FARMHAND
HOW THE POET HAS MADE HIM A MOVING FIGURE
This poem was written by James Baxter who was born and lived in New Zealand. He was brought up in a farm in a quiet and bleak south east corner of New Zealand.
The poem is about a farmhand who is portrayed to be a very ambivalent character. He is unhappy and rather diffident in certain situations and extremely confident and gloriously happy in others.
Some “old wounds” a past experience or probably “the secret night” which has witnessed some deep dark personal experiences
relate to his emotions and melancholy. However all his sadness is vanquished once on the farm where he feels like a king.
In the first two stanzas the poet describes the Farmhand as he stands outside the dancing floor.
The first stanza tries to give the impression from his gestures that he is a careless person not interested in what is going around him the way he is smoking and joking with his friends. But as the poet helps us observe him closer and find him “ Looking out into the secret night” and “ always his eyes turning to the dance floor and the girls” we realize that the farmhand is not as he appears to be.
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Teacher Reviews
Here's what a teacher thought of this essay
There is much useful observation and analysis here, though it occasionally drifts into unsupported generalities. Quotations are well chosen and skilfully woven into the argument. The essay disappointingly peters out, however, without effectively summarising the main findings of the analysis. Some of the shorter paragraphs that deal with the same theme or stanza of the poem would be better combined. The writer demonstrates that s/he is capable of very good sentence control but this tends to become a little sloppy as the essay progresses, indicating that the completion of this work was rushed and not read though critically before submission. There is the makings of a very good essay here, but it falls short of its potential. 3 stars