same time.
It also made me feel sad at the end when “he showed them the holes in his head Now do you want any loaves he cried not today they said” This is because the people still don’t care about him and this is Ironic because there is evidence right in front of their eyes that Jesus is special as he’s just come back from the dead and they still aren’t bothered and couldn’t care less. I like these because it shows me a completely different side to this story and makes me think about it in a whole new light.
In "Innocent's Song" there are not really any images I like as they are all very disturbing and make me feel uneasy and threatened. “Who’s that standing at the door” and “What is he doing with the Children” are two of the most disturbing images for me as I just imagine an evil man standing at the door waiting to be let in by the children and waiting for the opportunity to kill them. Watching them and following them. I want to go and protect the children, as I know that what he is doing to them is ki8lling them and I feel powerless because I can’t stop him. I feel scared and worried when I read this part of the poem but I can understand that the poet is trying to warn us that Herod is evil and he is creating that disturbing tone to get across that this really did happen and Herod was out searching for victims and no one was safe and that’s what people must have felt like back then. Scared.
In "A poem for Christmas" I like the bit where it says “Good King Wencelas in the bargain basement.” Because Good King Wencelas represents all the religious messages of Christmas and he is being locked away in the bargain basement with all the other things that nobody cares about and that nobody wants to buy. He has been dismissed and sold off. This backs up the poems meaning. An image about this poem that I don’t like though is “Merry Christmas suckers” as I do not appreciate being called a sucker and I don’t think it’s fair as the commercial side of Christmas is all we’ve ever known as the shops have such a big influence nowadays and we’ve been brought up with the traditions of buying presents and spending money at Christmas so we don’t really know any different. I can however see what the poet Soutster is trying to say though as we have caused lots of stress, worry, and debt for ourselves and we go around spending all this money when we don’t really need to.
In order to make the images more vivid all of the poems have used colour. In "Ballad of the Bread Man" Causley writes “God in his big gold heaven” Gold has a powerful connotation with money, riches, things that are good and pure and God therefore because of these connotations we expect Heaven to be golden as god is so powerful, rich, loving and pure. It is the same for the line “Sitting in his big blue chair” as the colour blue has a connotation with the sky and heaven as the sky is blue and that is where we think God lives. We get a childlike image of God sitting on a chair in the sky and you could say it is almost cartoon like. In both of these quotes the word big is used. The repetition of this word emphasises God’s power because if it said small chair or small heaven we would think hang on that’s not right God is so big he wouldn’t be able to fit in anything small and also he’s the most powerful being in the universe so he has to have a big chair and a big heaven. Both of these images are very stereotypical and it doesn’t challenge our view of God or heaven it backs it up. This has the effect of making it simplified and childlike. Another part of the poem that uses colour is “and who was that elegant fellow in the shiny gear” The shiny part of this quote has a connotation with angels clothes, a sparkling silver colour, pureness and goodness and angels in particular the Angel Gabriel. It has a very heavenly connotation and also a modern one, as silver is the colour of the new millennium. Silver also reminds us of the Star that the shepherds etc followed to see baby Jesus. The word gear is also very effective as it has connotations of modern clothes and Ali G. I can imagine Gabriel walking down the street in a sliver Ali G suit shouting Booyakasha at all the neighbours as they all gossip about Mary and what she could have done with him. The word gear modernises it as if Causley had used another word such as outfit the image you get in your mind would completely change and you would never think of Ali G in a million years. That word changes our whole perception of the stanza.
In "Innocent's Song" the effect of the colour is to make you suspicious about the man and give you little hints that things aren’t quite right. “With hair as white as gin”. At first you just think they are describing Santa but on closer inspection you realise that it is strange comparing it to gin as you usually compare it to snow or something else pure and you realise that something is wrong with the simile so you begin to think that something must be wrong with the man. You don’t associate Santa with Gin as Santa is supposed to be good and has connotations with children. Children are innocent so it doesn’t seem right to associate them with alcohol which can be dangerous and definitely isn’t innocent. You feel that the children shouldn’t be near alcohol or anything that is described as Gin. “Yellow, yearning eyes” is another example of this as yellow eyes have a connotation with witches and in particular witches cats. Yellow eyes are not normal to humans and all the animals that have an association with evil and prey on us e.g. bats, cats, snakes and crows have yellow eyes. Also all the monsters in books or on TV. have yellow eyes and so from an early age we are scared and put on edge by yellow-eyed creatures. Herod’s eyes also make him seem more supernatural and evil. “Does the salty snow run red” is also an example of use of colour. This shows that the snow which is supposed to be pure and white, hence the saying pure as the driven snow, has been tainted by blood and is no longer pure as it runs red, just like his rubies, with the blood of all of the innocent children who were murdered by Herod. The rubies represent his power as he is king but so does the red snow as snow is not naturally red and it has only changed colour because Herod had the power to make it, by ordering the deaths of the children. This links back to the theme of innocence and the destruction of it and it shows that Herod has all this blood on his hands and, although it is not on him literally as he didn’t actually do the killing, it won’t go away and it will show up on the pure snow. Just like ballad of the bread man one simple word changes our whole view of the sentence and therefore our whole view of the man. Also “Why do his yellow yearning eyes burn like saffron buns?” When you think of saffron buns you think of a lovely warm image of delicious, hot buns fresh from the oven sitting on the kitchen counter but then Causley describes them as yellow and as this isn’t a nice warm poem you start to think that these buns have been poisoned and the man has done something to them. This shows how yet again one word changes the whole tone of the sentence and also that all the things in this poem are normal, warm images but they have been ruined and destroyed by both the man and that one word. It is almost like an oxymoron as the images of the nice, warm buns and the horrible, poisoned buns are next to each other.
In "A poem for Christmas" however the use of colour backs up the idea of how fake Christmas has become. “And a tinsel-coloured sky”. Tinsel is one of the most artificial, fake, synthetic things there is. It is loud, garish and sparkly. This pert of the poem is trying to say that because Christmas has become so commercialised our whole world at this time of year has become artificial too and it compares the sky which is completely natural to something so fake to say that we are so concerned with commercialism that we can’t see past it to the true meaning of Christmas and as our whole world revolves around the fakeness of Christmas everything now looks fake to us and we can’t see it for what it really is. This is compared to the time when Jesus was born in the stable all those years ago which is very real and there is nothing fake about it. It shows the two opposite ideas. “Tinsel-coloured sky" is also an Oxymoron because the two opposites artificial and natural are next to each other, which backs up the idea that there is a lot of confusion as to the meaning of Christmas.
All of the poems use imagery to back up the theme of the poem and to tell us something important. In "Innocent's Song" Causley uses metaphors and similes to let us know what this man is like. “A cold, cold crown on his head” A crown is normally a gold colour and it has connotations with being warm and it tells us that he is rich and powerful because he is the king. The repetition and alliteration of “cold, cold” makes us feel as though this man isn’t warm and doesn’t take his duties as a king seriously and abuses his power. This is because the sound of the three c’s next to each other is a hard sound and it makes him sound hard and cold hearted. This is quite similar to “Why when he caws his carol”. Again the double c’s make him sound hard and mean. The word caws has the effect of onomatopoeia as caws sounds like a crow. Crows are scavengers that eat dead things and are often an ill omen or a bad sign. They can even be described as birds of foreboding and so you image Herod as being like a crow as he is so evil. “Caws his carol” is a metaphor for him passing the law that the children should be killed. You could say that this was like an oxymoron as carols normally celebrate Jesus’ birth but in this case it is being used to celebrate Jesus’ death. “Salty snow” is also a metaphor as usually you don’t describe snow as salty you would use words such as soft and fluffy but just liken the snow is stained red from the blood of the children it has become salty as well from all the tears that were shed when their lives were taken. The salt in the snow symbolises all the pain and the suffering that he has caused and just like the blood it won’t go away. “Tongue of gingerbread” is a metaphor because his tongue obviously isn’t made of gingerbread really. Gingerbread is sweet has connotations with the witch from Hansel and Gretel as she lured the children with her gingerbread house. In this poem the gingerbread is a metaphor for all the lies and the sweet words that Herod is talking to lure the children so that he can kill them. Gingerbread is not only sweet but it is sharp as well and so that represents that his tongue is sharp and dangerous at the same time as being sweet because it is his weapon that he uses to draw in the children. It is very powerful. As his tongue is sweet and sharp at the same time it is another oxymoron. Herod also has another weapon his “Fingers of fuses”. His fingers are described in this way because like fuses they could blow at any time and you don’t know what his fingers will do next so you are always on edge. It shows that his hands are dangerous as that is what he killed the children with .The alliteration, the double f sound, and sounds like the fizzing of electricity. Both his tongue and fingers would be normal but they are ruined and changed to sound dangerous and evil by just the one word “gingerbread” and “fuses”. These two lines tell us that he is armed and extremely dangerous. There is another double f sound in the poem “ferry my fireside as a spider on a thread”. To me this alliteration sounds soft and as it is being compared to a spider on a thread it makes it sound like he is silently, stealthily creeping up on you and you can’t hear or see him coming he is just waiting to pounce on you. He is described like a spider because spiders have connotations with being creepy and scary and living in the darkest, dingiest places, preying on the weak. We all have a horrid image of a spider working its way across the fireplace weaving its trap or its web behind for the unsuspecting victim. Herod is likened to a spider as he preys on the innocent and traps them with his words instead of a web and creeps stealthily along so you don’t know he’s coming. The simile makes him seem horrid, as that is how we view spiders.
In "Ballad of the Bread Man" there are also lots of poetic techniques used for example onomatopoeia e.g. “Jack-in-the-box” and “an explosion” This gives the effect of making it more realistic and vivid and also more childlike as children always like loud noises and sound effects. Bread is a metaphor used to take the mickey out of Jesus as he said that this bread was the body of Christ and so all the neighbours called him that and it shows that they didn’t take him seriously. “He burst out like a jack-in-the-box” is a very powerful simile as it emphasises Jesus’ power as Pontius Pilot tried to crush Jesus and put him into a box and this makes it seem as though it was quite a struggle as it is so hard trying to push a jack in the box back into it’s box. It is a funny childlike image of him being locked away. It is a contrast, as the most serious bit of the story has been made funny, as jack-in the boxes are children’s toys. Even though you know how the story ends you think that Jesus will never be able to come back but he does as he is so powerful and they couldn’t keep him down. “A delegation turned up from the farmers club” is also a bit of the story that has been modernised for comedy as this is a very comic image as usually you think of them as three old doddery shepherds in the fields but in this line Causley challenges your perceptions about them. This is similar to innocents song as Causley challenges your perceptions and makes you think about things in a different light in that poem as well by giving you hints all the time to make you look closer and think about it differently “all those presents lying on the kitchen floor” at the same time though he does use stereotypical images of god and heaven “God in his big gold heaven” and also “the hotels let her down” This is stereotypical because you can’t imagine Jesus being born in any place other than a stable as it part of our minds and what makes the story so special.
In "A poem for Christmas" the imagery used reveals the power of the shops and commercialisation e.g. “Peace on earth and mercy to all cash customers” This is telling us that we should be kind to the cash customers as they need our prayers because they are spending so much money on presents because the shops are so powerful and the advertising so influential.
Also in "Innocent's Song" the image of fire is used “out of the Christmas flame” When you think of a Christmas flame you imagine a nice bright, warm, decorative candle burning in the centre of the room all cosy and homely but then when you read the whole line again “Watch where he comes walking out of the Christmas flame” because you know Herod is so nasty the image of the flame changes from being a nice, peaceful flame to being a fire that is destructive and causes disaster that humans can’t control and it almost seems like the fires of hell. “Dancing double talking” the dancing is almost like an evil dance as though Herod is rejoicing that he has killed all of these children and is dancing on their graves. The double-talking refers to all his lies and his tongue of gingerbread. This whole stanza is a warning that you shouldn’t let your guard down and it reminds us of the terrible side to Christmas that we always forget. The last line “Herod is his name” is the answer to all the questions in the poem and for the first time we realise who the stranger is as throughout the poem we are given hints but we are never told it’s Herod until the last line.
Through comparing these poems I have come to the conclusion that although they are all about different aspects of Christmas, a lot of the themes raised are the same and all of them are trying to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. All of the titles are Ironic and none of the poems are what we expected. The tone and narrator are different for each but the two Causley poems have the same rhyme scheme and children are involved in both themes. In all of them one word or phrase changes the whole meaning. The poems meanings are all backed up by the rhythm scheme or in the case of "A poem for Christmas" the lack of one. They are all quite similar but each is a very original way of presenting the aspect of Christmas that they are describing.
Dawn Grant 10s