The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin

1)      What was the overall tone/mood of the collection?

2)      Thinking about the title poem “The Whitsun Weddings” – who is the speaker in the poem? What is your impression of the speaker? How would you describe his attitude to what he sees? Did the layout and the stanza breaks add anything to your reading of the poem?

3)      What function do you think Mr Bleaney performs in the poem Mr Bleaney?

4)      What impression did you get of Larkin’s views of humanity? Marriage?

5)      What was your favourite/least favourite poem? Why?

6)      Did you notice anything about the forms of the poems or the rhyme schemes?

7)      How did you feel about Larkin’s use of language?

8)      What do you think Larkin was trying to achieve in the poem about the shop “The Large Cool Store”? Are the shop and the clothes it sells analogies for something else?

9)      Did you notice any pre-occupations or emerging themes within the collection?

10)  Poems like “The Whitsun weddings” and “Nothing to be Said” give a sense of changing ways of life and the passing of time, how life ultimately leads to death – do you think Larkin does this effectively? Are lines like “Life is a slow dying” too melodramatic?

11)  Does the collection give away anything about the writer’s state of mind?

12)  Did you enjoy the collection as a whole? What did you particularly like/dislike about it? Did the order of poems work for you? 

13)  Larkin is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century – would you agree with this? Why?

The Water Table by Philip Gross

1.      Gross lays many of the poems out in unusual or irregular form (e.g. Amphora and The grounds). Did you understand why he chose each particular form? Do you think these poems are successful? Did you think that it worked better for some poems than others? Which (if any) did you think were more/less successful?

2.      Who or what did you think First Dog was in the poem First Things?

3.      The poem To Build a Bridge is a villanelle; did you notice any other traditional forms amongst the poems? Why do you think Gross chose a villanelle for this particular subject matter?

4.      There is a sequence called Betweenland that is spread out through the book – would you have  rather seen these poems together or do you think they work better spread out? Did you enjoy the sequence?Why? What was the gist of the sequence? Did you understand why the poems were connected?

5.      Gross often mixes the colloquial with the scientific e.g. "we've punched clean into heaven: snow- // dazzle plains of stratocumulus around us, the paleo-arctic…(Ice Man Dreaming); do you think this works? Did you like it?

6.      The Water Table won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize in 2009, do you think it was a good choice? Why?

Glossary

Jeremy Hooker  (Stilt City) – an English poet who lived for eleven years in Wales.

Amphora - An amphora (plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of vase-shaped ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body. 

Visigoth (The Presence) - A member of the western Goths that invaded the Roman Empire in the fourth century a.d. and settled in France and Spain.

Gillian Clarke (Globe) – a Welsh poet and playwright.

The Rosetta Stone (Thinks Bubble) – an ancient Egytian piece of granite inscribed with words in two languages – Egyptian and Greek.

Petroglyphs – rock engravings.

The Cinder Path – Andrew Motion

1) Some of the poems in this collection are very conversational in tone – almost prosy – what effect does this have? Did you like it?
2) In some of the poems Motion uses very long lines, does this work? Did you like dislike it? Why?
3) Motion makes direct allusion (by name) to other poets (ie Robert Frost, Rupert Brooke) and he also echoes other poets like Andrew Marvell in poems like The Mower – did these poems work? Do you think footnotes or endnotes might have been beneficial or do they stand alone successfully?
4) There is an epigraph at the beginning of the book taken from Cinkante Balades by John Gower – why do you think there was no translation of this? Did you want one?
5) The last part of the book is made up of elegies to Motion’s father. How did you feel about these poems? Did you like them? Did they fit in with the general tone of the collection?
6) Did you notice anything about the form of the poems?
7) Did you notice any rhyme schemes? How did they work with the subject matter?
8) How did you feel about the group of sonnets about Harry Patch? Did they fit the subject matter? Would you have liked to know more about Harry Patch?
9) It has been said that some of these poems sound like poems written by a poet laureate – that they were written specifically to mention particular people or places. Did you notice this? Does it matter?

Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy

1. "Rapture" is a collection of love poems - what was your overall feeling about the collection? Did you enjoy it/dislike it? Why?
2. How did you feel about the two main characters (the writer and the addressee)?
3. What was the relationship like? Did it seem healthy/dysfunctional? Why?
4. How did you feel about the use of rhyme within the collection?
5. Duffy uses a lot of old fashioned and 'poetic' words in these poems (i.e. grace, pardon, gold) and these words crop up several different poems. What do you think Duffy was trying to achieve by using this type of  language? Does it work?
6. Did you have a favourite/least favourite poem? Why?
7. What do you think of Duffy's use of form in this collection - for example there are quite a few sonnets, does the form fit the subject matter? What did you think about the way that the poems were laid out on the page?
8. What was the cumulative effect of the collection on the reader? Is it too much/just right? How did it make you feel? 
9. Could you relate to the sentiments conveyed?
10. Did this book make you more likely/less likely to read another collection by the same author?
11. Carol Ann Duffy is the poet laureate, did this collection have any bearing on your feelings about that?

The Waste Land - T.S. Eliot

·         How did you feel about the inclusion of the notes? Were they useful or did you find them unnecessary?

·         What poetic effect do the first seven lines of the poem make?

·         How did you feel about the religious imagery within the poem?

·         Death by Water has been described as a lyrical interlude, a poem of serenity and a

       negative acceptance of death. What is your view?

·         What purpose do you think that the Tarot pack served within the poem? Do you think that this device worked well?

·         What effects do the words of the thunder have in the final section of the poem?

·         What does the poem show us about Eliot’s attitude to the past?

·         It has been said that Tiresias acts as the central consciousness of the poem – do you agree with this?

·         What do you think of Eliot’s description of people in the pub? Was it realistic or unrealistic? Is Eliot too detached from the lives of ordinary people?

·         At the end of The Fire Sermon Eliot breaks off his sentences – what effect does this have? Why does he end this section with the word burning?

·         Were there too many cultural and literary/biblical references within the poem or just the right amount?

·         What effect do the words of the thunder have in the final section?

·         How much do you think the sequence is a comment on the political/world events of the time?

Glossary

1. The Burial of the Dead

Stambergersee – a lake near Munch

Hofgarten – a public park in Munich

“Bin gar…” – “I am not Russian at all, I come from Lithuania, pure German.”

“Frisch…du”  - “The wind blows fresh towards the homeland; my Irish child, where are you waiting?” The lines are from the beginning of the opera Tristan and Isolde by Wagner.

“Ded…das Meer” – “waste and empty is the sea.” From Tristan and Isolde.

Madame Sosostris – there was a similar character to this in Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley.

“Those are pearls that were his eyes” – a line from The Tempest.

Mylae – a battle in the first Punic War between the Romans and the Carthaginians.

2. A Game of Chess

Laquearia – a panelled ceiling.

“The change of Philomel…” – Philomena was raped by her brother in law King Tereus and he cut out her tongue to stop her telling her sister. The Gods turned her into a nightingale.

‘jug jug’ to dirty ears – the song of the nightingale (from Elizabethan poetry), jug is also a form of sexual address.

3. The Fire Sermon

Waters of Leman – like the rivers of Babylon.

“Et, O ces…” – “And, O those children’s voices were singing in the dome!” from Parsifal by Paul Verlane.

4. Death by Water

Phlebus the Phoenician – according to Eliot a further aspect of Mr Eugenides the one-eyed merchant.

5. What the Thunder Said

Ganga – The Ganges.

Himavant – a holy mountain in the Himalayas between India and Tibet.

Datta – Give.

Dayadhvam – sympathise. Be compassionate.

Damyata – control.

Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis by Wendy Cope

1)      This collection has often been referred to as light verse (a label that Cope understandably dislikes) – do you think that this label is justified or not? Why?

2)      Some of the poems in this collection are parodies or pastiches of other poets (the Wasteland limericks, “A Nursery Rhyme” and “My Lover” for example). Did you think that these poems worked? Which was the most/least successful? Do you need to know the work of the parodied poet to understand them?

3)      What did you think of the sequence written in the voice of her alter-ego Joseph Strugnell? Did you like/dislike it? Why?

4)      Cope employs a range of traditional rhymed forms in this collection (triolet, Villanelle etc),  did you notice it? Did you like it/dislike it?

5)      What do you think was the intention behind this collection? Did you notice any themes?

6)      Did you discover any serious poems amidst the humour? Did you want more of these or less?

7)      The book is littered with references to artists, composers, scientists etc and these nestle alongside colloquial, everyday speech and modern consumerist references (eg Omo). Did you think that this mix and match style worked? Is Cope trying to be too clever? Does it alienate the reader?

8)      Did you want footnotes or a glossary for any of the references?

9)      What was your favourite/least favourite poem?

Seeing Stars by Simon Armitage

·         These poems have been called prose poems or story poems. How do they differ from normal poems? Are they poems or mini stories? Did you find this a satisfying form? If not why not?

·         Were there poems that you felt were more poems than others/or more stories than poems?

·         Did you think “Seeing Stars” was an apt title for the book? What does the title suggest?

·         Have you read anything else by Simon Armitage? If so how did this collection compare?

·         Some of the poems seem to be comic monologues or prose pieces but they have a turn or change near to the end where the poem becomes more serious or magical - “The English Astronaut” for example. Does this make them more like poems?  What effect do you think this change has on the reading of the poem? Is it effective?

·         It has been said that these pieces are more performance pieces than page poems – would you agree with this?

·         What do you think the poem “My Difference” is about? What do you think the difference is that the narrator refers to?

·         Which was your favourite/least favourite poem in the collection? Why?

District and Circle by Seamus Heaney

“District and Circle” won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2006.

Page numbers refer to the Faber and Faber 2006 paperback (pictured above).

1)      Heaney is fond of using unusual or local words in his poems and there are notes on the meanings of these – did you feel that you needed any explanation of the meanings or did the collection work well without them? How did you feel about his use of these unusual words (e.g. snedder)?

2)      Did you notice anything about the order of the poems? For example how did Heaney’s choice of first and last poem work?

3)      There are several themes running through this collection – for example war, death, ageing – did you notice any others? How did these themes work?

4)      Heaney often writes poems in strict form and this collection is no exception, the three poems after the first poem for example are sonnets. How did you find his use of form? Did you notice it? Did it fit the subject matter? What did you notice most – the form or the subject? Do you think writing in form changes the nature of the writing?

5)      There is a section of three linked prose poems in the book (p36) – how did you respond to these? Are they poems? How did they fit with the rest of the collection? Would you have liked more poems like this?

6)      Several of the poems are translations – how did you feel about these? Do they fit with the rest of the collection?

7)      Heaney’s work is known for directly or indirectly addressing the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland – was this theme addressed here?

8)      The sequence “District and Circle” refers to Edgware Road Station which was the site of the 2005 terrorist attack – were you aware of this as you read the poem? Does knowing this change your reading of the poem or how you feel about it? Is it essential to know it?

9)      What was your favourite/ least favourite poem? Why?

Notes on words

Testudo (p5) - In the testudo or tortoise formation was a formation used commonly by the Roman Legions during battles, particularly sieges. Testudo is the Latin word for "tortoise". (Wikepedia)

Scriptorium (p15) – a place for writing, usually refers to a room used where manuscripts were copied in Medieval monasteries.

George Seferis (p20) – A Greek poet, diplomat and essayist – he won The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963.

Seggans (p20) – The Irish word for rushes.

Sùgán (p28) – a wooden chair with a seat made of twine.

B-men (p33) – or B Specials were part-time, unpaid members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Requiescat (p44) – Rest in peace.

Nonce word (p44) - a word used to meet a need that is not expected to recur.

Brancardier (p48) – stretcher bearer.

Höfn (p53) – an Icelandic fishing town in the East of the country.

Bletting (p59) – a process that some soft fleshy fruit goes through when it starts to decy and ferment – some fruits can only be eaten when they have passed this stage. 

Corrida (p61) – bull fighting.

Chamfered (p69) – grooved.

The Meanest Flower – Mimi Khalvati

·         There are a lot of notes on individual poems at the back of the book. Did you look at these whilst you were reading the poems or afterwards? Do you think you needed these notes? Did they detract from your enjoyment of the book in any way?

·         Khalvati is obviously skilled at writing in traditional forms – using forms like ghazal, sonnet, sestina etc. Were there any cases where you felt that the form was a distraction from the subject matter of the poem? Or did you think that there was a good balance?

·         The title poem “The Meanest Flower” seems to be primarily about aging and the way the mind yearns to revisit childhood and is written using the metaphor of flowers – do you think that this works?

·         There are a large number of ghazals (pronounced guzzle!) in the collection – did you understand this form and why the author used it? Did you like/dislike it?

·         The theme of this book is flowers – do you think the author has approached this subject matter in a fresh way? Are the flower poems successful?

·         Are there any poems that you liked more/less than others? Why?

·         There are a lot of references to literature and authors in the collection (eg Shylock, Shelley, La boheme, Lorca etc) – does this add to/detract from the quality of the work? Is she trying to be too clever?

·         What do you think of Kalvati’s use of repetition and rhyme?

·         The poem “The Mediterranean of the Mind” is written in memory of the poet Michael Donaghy – did you find the poem moving? Did you understand why the author has included quotes from Lorca? Do you think these quotes are adding anything important to the poem?

Look We Have Coming to Dover by Daljit Nagra

page numbers refer to the Faber paperback edition.

1)      What did you think about the collection? Did you enjoy it? If not why not?

2)      Nagra has said that he was very aware of writing in “false” voices when he wrote this collection – in particular in voices of people who in reality would not be able to speak English, or who’s English would be very poor, instead of trying to translate them directly he has tried to capture the spirit of what they might say – how do you think this works? Is it convincing?

3)      Nagra has said that he tried to write the poem Singh Song (p51) as an Indian version of a British Music Hall song. Do you think he has achieved this?

4)      Nagra was born and raised in West London do you think he successfully portrays the problems of being brought up with two cultures?

5)      Bearing in mind that he was born in Britain is it problematical that he is writing in the voices of those born in India? Does he do this successfully? If not why not?

6)      Some of the poems (for example Kabba Questions the Ontology of Representation… (p42) and The Furtherance of Mr Bulram’s Education (p36) are laid out in quite unusual ways. Did you understand why they were laid out in this way? Did the form add or detract from the content of the poems?

7)      What do you think of the way that Nagra uses language in the poems?

8)      Does Nagra do anything to break down our stereotypical views of Indians in Britain or do his poems perpetuate them?

Karela  (p12) – also called bitter gourd or bitter melon is a tropical and sub-tropical vine grown in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean for its edible pod shaped fruit. It is one of the bitterest fruits known.

Ladoo or Laddu (p20) – is a sweet popular in South Asian countries.  It is often prepared for festivals and weddings.

Putney (p51) – in Punjabi this means wife.

Read a little of Daljit Nagra talking about the collection here: http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/daljit-nagra/singh-song

Rain - Don Paterson

This month's book is Rain by Don Paterson. Rain won the Forward poetry Prize for best collection in 2009, whilst the poem Love Poem For Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze won the Forward prize for best individual poem in 2008.  

Questions

The book contains some loose translations of other poets – Vallejo, Cavafy, Desnos, Machado, etc. How do you feel about these translations? – Should there be more indication that that is what they are?

Love Poem For Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze won the Forward Prize for best single poem in 2008. The poem has extremely long lines and uses a great deal of technical jargon – how did you feel about this? Was it accessible to the reader? Was it too dense/impenetrable? Why do you think it won the Forward prize?

The themes of loss and yearning run through the book (loss of his friend Michael Donaghy, loss of a child, yearning for a singer beyond his reach). How do you think Paterson deals with these themes? Could you relate to them?

Paterson uses a lot of rhyme in his poetry – how do you feel that he handled rhyme in this book? Did you like it? Did you feel it was overdone, just enough or would you have liked more?

What was your favourite/least favourite poem in the collection? Why?

What do you think of the way Paterson uses form – for example in Renku?

Notes on Poems

Love Poem For Natalie 'Tusja' Beridze  (p.17) – Natalie Beridze is a singer from Georgia (Eastern Europe)

Renku: My Last Thirty-five Deaths (p.22) – Renku is a Japanese form of linked verse poetry (usually collaborative) which was formerly known as haikai no renga. At renga gatherings poets would take it in turns to provide alternating verses of 17 syllables and 14 syllables. The poems initially were coarse and witty but later developed into Haiku.

Unfold (p.31) – Akira Yoshizawa (1911 – 2005) was considered to be the grandmaster of origami. He created over 50,000 models and wrote 18 books.

The Bathysphere (p.33) - A bathysphere is a spherical deep-sea 

submersible which is unpowered and is lowered into the ocean on a cable. (Wikipedia)

Parallax (p.38) - Parallax – is an apparent change in the direction of an object, caused by a change in observational position that provides a new line of sight. (The Online Free Dictionary)

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher and Critical Theorist. Michael Longley is an Irish poet and was Professor of Poetry for Ireland (2007 – 2010).

The Poetry (p.43) – Li Po (701 – 762) is also known as Li Bo or Li Bai and was a major Chinese poet of the Chang Dynasty.

Sky Song (p.44) – Robert Desnos (1900 – 1945) was a French surrealist poet.

March Wind (p.45) – Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968) was an Italian poet who won The Nobel prize for Literature in 1959.

The Wind (p.46) – Antonio Machado (1875 – 1939) was a Spanish poet and a leader in the literary movement Generation of 98.

The Bowl Maker (p.48) - Constantine P. Cavafy was a Greek poet (1863 – 1933).

Miguel (p.49) - César Vallejo was a Peruvian poet (1892 – 1938). He is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language.

 (the page references refer to the Faber and Faber hardback edition)