How does the poetry by Simon Armitage make the ordinary seem extraordinary?
How does the poetry by Simon Armitage make the ordinary seem extraordinary? Simon Armitage's poetry is basically all about regular objects and people which have been twisted to make the objects and people seem peculiar and strange. His poetry makes many people think about the poem and why it is like this. I have been studying his poetry in depth to see what is behind the poems, all together I have analysed five poems; the poem without a title which is sometimes called 'I am very bothered'; this is about an incident involving a young boy at school in a science lab, 'Poem' is about the good and the bad events that a man has done to his family, 'It ain't what you do it what it does to you' is about what a person has and has not done, 'Cataract operation' is what a person sees after they have had a cataract operation and 'About his person' is about personal belongings found on a deceased man and how they represent his life. Many of his poems relate to each other; 'Poem' and 'I am very bothered' are both in sonnet form suggesting they relate to love in one way or another. In 'I am very bothered' love is expressed through a thirteen year old boy in a science lab asking him to marry him in an extraordinary way, the incident is very ambiguous and many images are painted in the readers head with images about love but in an odd way, he uses words such as "rings" and "eternity", these
Comparative essay on poems from the 'Book of matches'.
Comparative Essay On Poems I have decided to use two poems from the book of matches, 'Those bastards in their mansions', 'I've made out a will' and the poem 'Kid' to compare and contrast. Simon Armitage wrote 'Book of matches' in 1993. It is a selection of poems without titles. Each poem is meant to be read in the time that it takes for a match to burn down. There is a pun in the title, a packet from which we tear out the matches a book, but this is also a book in the normal sense, with words for us to read. Both of these poems are fourteen lines long, but they are not strictly a sonnet in form. 'I've made out a will' has irregular rhymes, both full and half rhymes. It is split so that there is a first block of eight lines, then a second block of six lines, which is split into a four and a two. The final section is split so that it ends in a couplet like a Shakespearean sonnet. Some may argue that this poem is not a sonnet because it does not follow a conventional sonnet form, such as a Shakespearean sonnet or a Petrarchan sonnet. 'Those bastards in their mansions' has some weird features to its structure. Ten of the first eleven lines end in an unstressed syllable, and there are some rhymes such as "ditches/britches", "porches and torches", and there is the part-rhyme in "shackles/ankles". At the end of the poem, there is short lines and true rhyme on one syllable, "sun"
Life, its problems, the good and the bad of human experience, are major concerns of Simon Armitage's poetry.
Life, its problems, the good and the bad of human experience, are major concerns of Simon Armitage's poetry There are three poems I have chosen to help me discuss and write about my thesis 'Life , its problems, the good and the bad of human experience, are major concerns of Simon Armitage's poetry'. They are the Untitled poem "I am very bothered", "Poem" and "It Ain't What You Do, It's What It Does To You". "Poem" is one of Armitage's life problem poems When You don't remember the good things a person has done but the bad things a person has done you remember. This poem has many lines which start with 'and' which is a sort of list of things this person has done. Also he starts off the poem with "And if it snowed and snow covered the drive" which is like the poem is the second part of another poem or he has left out the beginning and got to the important part. There are three verses describing things he did. Mostly everything is good things about him for example "And for his mum he hired a private nurse" apart from the last sentence which describes him doing bad things for example "And twice he lifted 10 quid from her purse" (Mother). This made the reader only remember the bad things because it was the last thing the reader remembers about him from the whole paragraph. The last verse is about how people rated him as a bad person who he was only occasionally like
Analysis of "You may turn over and begin" by Simon Armitage.
Analysis of "You may turn over and begin" by Simon Armitage "You may turn over and begin" is an interior monologue of a person who is sitting an exam, seemingly on the subject of General Studies. The title itself lends itself well to this theme as "you may turn over and begin" are the words an exam invigilator says as an exam begins. The poem follows the thoughts of the speaker who may or may not be Armitage himself as he sits the exam whilst musing over exam questions and other things that enter the speakers thoughts when he has finished the paper. The first line of the poem could be said to be the title itself as it directly links to the first line of the main body of the poem. While the title is said by someone else the remainder of the poem is the thoughts of the speaker, the fact that it is someone's thoughts is reinforced by the seemingly random train of thought and the subjects themselves which are personal in nature- i.e. the speakers thoughts on "milk white breasts and... virginity" in lines 12 and 13. The questions themselves are not typical of a general studies exam and are seemingly random, much like thought processes often are, though reference to "the decameron" could be linked to the adolescent and hormonal thoughts of lines 12 and 13. Armitage's reputation for representing and understanding youth culture is highlighted by his reference to the general studies
A Critical Appreciation of 'Cataract Operation', a Poem by Simon Armitage.
A Critical Appreciation of 'Cataract Operation', a Poem by Simon Armitage In my opinion 'Cataract Operation' is fundamentally about the limitations of our natural sight, and the exploration of how these restrictions can be penetrated and the mundane things all around us transformed into something entirely different. That is the nature of the 'Cataract Operation'; the 'Cataract' is this innate barrier that we all possess that prevents us from looking beyond the physical reality of the world. The 'Operation' is having this obstruction removed and gaining a deeper perception of things. Few people look at a bird flying and see that bird waving at them, or look at a pair of curtains lining a window, and see two interfering old women peering out from their hiding place. Those that do, could be said to have a 'poet's sight'. Poets can write poetry about commonplace objects and events perhaps because they don't see in those things what everyone else does; their cataract has been removed and they see things all the clearer. I believe that is what Simon Armitage is experiencing and transcribing in 'Cataract Operation'. The title itself, 'Cataract Operation', holds an ambiguity; the word 'Cataract' has two very different connotations. A cataract can be a medical condition which turns the lens of the eye partially or totally opaque, obviously causing blindness. A cataract can also be a
Simon Armitage - poetry
Simon Armitage was born in Marsden, West Yorkshire in 1963. He studied Geography at Portsmouth, and Psychology at Manchester, qualified as a social worker and worked for six years as a probation officer. He has also worked as a shelf stacker, disc jockey and lathe operator. He is now a freelance writer and broadcaster. His work includes song lyrics, plays and scripts for TV and radio. Armitage's first collection, Zoom, was published by Bloodaxe in 1989. Subsequent poetry books, all published by Faber, include Kid (1992), Book of Matches (1993), The Dead Sea Poems (1995), Moon Country (1996) and Cloud Cuckoo Land (1997). Untitled Poem: "I am very bothered when I think..." This poem comes from Book of Matches, 1993. It appears to be based on memories of Armitage's schooldays. He says that: "most poetry has to come from personal experience of one kind or another." The first two lines actually come from a probation service questionnaire, but Armitage has chosen to use them in a different context. Here he tells the story of a science lab prank that went wrong. The person in the poem heated up a pair of tongs and then handed them to another person, presumably a girl. This girl innocently slipped them onto her fingers and was badly burnt. The doctor said that she would be "marked for eternity" by the ring-shaped scars. The narrator claims now that he was using this as a way
Comparative Poem Essay - "About his Person" and "Cataract Operation" Simon Armitage was born on the 25th of May 1963, in the town Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Armitage studied at Manchester University
Comparative Poem Essay - "About his Person" and "Cataract Operation" Simon Armitage was born on the 25th of May 1963, in the town Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Armitage studied at Manchester University and acquired a BA in Geography and an MA in Psychology. After several different jobs, including a probation officer, Armitage decided to become a modern poet and writer. He writes mainly about people and places, and has written many novels, including the well-known "Little Green Man". His poems and novels have now made him a renowned poet as well as writer. Armitage has written a book full of poems named "The Book of Matches". All the poems included are said to be have been written in the time that it takes for a match to fully burn. The two poems; "About his Person", and "Cataract Operation" are two of these poems. They are very similar in some ways, and very different in others. Although Armitage mainly writes poems with similar content, "About his Person" and "Cataract Operation" are both quite different. "About his Person" is about the possessions found on a dead man. It shows that from anyone's possessions, a lot can be learnt about that particular persons life or personality. In the poem, some of these possessions include; "a library card", "a giveaway photograph", "a shopping list", and "a final demand". From these and other possessions, much can be learnt about how
How does Armitage expose the inadequacies in the characters of his poems?
How does Armitage expose the inadequacies in the characters of his poems? For this question I am going to focus on the poems 'About his Person' and 'Poem' In poem the man that it is about has the tendency to be an opportunist thief 'and twice he lifted ten quid from her purse'. This shows how he does not have much of a conscience. This is re-affirmed by the fact that he did it twice and did not regret the evil deed. The man also has a short temper. For example he lost his cool with his wife and punched her in the face just because she laughed once. This poem also shows us that he is also inadequate in that he has a violent side to him. Armitage re-emphasizes this in the last line of the first stanza with the word 'slippered'. The plosives in this word make it sound hard and violent. Just like the character in the poem. The man also suffers from alcohol abuse 'and every week he tipped up half his wage' this means that every week he wasted away half his wage on alcohol, instead of spending it on things to sustain his family. As well as inadequacies the man is also a good man in that he cares about his mother and occasionally praises his wife and he tucks his daughter in at night. The character in 'About his person' has similar inadequacies to the man in the first poem. He also has a short temper, this shown by the way he has 'slashed' his diary, possibly in fury. He also
For this piece of coursework, I am going to compare two Poems produced by Simon Armitage.
For this piece of coursework, I am going to compare two Poems produced by Simon Armitage. His website has quoted that he is one of the most exciting younger poets that combines accessible humor and realist style with critical significance and has been short listed for the Whitbread Prize, TS Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. When he jumped genres, the critics moan about his first novel Little Green Man (2001) for its lack of poeticism; he said he "just wanted to tell a story", but the Guardian saw this tale of adult men trapped in childhood games as a "piece of low-key, frill-free lad-lit". "About his person" is a poem about a dead man who has been discovered. The title of the poem gives a sense that someone has written him, such as a Police officer's report. The form of layout is in 10 two-lined stanzas called rhyming couplets. The poem starts off in an ordinary way. It says "Five pounds fifty in change, exactly. A library card on its date of expiry". He had a postcard stamped but it wasn't sent to the person he was sending it to. The word "slashed" was used and this showed violence. It also showed that he was writing something quickly when the poem states "A pocket sized diary slashed with a pencil" From March 24th to 1st of April, something happened during that period of time and we don't know what it is. This makes us wonder in suspicion, what it was about. In his hand
'Before You Cut Loose' by Simon Armitage.
'Before You Cut Loose' by Simon Armitage The poem, 'Before You Cut Loose' by Simon Armitage is not set out in structures and is one stanza consisting of twenty three lines. The poem makes use of enjambment so that sentences are not interrupted for the purpose of rhyme. This also means that the sentence structure is not disrupted. Each line of the poem contains ten syllables with the main stress of each sentence being on the fifth and the tenth syllable of each line. By stressing the fifth and tenth syllables, a repetitive tone is created which reflects the casualness, lack of responsibility and callousness that not only does this poem use but that society today uses also. This can be shown to effect in the lines, "I heard a story of a dog that swam to the English coast from the Isle of Man" This also shows full use of rhyme. Not all of the lines in the poem are of full rhyme and some lines include half rhyme such as with the words "life" and "night". The poem also contains ellipsis in the first line as the poem starts from half way across the page with, "" It seems that there are some words missing from the beginning of the poem that makes the poem more interesting and different. The poem has a very informal manner. It is not directed at any individual person and the use of ellipsis, where there seems to be a word or more than one word missing from the sentence is