MODERN POETRY A Minor Role SUMMARY SHEET PDF

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Summary

Summary sheet detailing context language, structure, meaning/summary, themes, development of ideas, and links to other poems for A Minor Role, part of the Poetry Exam component one (Modern Poetry)....

Description

A Minor Role Meaning/Summary   

Moving poem about how we speak truthfully in face of life’s difficult moments challenges the reader to think of the meaning of roles that we assume in life, what they mean, whether they are consciously adopted or whether society imposes them. metaphor of the stage is used to reflect on the life of the dying speaker. She is the focus of attention and those around her watch for signs of weakness. She feels forced by pressure to present herself as happy or to genuinely feel happy; an act of social pretence. Society gives her false hope and an admission that life is better than death.

Structure    

six irregular-length stanzas with irregular line length, to suggest wayward and random thoughts expressed as they occur to the speaker. Enjambement to enhance the free but uneven flow. Sentences are of irregular length to create a choppy rhythm, as if the speaker is thinking aloud or talking to a listener as ideas occur to her. Punctuation is important here, with colons, semi-colons, parentheses and question marks creating caesurae that contribute to the awkward rhythm and sense of immediacy.

Language    

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first person singular ‘I’ creates dramatic monologue as if the speaker is addressing an unseen friend tone is conversational, as if she is thinking aloud, making terse comments as they come into her head exposes the dichotomy between exterior appearance and internal thought The speaker uses imperatives throughout- ‘getting on, getting better’ as if she is giving herself a talking-to, admonishing herself for weakness whilst trying to contain emotion Two images dominate; the stage (links to Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ in which Jacques says “All the world’s a stage”) and the hospitals and illness. The reader can track the two lexical fields as the poem progresses. The ultimate message is that life is precious. Intertextual reference to Oedipus Rex ‘observed’ implies distance and a sense of perspective (there is a dual narrative) Euphemisms about death show that society isn’t ready to accept death and thus creates false cheerfulness tension between truth-telling and evasion in use of verbs ‘cancel’, ‘tidy’, ‘pretend’ use of present participles verbs in 2nd and 3rd stanzas captures the endless and awful process of serious illness which allows no time for pauses ‘driving’, ‘holding’, ‘checking’, ‘sustaining’

Themes    

Appearance v reality Life and death Dying The stage

Development of Ideas 

There is a fine line between the life the poet wants and the one she has, and this is explored through the constantly changing narrative directions of the poem. Fanthorpe challenges the reader to reflect on their own life, on the role they play, and how they present themselves to society.

Links to other poem + extra notes  

On her blindness – how to speak truthfully in the face of societal pressure to not Please hold – different tone, but also concerned with empty forms of language...