Simon Armitage´s poems, ‘Poem´ and ‘About His Person´

Two of Simon Armitage´s poems, 'Poem´ and 'About His Person´ are written about someone who has, for unspecified reasons, passed away or gone. One is in the style of a eulogy and looks back on the life of its persona, presenting contrasting views of it, while the other examines the articles found on a man after his death. Both give the readers some impression of the personas, but are somewhat ambiguous, inviting us to form our own mental pictures of the people and judge them for ourselves. The man in 'Poem´ seems to have a split personality. Each of the first three stanzas is made up of four lines - the first three dealing with good things he did and the fourth mentioning a drawback, something bad. For example the third and fourth lines of the first stanza read, 'And he always tucked his daughter up at night And slippered her the one time that she lied.´ Although there are more good than bad things mentioned, the bad is cleverly positioned at the end of the line and this seems to make it overshadow and even cancel out all of the positive actions mentioned. In the context of a eulogy the three positive lines could be what is being said with the last line representing the thoughts of those present at the funeral. Simon Armitage does not conclude on the life of this man, but finishes the poem with: 'Here´s how they rated him when they lookef back; Sometimes he did

  • Word count: 713
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Simon Armitage - Comparison of Two Poems

Simon Armitage writes about a range of different topics. In the two poems I have chosen, he focuses on people and personal experience. I will briefly describe both poems and show how each poem reveals something about Human nature. I will begin with the poem "About his person". This poem lists all the items a dead man had upon him when he was discovered. In many ways, these objects represent the mans life. It reads like a police report. Although the poem cannot tell us anything about the mans thoughts, it tells us a lot about the mans life. The poem is deceptively simple. There is a pun in the title. "About his person" is a formal way of saying "he had on him" but it also emphasises that the poem is about a dead person. This is an example of how Armitage uses ambiguous language. Also, his technique of colloquial language makes his poems more meaningful. Both poems are about ordinary people. Another example of ambiguous language is: "A give-away photograph stashed in his wallet, A keepsake banked in the heart of a locket". We ask ourselves, is the photograph "stashed in his wallet" the equivalent of a keepsake in a locket, or were they two separate items. The photographs makes us think that he may have had loved ones. After all it is human nature to love someone. Armitage uses a simile in line twelve. Up until line twelve the diction is factual and plain.

  • Word count: 1193
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Explore Armitage`s presentation of his relationship with his parents in the poems: "Mother, any distance" and "My father thought" Simon Armitage`s two poems are from a collection called "Book of Matches

Explore Armitage`s presentation of his relationship with his parents in the poems: "Mother, any distance" and "My father thought" Simon Armitage`s two poems are from a collection called "Book of Matches", this is based on a party game where you have to talk about your life, in the space of time it takes for the match to burn out (hence the name). You start with facts and then go on to feelings .The moments that Simon Armitage has chosen are defined moments with his parents, he has wrote about his relationship with each of his parents and has used poetic descriptions of times with each of his parents. In the poem: "Mother, any distance", Simon Armitage starts by describing how important his mother was to him. The first word he uses is "Mother" and he is addressing her in second person narrative and as if he was talking directly to her. After, follows "any distance greater than a single span requires a second pair of hands", it has 2 meanings and the phrase is a metaphor, one being measuring and needing help doing it but there is a second meaning in it that measuring is going through life and needing help going through life when you can't do it yourself. "Requires a second pair of hands" is saying that he has needed his mother lots to help him. "You" is direct address and in the second person narrative like before, backing up the fact as if he were talking to her directly and

  • Word count: 1955
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast how feelings of love or presented in The Manhunt and Nettles

Compare and contrast how feelings of love or presented in “The Manhunt” and “Nettles” The form in “the manhunt” is in couplets and they show the relationship between the husband and wife and represents their love “after the first phase, after passionate and intimate days” Simon Armitage makes some couplets rhyme and some not, this could represent their love due to the fact sometimes shes ok with him but because hes fragile she can set him of very easily and sometimes she feels he dosent love her because of the state he’s in, he does this to help the reader understand her struggle for his love and how she isn’t giving up on love also the it very widly spaced which represents how long she is willing to wait to recover his love and him, whereas in “Nettles” its very closely packed and it follows the A,B,A,B rhyme scheme, the poems about a fathers emotion and love towards his son when he gets injured my a bed of nettles “my son aged three fell in the nettle bed. Bed seemed a curious name for those green spears, that regiment of spite behind the shed” Veron Scannell makes the structure tightly packed and makes the poem follow this rhyme scheme to increase the pace of the poem, he does this because the poems about revenge and his efforts to destroy the nettles that hurt his son, it could also represent his heart beat due to the pace. In comparison in the

  • Word count: 751
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Mother any Distance by Simon Armitage

Mother any Distance This poem is written by Simon Armitage in which he talks about the relationship between him and his mother and the great affect she had on his life. "you come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors...". This shows that his mother helped him a lot whenever he needed someone to help him. The quote also shows us that he's moving into a new house because you would usually need to carry out these measurements when moving in, but even after he will be moving into a new house and away from her security, she is still there for him. This emphasizes that they have a strong and healthy relationship. He also talks about how he feels as he is moving further away from him mother. "...unreeling years between us.". he shows that he still feels attached to her even though he is moving away but at the same time he claims that he feels free and has to have his own responsibility. Now that he is moving houses, he feels a very big space between his mother and himself. "..prairies of the floors...". This shows that he is venturing a long distance without her, which conveys the idea that he is growing up and he is carrying responsibility over himself. "...unreeling years between us..." shows that he is still attached to her although he is moving away. This shows that what she has taught him in life will always be a part of him, and that there is a very strong connection

  • Word count: 606
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Comparing the poems, Salome, Hitcher, On My First Sonne and The Man He Killed.

Comparing Poems The poems, Salome, Hitcher, On My First Sonne and The Man He Killed all have similar themes. The menacing and threatening ideas that the poets used are all based around death. However, each poem has a different perspective on the word with different motives and emotions. The Man He Killed is about a man who talks of the experience he had of shooting someone and the regrets he has for it. He feels guilty, as he has no conceivable explanation for shooting the man. He talks of the similarities he and his foe had such as 'He thought he'd 'list, perhaps, Off hand like - just as I.' The use of hesitation and repetition show the threatening side of the story. It is almost as if he himself is trying to construct an image in his mind as not to make himself look or feel guilty or censurable. The use of colloquialism makes the image even more menacing as we do not understand greatly of this man. Originally, it could be perceived as an old man who regrets his actions in the past. It however, could also be seen as a man who enjoyed killing but must come up with an excuse to the reasons for killing him. 'My foe of course he was, that's clear enough, although.' The poem "Hitcher" has a character that expresses violence in a completely different manner. The poem is a monologue where the speaker casually admits to possibly murdering an innocent hitchhiker. The speaker tells

  • Word count: 830
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Evaluating two poems by Simon Armitage, 'I've made out a will' and 'my father thought it bloody queer.'

Comparison of two poems I will be evaluating two poems by Simon Armitage. The first will be 'I've made out a will' and the second 'my father thought it bloody queer.' I chose these as they have a similar structure. Also I favour these over other Armitage poems. In the first line of this poem the poet states that he has made a will and is going to donate his body to the National Health Service. As the poem has no title, the poet has set his subject of writing, straight from the start. He describes which parts of his body he will leave before clearly announcing that he does not want to donate his heart. The poem is 14 lines long, and has just two sentences; the first is divided into an octet and the second sentence is divided in sestet which has been split into four lines and a couplet to finish. There is some irregular rhyme; however this is effective as most of the words are just one syllable 'the face, the case, the cogs.' This steady rhythm echoes the sound of a heart beating. The way the poet has described his body is humorous. "the jellies and tubes" This shows that the poet is not very concerned about what happens to his body once he has died. "loaf of brains" is a play on the cockney rhyming slang for head - loaf of bread. This again suggests that the poet doesn't value his body very highly. "they can have the lot" The tone of this phrase seems casual

  • Word count: 945
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare and Contrast - Cataract Operation, About his person, & Poem

Compare and Contrast: Cataract Operation, About his person, & Poem Simon Armitage was born in 1963 and lives in West Yorkshire. Simon Armitage has taught at the University of Leeds and the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, and currently teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University. He writes biographical poems, which are based on things, which he has experienced in his life. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting three of Simon Armitage's poems, Cataract Operation, About His Person and Poem. The subject matter in Cataract Operation is about the poet looking out of his window and seeing things in a way he has never seen them before, like pigeons in the yard, washing on a line, and hens pecking for food. This is because a cataract operation clears the lens of his eye's, which has become unclear, so the poet is affectionate to his new way of seeing things to having had a difficulty in front of his eyes cleared away by surgery. The subject matter is a happier and more enjoyable compared to About His Person. About His Person lists all the items that a dead man had upon him when he was discovered. It reads like a police officer's report. The following quotations "an analogue watch, self-winding, stopped", "but beheaded in his fist", and "a ring of white unweathered skin" all show a sign of a wrecked and finished life. Poem could be similarly compared to the

  • Word count: 1169
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Simon Armitage uses language to explore interesting experiences. Use two poems to show how he does this.

Simon Armitage uses language to explore interesting Experiences. Use two poems to show how he does this. Armitage uses a number of techniques to explore the theme of experiences, but the main way he does it is through language. He also explores the themes of abuse and relationships in the two poems. "I am very bothered" and "Poem". In "I am very bothered" the speaker is thinking back on all the bad things he has done in his life and one thing in particular was bothering him. "I am very bothered when I think Of all the bad things I have done in my life". This extract is showing that the speaker uses the word "bothered" which suggests that it is just something that is on his mind but he does not consider it as a big deal. He is aware that he committed a bad doing but still this does not seem to affect him in any way. Later on in the poem the speaker talks about being in a science lab where the incident that he was bothered about took place. "When I held a pair of scissors by the blades And played the handles In the naked lilac flame of the Bunsen burner." This quotation is showing that the speaker is intending to do something very bad with the scissors. Also he describes his actions in such a way that it sounds like he is enjoying what he is doing and getting pleasure out of it. He describes the flame from the Bunsen burner as being "naked lilac" this shows that

  • Word count: 884
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The poem consists of a single stanza of 24 lines

The poem consists of a single stanza of 24 lines. The lines are pentameters (they have 10 syllables each). This poem is a dramatic monologue, which was written by Simon Armitage. The narrator in this poem is Robin, the Boy Wonder, the loyal side kick to Batman. Robin firsts presents Batman in this poem as a real super hero: he is described at the start in the alliterative phrase "Batman, big shot," (line 1)- This might have got the audience thinking that Batman was someone who Robin would have looked up to and admire. But then there is a twist! Robin publicises some of Batman's secrets, so that the audience sees the 'super hero' in a new light. As we read on, Batman's status is diminished. We hear that he "ditched" (line 4) Robin and had an affair with a "married woman" (line 10). This shows us that Batman was very disloyal and UN trustworthy, towards Robin who was to be seen as a close friend, even brotherly like "he was like an elder brother" .(line 8) But we learn in the poem that Robin was always treated like second best, and not a loyal side kick. As the poem unravels it's self even more we find out that Robin was not appreciated at all "I'm not playing ball boy any longer" (line 14) this shows us that Batman treated Robin like more of a drudger than a friendly partner. This also shows us that Robin does not want to serve Batman any more. By the end of the poem

  • Word count: 732
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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