Kid - The poem is a dramatic monologue by Robin the Boy Wonder, the loyal sidekick to Batman in the comic strips, television programmes and films.
KID: The poem is a dramatic monologue by Robin the Boy Wonder, the loyal sidekick to Batman in the comic strips, television programmes and films. Robin talks about how he has separated from Batman and is learning to lead his own, independent life. In the process he publicises some of Batman's secrets so that we see the 'superhero' in a new light. Robin ends up stronger and more mature. The poem is often humorous but has a serious message too. Structure The poem consists of a single stanza of 24 lines. The lines are pentameters (they have 10 syllables each). Language Think about how the language the poet uses helps to convey his ideas. Here are some points to consider: * Think about the title. It does not tell us anything about Batman and Robin - it's only when we begin to read the poem that the identity of the 'kid' becomes clear. However, if we go back to the title having read the poem, it may remind us of other young people who are caught up in the shadow (line 20) of someone they admire, and their need to forge their own identity. * Batman is at first presented as a real superhero: he is described at the start in the alliterative phrase Batman, big shot, as someone who gives orders to Robin. Yet as we read on, his status is diminished. We hear that he ditched (line 4) Robin and had an affair with a married woman (line 10). We see him at the end all alone, cooking
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
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
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
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
Poetry Essay
Poetry Essay Armitage loves creating imagery in his poetry. How effective do you think this is? Choose two or three poems in which you feel imagery helps you understand the poem. The two poems I have chosen as an example of his work, are, I feel two of the best examples of Armitage's imagery. They are both very different; one deals with hope while the other, the loss of hope; one is progressive while the other is regressive. Yet they have one thing in common, they both use very powerful imagery. Armitage uses a very effective piece of imagery when telling us about the pigeon spreading its' tail feathers towards him. This is like a magician showing their cards to an audience and inviting them to choose a card. This shows a conflict between fantasy and reality because although the pigeon is real, the idea of it offering a card is fantasy. This links clearly with the idea of the poem because the fact that the poet can see again has made everything that he does see more wonderful and more amazing that it really is; a fantasy world. This adds to our understanding of the poem and the effect of new sight to the poet. "A pigeon in the yard turns tail and offers me a card. Any card." Another very good example of Armitage's imagery is shown in the first two lines of the poem. He is saying that the sun is like a persons head as they pull a turtleneck jumper over it; an unusual
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
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
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.