Download presentation
1
Glasgow Sonnet i Annotated version
2
Main ideas / themes Decay Neglect Poverty Social injustice
First 5 lines: develop setting – describe the tenement exterior Lines 6-8 introduce mother and daughter at window Lines 9-11 describe the inside of a tenement flat Lines describe a sick unemployed man who has no motivation to get up
3
Form: Petrarchan sonnet Rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA CD CD CD 14 lines
Octet: introduces one idea (1st 8 lines) Sestet: gives new perspective. Also called ‘volta’ or turn. (last 6 lines) Usually about love Most English sonnets are in iambic pentameter, but this one is syllabic with 10 syllables per line
4
Alliteration: wind is aimless
A mean wind wanders through the backcourt trash. Hackles on puddles rise, old mattresses puff briefly and subside. Play- fortresses of brick and bric-a-brac spill out some ash. Four storeys have no windows left to smash, Wind personified as ‘mean’ – in this case poor / meagre rather than unkind Alliteration: wind is aimless Puddles personified as an angry animal (dog?) with the hair on its neck raised Discarded mattresses also personified: they sound hopeless / listless Assonance and alliteration Playful rhyming and half rhymes: a sing-song effect that is at odds with the unpleasant subject matter – this is a subversion of the sonnet, and poetry in general
5
Assonance: reinforces poets disgust at the building’s dilapidation
but in the fifth a chipped sill buttresses mother and daughter the last mistresses of that black block condemned to stand, not crash. Assonance: reinforces poets disgust at the building’s dilapidation Word choice: a buttress usually holds something up / protects it. Ironic here, as the tenement is not much of a refuge Shocking: people live in this tenement! Ironic word choice: ‘mistress’ suggests wealth and ownership Alliteration: a black block may remind us of the executioner’s block. Word choice ‘condemned’ reinforces this. Irony: the sentence passed on the tenement is that it cannot be knocked down!
6
Alliteration: conveys the narrator’s disgust
Around them the cracks deepen, the rats crawl. The kettle whimpers on a crazy hob. Roses of mould grow from ceiling to wall. Alliteration: conveys the narrator’s disgust Word choice: emotive language that makes the rats sound more like insects. Suggests infestation / disease Personification / word choice – suggests the kettle is a suffering animal The hob is also personified Vivid visual imagery (metaphor): roses are usually positive, but in this case they are part of the decay
7
Alliteration: sense of despair
The man lies late since he has lost his job, smokes on one elbow, letting his coughs fall thinly into an air too poor to rob. Alliteration: sense of despair Metaphor: suggests weakness – even his coughs are feeble ones Word choice ‘thinly’ – suggests poverty / weakness Personification: like the wind at the beginning or the poem, the air itself is part of the decay and hopelessness. Hyperbole: the air is in reality no different, but it emphasises the point that the inhabitants of the block have been abandoned by society
