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'Country School' � Allen Curnow
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'Country School' � Allen CurnowLITERATURE ASSIGNMENT Poetry analysis of \'Country School\' – Allen Curnow In this poem \'Country School\', the persona (who might be Allen Curnow himself) pays a visit to his old school where he takes a nostalgic walk down memory lane and recalls his childhood. As this poem reflects childhood reminiscence, the persona seems to realize that things are not as bad as they seemed before along with the portrayal of the overall issue of aging. However, the tone of the persona seems to sway between enthusiastic and apathetic as there are many a times when the tones seem to differ between two extremes.
In this poem, the persona describes a country school that seems to be in a somewhat dilapidated condition. The vivid image drawn by the alliterative phrase \'Paint all peeled\' supports the fact that the school is indeed deteriorating. With the phrase \'tufts topping\', one is able to picture a country school architect with pinus tufts on it \'roof ridge\', establishing an image of a typical country school. Through the usage of colloquial language, the vivid images seem to hold a lot of details, for instance the word \'dunny\' evolves a picture of the local Australian toilets enlightening the audience to the smallest of details. Furthermore, \'Girls squeal skipping\' conjures up an auditory image as the little kids play around. Several kinds of sound effect helps describe what the persona is going through. The fluid \'r\' sounds in rank, and roof-ridge help integrate the ideas, linking them and helping form a wider image of the country school. Also the \'b\' sounds in \'bargeboard, weatherboard and gibbet belfry\' calls attention to the detailed observation again helping in building up the vivid image.
Allen Curnow has employed parallelism as well as repetition in order to draw links in this poem. The parallel comparison of \'How small; how sad\', draws a link with how the persona seems to be recalling his days back in school. The passing of time and his aging is revealed for the very doors that seemed huge as a kid now seems to be described as being rather \'small\'. The persona refers to himself as a third person and this is deduced through the repetition of the word \'you\'. Perhaps the persona had a tough time reconnecting with his old school that he felt more comfortable referring himself as a third person rather than personally reflecting, as though he were talking to himself. This poem follows an irregular rhyme scheme, perhaps something that reflects his irregular pattern of this recollection of memories. The lack of a proper rhyme scheme might also reveal the lack of assurance, and the hard time he seems to have re-adjusting to his past. Although the poem does follow an imperfect rhyme scheme: topping-skipping; waves-eaves; than-began; small-wall, the fluctuating rhymes and discordant sounds allows the audience to notice his discomfort while revisiting his school.
Curnow has made use of an unstable structure so to say, for the poem does not hold a constant number of stanzas, rather the poem begins with 3 and 5 lined stanzas but ends with two 4-lined stanzas. Now this growth of stability towards the end perhaps reflects the growth or the increase in the persona\'s clarity of understanding. It\'s as though he finally realized that the very things that were unsettling or intimidating to him as a child (terrible doors) are not as bad as they seemed back in the day. This minor epiphany seems to be mimicked by the structure of the poem itself. Similarly, in this poem, the persona seems to get distracted momentarily and this can be shown in the second stanza after \'Pinus betrays\'. While observing the pinus he drifts away into talking about how they function. However, the persona gets back on track in the third stanza \'For scantling Pinus\' as his focus shifts back to the tall trees that seem to be protecting the school. Several roll over lines, such as – \'paint all peeled on bargeboard\'; \'scattering bravely Nor\' West gale\' etc find its place in this poem. The ideas rolling together suggests the pace at which the persona seems to be remembering his past and the sense of excitement is established with this upbeat pace with lines spilling over to others, not slow with end stopped lines. Also, the rolling over lines reveal the haphazard ideas that seems to be moving on to the next in contrast to other poems where the ideas follow a stable well paced pattern. In this poem, Curnow employs colloquial language, the usage of this everyday language is to perhaps connect with his audience and communicate on an informal level and talk about something as casual as \'school\'. \'Gibbet belfry\' would be an example of this simplistic yet local language helping the audience further visual this school in detail. The idea that the school started along with the persona himself brings into notice that the school might not be as old as one would think. Also \'you call it old\' further suggests that the persona is merely just referring to the school as being \'old\' when actually its not. Also, the idea of aging has also been linked to the pinus trees that grow mature \'in less than the life of a man\'. This line suggests that the time period for a tree to gain maturity is lesser than the time taken for human beings. Also the word \'scantling\' further backs this idea for the word describes the measurement of the maturity of the tree and to deduce its time of harvest. Similarly, the word \'terrible\' implies that the persona wasn’t actually fond of the tiny doors when he was a kid, and its reference as being \'sad\' suggests its dilapidated state. Its through words like these that the audience is able to sense a hint of unpleasantness in the past as the persona fails to hold an optimistic approach to this walk down memory lane. Rather the tone seems to be somber and a bit died down. Furthermore it suggests that the persona pities the state of his school. This poem holds a variety of figures of speech used and this perhaps reflects the variety of emotions the persona himself goes through in this visit to his old school. The alliterative phrases: \'paint peeled\'; \'rood-ridge\', \'tufts topping\' all help the audience build up a vivid image of the school. A similar imagery effect is achieved through the series: \'bargeboard, weatherboard and gibbet belfry\'. Using neologism, the phrase \'srub-worn\' suggests that the school is not in the best of its condition as the floors have worn out. The pinus trees that seem to portray the same pace of aging, has been personified as it has been accused of betraying the school and not protecting the roof from the stormy \'Nor\' West gale\'. However, the trees have also been described as \'scattering bravely\', perhaps an attempt to denote the nobility of what the tree is doing for the school by scattering the strong winds and defending the meek school structure. This task of the trees has been compared to the \'reef\' through the analogy \'as a reef its waves\' for the wind is scattered just as the tidal waves are scattered by the reef, drawing an interesting comparison with the two elements wind and water. Also, the comparison of the ages between the persona and the trees are established through the usage of the polyptiton \'less than a life of a man\' and \'together your lives began\' further stating the common point in time as they simultaneously began this process of aging. Also, the persona holds a humorous as well as a sarcastic tone when saying \'O sweet antiquity\' for it has been made clear that they are not so old let alone antique.
Known to be a \'time-haunted poet\', Curnow has portrayed this persona who seems to be in denial of growing old. It\'s quite obvious that the persona is just as old as the school but we find him calling the school antique, suggesting that he doesn’t feel like he\'s getting older but finds it okay to exaggerate other\'s age. Through this poem, I have realized that it\'s still possible to savor the past without having to hold the same perspective. In the sense that, times change and so does one\'s perspective, however it doesn’t mean that things remain the same throughput and the very things that seemed unpleasant once upon a time might seem laughable now. CAMBODIA James Fenton, the poet of 'Cambodia' spent several years in Asia, touring countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Indochina and became distressed and exceedingly more and more incensed by the atrocious war crimes being committed by those in authority. He wrote most of his poems upon his return to America, but 'Cambodia' was written while he was visiting Southern Asia. Cambodia was a country devastated by war, and over 2 million civilians died in the various conflicts. The conflict he is referring to here is when American troops conducted illegal bombing raids under the guise of killing Viet-Cong they thought were fleeing into Cambodia. These bombing raids cost 750,000 innocent civilians their lives. Cambodia was then ruled by Pol Pot, who killed up to two million civilians in his reign. James Fenton was particularly disillusioned with those who had the power to stop the war, and became a fervent anti-war supporter. He knew that it was the ordinary citizen who was dying, not soldiers or the higher class. In this poem it is those ordinary people he focuses on, those who have either perished or are facing almost certain death on the battlefield. 'Cambodia' has a deceptively simple and childlike structure. In the 1st stanza he describes a man who smiled and said goodbye, a reference seemingly to his death. If this is so, it is debatable whether this is sarcastic, given that the man would not be smiling at the time of his death, or whether it is highlighting how war can instantaneously change things for people, so that one day he was smiling and happy and the next dead. However on closer inspection, it could appear to be a man either being sent away from the battle, or a man being called up for duty possibly saying his farewells to his family. The fact that a constant theme throughout the poem is that the first line contains a survivor, while the second line depicts the dead or those who will soon be dead, adds credence to this thought as does the fact that he is saying two will be left-presumably left behind in battle. In the second line James Fenton initiates a trend that continues throughout the poem of an increasing number of people in the second line of the stanza. As stated above, this poem is to focus on the dead and those who will die and the second line here adheres to that. He gives us false hope by saying that two shall be left, but then cruelly dashes that when he says that "two shall be left to die". In the 3rd stanza we are told that a man shall give his best advice, but three men will die as a result of it. This is a reference to the habitually abysmal military intelligence that plagued these conflicts and often led men into traps. In the fourth stanza we see that one man shall live, but will live a life of regret and to meet that one man surviving four men will have to die. This could be the cause of the man's regret, as survivor's guilt that often plagues the survivors of war in these situations when they live, but their comrades don't. In the fifth stanza we see the after-effects of war, the nightmares and flashbacks and the shellshock suffered. We see this expressed in many poems, but the minimalism of this line conceives an extremely vivid and therefore shocking image of the after-effects of war. The second line also describes that the man thinks it's a nightmare or a dream, but it is actually happening and is reality. War is so bad that it must seem like a nightmare to those involved, and this also shows that there is no escape from war no matter where you are. The last stanza escapes the form of the previous stanzas, in that it doesn't have one man on the first line and then six men on the second line. Instead it says "one man to five. A million men to one." I think here that James Fenton is trying to emphasise that for the one man who started the war, a million must suffer the consequences, and also that for every five people who stay at home and don't go to war, one man must die. The last line, "And still they die. And still the war goes on." is a chilling reminder to us, a line that is as brutal as it is simple. This line feels laden with anger, accusations, guilt and grief and could be tabled as an accusation at those who are in 'control' of the battles as to why they won't end it. It also demonstrates how there is no end to war, and that that must be particularly astute to those involved. The structure of 'Cambodia' is so 5 stanzas of two lines which lets the poem flow extremely fast and lets the poem get straight to the point. This makes it concise and almost allies us to the poem, rather than letting us feel detached. The poem is also almost lyrical and is presented in an almost joking way which only heightens the shock and impact of his words when we get to the real message. As these poems were always intended to be a form of anti-war propaganda (a fact touched upon by the Washington Post Editorial Feature) and so would be used as a way of getting his message across to the masses, it is clever that he gives us hope at the start of each line. Every first line starts optimistically like "One man shall live" which grants us false hope, before cruelly taking it away from us and showing us that war doesn't have happy endings, as is shown with this line which ends with "live to regret." Because we are hopeful at the start when we lose that hope we feel even more negative, which is a really good tactic for this form of propaganda. Although references have been made to this already, it is necessary to remark again upon the importance of the simplistic outlook of this poem. This is because it is this simplicity that allows James Fenton to convey successfully to us the shock. The simple structure lends the poem a fast, snappy rhythm which ensures the poem gets straight to the point. This creates not only a tense atmosphere but guarantees that the reader will feel that this is an important message. The simple words of no more than 6 or 7 words contrive to build up devastating images because they allow our imaginations to run wild and think up horrors far worse than words could. This poem brings up an extremely famous quote by a man who committed some of the worst deeds history has ever seen, mostly against his own people. Stalin once commented that while "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." While these words are ghastly, to a certain degree they are true. Reading in the papers of one mans heroic death is far more heart-rending than hearing that 1 million soldiers have died in the war so far. James Fenton uses that to his advantage here; by always keeping the numbers low - even when he talks about the million dead he reminds us that it is caused by one person. As this was intended as a piece of anti-war propaganda, it is worthwhile to look at how effective a piece it is. To me, this is a superb illustration of how bad war is, but how simple it appears. Although not as comprehensive as pieces such as "Dulce et decorum est" by Wilfred Owen, I think that it is far more shocking and persuasive than the aforementioned poem, while not drawing on any personal experiences or describing the abominable conditions of war. It was published in countless newspapers and figured on leaflets and anti-war demonstrations which shows its eminence and value. Even now it is an apt and timely reminder about the perils of war.
The child sees farming as simply imitating his father's actions (“close one eye, stiffen my arm”), but later learns how skilled the work is. He recalls his admiration of his father then; but now his father walks behind (this metaphor runs through the poem). Effectively their positions are reversed. His father is not literally behind him, but the poet is troubled by his memory: perhaps he feels guilt at not carrying on the tradition of farming, or feels he cannot live up to his father's example. The poem has several developed metaphors, such as the child's following in his father's footsteps and wanting to be like him. The father is sturdy while the child falls - his feet are not big enough for him to be steady on the uneven land. There are many nautical references:
In these images the farmer is not shown as simple but highly skilled. Heaney uses specialized terms (a special lexicon or register) from ploughing - terms such as “wing”, “sock” and “headrig”. There are many active verbs - “rolled”, “stumbled”, “tripping”, “falling” and “yapping”. There are lots of monosyllables and colloquial vocabulary, frequently as the rhyme word at the end of line. Some of these terms sound like their meaning (onomatopoeia), like “clicking”, “pluck” and “yapping”. The metre of the poems is more or less iambic (in tetrameters - four poetic feet/eight syllables to each line) and rhymed in quatrains (stanzas of four lines). We see a phrase without a verb written as sentence: “An expert”. The poet uses contrast - apart from the general contrast of past and present we note how:
In thinking about the poem you might like to consider these questions:
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