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04/01/07 LO: To explore how McMillan uses imagery and structure to communicate emotions related to the loss of his mother.

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Appealing to the Senses Sound Touch Visual

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04/01/07 Less revealing makes reader curious over significance of the date. This date is seared on the poets mind but not the readers. Death of mother is revealed towards end of poem. Also, it becomes another line in the poem that retracts and reflects the poem. Sound Touch Visual

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The telephone shatters the nights dark glass. A Im suddenly awake in the new year air B And in the moment it takes a life to pass A From waking to sleeping I feel you there. B Personification suggests violent awakening Metaphor for dark night Lack of capital letter shows no cause to celebrate his father died at similar time of year in 2001 Were all vulnerable to death Juxtapose he wakes, she sleeps shock

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My brothers voice that sounds like mine C Gives me the news I already knew. D Outside a milk float clinks and shines C And a lit plane drones in the nights dark blue, D Enjambment = slower pace Like he told himself about his mother An event that they were expecting, but still a shock Suggests early morning Positive aural images, suggests: Early morning Or hes been up all night Or, that life continues Repeated references to light reflect positivity in light of mothers death Juxtaposed with negative image of drones

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And I feel the tears slap my torn face; E The light clicks on. I rub my eyes. F Im trapped inside that empty space E You float in when your mother dies. F Aggressive verbs and adjectives reflects raw emotions Caesura increases the tension. He now fills the place of his parents. Generations dying, sense that hes next in line. It happens to us all. float suggests gentle, natural transition to fill the space of our parents; to be the next to die.

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Feeling that the story ends just here, G The stream dried up, the smashed glass clear. G Parents dying Oxymoron forces reader to consider meaning. stream signifies continuity/ passage of time. drying up links to his feeling of something ending. Or possibly his tears ending. However, it doesnt end as it carries on. Passage of time continues, with becoming granddad Links to line 1. Dark glass of night smashed by the telephone. Clear signals he realises it doesnt just end there. Leaving more positive ending to poem. Rhyming couplet fits traditional form

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Relationships - with parents; about the passage of time, about families, about parents. Structure: Loose sonnet form (for his mother she said she liked proper poems that rhymed so he wrote this for her after her death.) 14 lines but divided into stanzas perhaps to reflect separation from mother and son. Regular rhyme fits the traditional sonnet form apart from line 5 and 7, which could suggest speakers disorientation. Also strict shape reflects his connection with his mother.

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Essay question How does the poet use structure and imagery to convey his feelings about the news of his mothers death?

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Plenary To understand the ways in which McMillan has used imagery and structure to explore emotions experienced on the loss of his mother; To engage with the way time seems to stand still and the accentuation of the senses so that they are more acute.

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Compare to another poem which uses brief, yet striking images and sounds. another poem which relates to relationships with parents