Verse three of the poem consists of seven lines, in which he explains the reactions of the bus passengers. Lines one to five McGough defines human beings as cowards because of the way that they are embarrassed to look and laugh at the man. The reason being due to they were on their own, so they didn’t have any support from peers. In lines six and seven McGough introduces his third technique a metaphor. “Behind the privacy of eyelids had a mental spew” what McGough is trying to say here is, that the passengers were to shy to stare. They had to hide their disgust and turn away.
In the last stanza of the poem McGough opens it with his final coined word, “Limpinggropingly”. This is a combination of the words “limping” and “gropingly”. McGough applies this coined word here to describe the man’s motion as he is looking for a seat on the travelling bus. The poet then insults the unsightly man by portraying him as “substandard”. We are surprised that he uses this portrayal because we only use the word “substandard” to describe inanimate objects. Things that can’t breathe and we only use this description to say that they are below standard or below average. Therefore to label an actual person as “substandard” is a very rude comment. Straight from McGough’s comment he try’s to prove that the “Hippopotamusman” is no different from everybody just because of his appearance. He does this by saying, “The Hippopotamusman wondered whether it was Wednesday”. I think that is definitely sent his point across by saying this because, sometime in everybody daily lives people ask themselves that very same question. What day is it?
Throughout the poem “Hippopotamusman” Roger McGough has used a very important writing technique. Enjambment, enjambment means the run on lines and in this poem McGough has not used any punctuation. This suggests the progress of the man of the boarding on the bus is a continued movement. Like the bus journey.
“The price seemed reasonable location indifferent” this is how the Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka introduces his poem “Telephone Conversation”. He is saying that he is satisfied with the accommodation that he is willing to occupy. Usually if this was the situation you would talk about the terms and conditions. But Soyinka continues, “Nothing remained but self-confession”. This line makes him sound guilty of something and that he has to apologise for it. “I hate a wasted journey – I am African”. That is what Soyinka had to “confess” the fact that he is “African”. Black. The landlady’s response to this is “silence”. “Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled cigarette-holder pipped”. In the poets mind this is the landlady’s image. “HOW DARK?” the landlady demanded, showing that she was insensitive.
Now Soyinka uses a sensual writing technique. He is shocked by her question he starts to check his senses to make sure that he didn’t misunderstand her. “Button B. Button A” the poet represents this line with touch. Next he describes his sense of smell “Stench of rancid breath of public hide – and – speak”. Soyinka uses repetition to check his sense of sight. “Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tired”. The word “red” was repeated three times. So the poet didn’t misunderstand the landlady. “ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT? Revelation came” You can tell that the landlady is becoming inpatient and demands for an answer. Soyinka realises that he has been silent.
“You mean – like plain or milk chocolate?” The landlady has had the authority throughout the poem only because she is white not because of her intelligence. Now Wole Soyinka proves that the landlady is obviously not very bright because she does not understand the tone he is using. All of a sudden the tables have turned and have made Soyinka the authority and therefore she becomes confused. He proceeds with his description “West African Sepia”. This puzzles her even more and she has to ask him to simplify what it is. Soyinka knows now that he has got the upper hand in the conversation and starts to give out a certain mockery. “Foolishly madam – by sitting down has turned my bottom raven black”. During this line the poet uses two writing techniques in parenthesis and enjambment, In parenthesis is when a sentence is connected or marked off by brackets or hyphens. The enjambment used gives pace and speed to the poem and shows that the poet’s feelings are taking over. He has felt she taunted him. There is a very hard-hitting implication he is condemning her.
Soyinka could tell that he had gone too far and sensing the landlady putting the phone down changed his tone. “Madam, I pleaded, ‘wouldn’t you rather see for yourself?” In the end Soyinka lowers himself by being polite to the person that made him feel intimidated. His tone has changed once again and in the end he is pleading.
The first two lines of “Tramps on Waterloo Station” Robert Morgan sets the scene. “2a.m.” “London” “Cold darkened platform under clocks”. “Pretending to be travellers” this is how Morgan introduces the tramps in his poem. They are “pretending” because they want to be excepted in society. “Passing time expertly in shadows” the tramps are hiding because they are fearful about being moved on by the police. Some tramps are so sad they’ve had no human contact and need warmth. Morgan puts this message across with this line “Others embrace warm coffee machines”.
The poet begins to talk about one tramp in particular for the next seven lines. “A man talks to himself” “pointing at someone invisible”. This emphasises the man’s loneliness, and shows how desperate the man is for communication. “As he moves from the darkness to sanity”. Morgan is using symbolic words here, “darkness” which implicates madness and “sanity” which implicates light. “Notes unburden his eyeshut face”. He feels as if the song takes away his problems.
Robert Morgan continues to illustrate another tramp, “ His face is a dark map of his life”. This is a metaphor that tries to explain to us that the tramp’s face was marked and dirty from his suffering. “Bitter, grimed, diseased, obsolete…” Morgan is using the technique of enumeration to put across the tramps image. He was “bitter” because of the way life had treated him “grimed” dirty where he hadn’t had a wash and “obsolete” out of fashion due to he had no money to but clothes. Here the poet is using a writing technique called pathos a rousing pity or sympathy. He is making us feel sorry for the tramp.
The poet now goes on to talk about the comparisons between him and the tramps. “My clean, modern clothes and full stomach remind me of my sanity”. He has written the opposite of what he had said about the tramp. He wasn’t dirty or out of fashion, but instead he was “clean” and “modern”. There’s a contrast between the homeless and the poet. Antithesis. Robert Morgan points to the antithesis between the lifestyles of the homeless on Waterloo station and his own privileges. At the end of the poem Morgan states that he and the tramps do have something in common. Death. “We are all moving towards the freedom of nonentity”. But then he goes on to say “And they are the nearest to it”. What the poet is trying to say is, that because they are tramps therefore they will obviously die before him. This is because of their state of living, sanity and health. The complete opposite to himself.
