Poems of the Decade, Central Ideas
Key: [ ]: Quotes, [ ]: Literary Devices (Language), [ ]: Literary Devices (Structure)
Poem Title Core Themes Significant AO2
Eat Me, Agabi - Anxiety Tercet stanzas and regular rhythm: highlight the power
- Control struggle and dynamic, with no change.
- Power/ Power
Dynamic Juxtaposing Sibilance and Plosives, 4th stanza: highlight
- Coping the narrator’s inner conflict with herself and the power
Mechanisms dynamic between herself and her partner/ her inner
- Self-destruction voice. Sibilance also highlights the temptation to seek
- Love and more comfort, similar to Eve wanting to eat the apple
Relationships from the snake.
- Pleasure
- Food Semantic field of destruction (graphic imagery): highlights
narrator’s destructive tendencies (dehumanising), both
physically and mentally, which she internalises onto
others as well.
Religious imagery “to watch me swell like forbidden fruit,
his breadfruit”: This highlights the lack of power she has
over her partner/ how she abuses herself.
Allusion to Alice in Wonderland “Eat Me”: In Alice in
Wonderland, the cookie saying “Eat me” highlighted the
move from innocence to adulthood, which mirrors the
peer pressure of society telling Alice what to do. She
gives in. This is similar to the situation of the narrator,
pressuring herself because it is what she believes is
expected of her by society.
The last constant of every line (KDT): Each of the last
constants is the same, but it deviates at some points,
highlighting regeneration, growth, and fighting back. It
could also suggest inner conflict.
Semantic field of excess: This highlights how this has
become a coping mechanism, hiding behind more and
more things which are supposed to give pleasure.
Chainsaw Versus the - Nature Degradation of women through semantics of delicacy
Pampas Grass, Armitage - Nature Versus and personification of nature to be feminine (4th stanza):
Humans highlights how patriarchal society and individuals’ beliefs
- Power Struggle about the weakness of women manifest through belittling
- Power Dynamic language. This is also a feature of post-structuralism.
- Violence
- Destruction - Sibilance, perhaps a biblical allusion: Biblically, a
reference to Eve’s temptation by the snake, which
patriarchal men may blame women for tempting
Adam. The verbs “taking” and “stealing” further the
anger towards women.
Plosives versus Sibilance (5th stanza): This highlights
the conflict between the destructive nature of humans
versus the softness of nature.
, - This destructive nature is furthered by war-like
imagery.
Natural imagery emphasises nature’s dominance:
“Midday moon”, “ludicrous feathers and plumes”,
highlighting that nature has no power compared to
nature.
The phrase “maker’s name” and the semantic field of
manufacturing “juices, joints, and threads”: shows that it
is not inherently human nature that causes violence.
Violence is instead created from systems that promote
conflict, disagreement, and anger. This gives the reader
hope for humans.
- This is emphasised through the irony of “perfect
disregard”, suggesting that men are also victims of
the patriarchal rules and society.
Overestimation of human power against nature, though
metaphor “this was the sledgehammer taken to crack the
nut”, verb “seemed”: highlights the arrogance and
ignorance of man. This juxtaposes the victory of nature
and forebodes the inevitable downfall of man against
nature.
Material, Barber - Nostalgia The handkerchief is an extended metaphor for the loss of
- Memories her mother, but could also be representative of the
- Family society her mother was raised in.
- Love and
Relationships Rigid structure (8 syllables long in the first parts of the
- Society poem):
- Modernity
- This highlights how the narrator’s mother
organised and provided structure to the narrator’s
life. This is more explicitly mentioned: “There’s
never a hanky up my sleeve”.
- If the Hanky instead symbolises the new society
that the narrator grew up in, this may highlight the
flaws of convenience and new technology and how
this has deviated from a better society that didn’t
rely on convenience or excess. This is more
explicitly mentioned: “who died not leaving
handkerchiefs but tissues and uncertainty”.
“Tissues” and “handy packs for 50p” as a metaphor,
contrasting the mother’s priceless material handkerchief,
highlights how convenience destroys and wastes
memories and nostalgia just to be efficient. This
highlights autonomy.
- It could also be a gesture to the mother’s strength
compared to the narrator’s.
Constant use of caesuras: highlight the separation
between her mother/ mother’s society compared to the
Key: [ ]: Quotes, [ ]: Literary Devices (Language), [ ]: Literary Devices (Structure)
Poem Title Core Themes Significant AO2
Eat Me, Agabi - Anxiety Tercet stanzas and regular rhythm: highlight the power
- Control struggle and dynamic, with no change.
- Power/ Power
Dynamic Juxtaposing Sibilance and Plosives, 4th stanza: highlight
- Coping the narrator’s inner conflict with herself and the power
Mechanisms dynamic between herself and her partner/ her inner
- Self-destruction voice. Sibilance also highlights the temptation to seek
- Love and more comfort, similar to Eve wanting to eat the apple
Relationships from the snake.
- Pleasure
- Food Semantic field of destruction (graphic imagery): highlights
narrator’s destructive tendencies (dehumanising), both
physically and mentally, which she internalises onto
others as well.
Religious imagery “to watch me swell like forbidden fruit,
his breadfruit”: This highlights the lack of power she has
over her partner/ how she abuses herself.
Allusion to Alice in Wonderland “Eat Me”: In Alice in
Wonderland, the cookie saying “Eat me” highlighted the
move from innocence to adulthood, which mirrors the
peer pressure of society telling Alice what to do. She
gives in. This is similar to the situation of the narrator,
pressuring herself because it is what she believes is
expected of her by society.
The last constant of every line (KDT): Each of the last
constants is the same, but it deviates at some points,
highlighting regeneration, growth, and fighting back. It
could also suggest inner conflict.
Semantic field of excess: This highlights how this has
become a coping mechanism, hiding behind more and
more things which are supposed to give pleasure.
Chainsaw Versus the - Nature Degradation of women through semantics of delicacy
Pampas Grass, Armitage - Nature Versus and personification of nature to be feminine (4th stanza):
Humans highlights how patriarchal society and individuals’ beliefs
- Power Struggle about the weakness of women manifest through belittling
- Power Dynamic language. This is also a feature of post-structuralism.
- Violence
- Destruction - Sibilance, perhaps a biblical allusion: Biblically, a
reference to Eve’s temptation by the snake, which
patriarchal men may blame women for tempting
Adam. The verbs “taking” and “stealing” further the
anger towards women.
Plosives versus Sibilance (5th stanza): This highlights
the conflict between the destructive nature of humans
versus the softness of nature.
, - This destructive nature is furthered by war-like
imagery.
Natural imagery emphasises nature’s dominance:
“Midday moon”, “ludicrous feathers and plumes”,
highlighting that nature has no power compared to
nature.
The phrase “maker’s name” and the semantic field of
manufacturing “juices, joints, and threads”: shows that it
is not inherently human nature that causes violence.
Violence is instead created from systems that promote
conflict, disagreement, and anger. This gives the reader
hope for humans.
- This is emphasised through the irony of “perfect
disregard”, suggesting that men are also victims of
the patriarchal rules and society.
Overestimation of human power against nature, though
metaphor “this was the sledgehammer taken to crack the
nut”, verb “seemed”: highlights the arrogance and
ignorance of man. This juxtaposes the victory of nature
and forebodes the inevitable downfall of man against
nature.
Material, Barber - Nostalgia The handkerchief is an extended metaphor for the loss of
- Memories her mother, but could also be representative of the
- Family society her mother was raised in.
- Love and
Relationships Rigid structure (8 syllables long in the first parts of the
- Society poem):
- Modernity
- This highlights how the narrator’s mother
organised and provided structure to the narrator’s
life. This is more explicitly mentioned: “There’s
never a hanky up my sleeve”.
- If the Hanky instead symbolises the new society
that the narrator grew up in, this may highlight the
flaws of convenience and new technology and how
this has deviated from a better society that didn’t
rely on convenience or excess. This is more
explicitly mentioned: “who died not leaving
handkerchiefs but tissues and uncertainty”.
“Tissues” and “handy packs for 50p” as a metaphor,
contrasting the mother’s priceless material handkerchief,
highlights how convenience destroys and wastes
memories and nostalgia just to be efficient. This
highlights autonomy.
- It could also be a gesture to the mother’s strength
compared to the narrator’s.
Constant use of caesuras: highlight the separation
between her mother/ mother’s society compared to the
