Robert Gray 24 Poems Analysis PDF

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MOD B Robert Gray 24 Poems Analysis...

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24 Poems Jordan: In the rock pool, grass moves with the water. Violin bows adagio. I get up. Bright moonlight. The sea is a glass brimming under the tap. 4a.m.; the Milky Way blowing high above the forest. A truck changes down. Mountainside dusk; white flowers through the bush, the milking-shed lights. Drying her eyes, outside on the hilltop street; hiding in the wind. A railway hotel in the rain. Reading early by soapy yellow light. Louis Hot night. In the yard, tighten the tap. It keeps dripping. The mosquitoes come. A cathedral long tapers of rain light candles on the twilit river. Two magpies stepping on the verandah. Ploughed hillside, smoke, and cumulus.

I sit and watch the way the rain is falling, its eyes closed. After a quarrel she makes love in the shower to the limbs of the water. The crows go over All day, back and forth, anxious to lace night with night. Chris A hospital room; in the curtains, a slight breeze. Thoughts of living. Bring my mother in from the morning, she will vanish in that light. The shadowy sides of everything, on the way down to the white sea. In the vase, flowers from deep in the heath open their eyes. Moon, a spinnaker on the bay of night, and stars make a distant shore. Thick sunset waters, golden as whisky. In this light the tree-roots will walk. Tommy Late afternoon sun in the back of the shed,

cornered and still. In the dim room a piano-lid propped. Urgent sail, far from home. Open the door on the gunshot of the morning work all day wounded. Into the room, a breeze, the pure note on the ocean’s single string.

A pious sunset at the boatshed. Crows with gulls along the rail. In the bus, white neck, black hair. Light paused on its endless journey.

Stanza 1 In the rock pool, grass moves with the water. Violin bows adagio.

Annotate  Enjambment represents the flowing movement of the grass in water

Metaphor - ‘adagio’ – the sounds of a violin played in slow time extends the metaphor of the movement of ‘grass’, ‘water’, Archetypal metaphors – water as a symbol of renewal

Brief summary: What is being described?

The slow movement of seaweed in rock pools.

Key ideas:

That as time passes we can experience renewal, just as waves wash over seaweed in rock pools

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Stanza 2

Annotate 

I get up. Bright moonlight. The sea is a glass brimming under the tap.

Creates the comparison of tap water gleaming/reflecting light similar to seawater The use of assonance to repeat the long ‘l’ vowel sound in the first line “The sea is a glass”, the use of metaphor which creates the effect that the crystal clear tap water is overflowing as enormously as the sea.

Brief summary: What is being described?

An excess of water overflowing from the tap into the sink

Key ideas:

The overflow of water mimics how the mind can become clouded and filled with thoughts of worry after being bombarded with the struggles of

modern life Image 1 Copy and paste an image of the scene

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Stanza 3

Annotate

4a.m.; the Milky Way blowing high above the forest. A truck changes down. 

The use of personification to describe the Milky Way as “blowing” above the forest. Which highlights the presence of the galaxy over earth, indicating a relationship or cosmic balance between the milky way and earth in the universe as a whole Trucks - Sounds made from the gears of a truck being a reminder of the presence of human activity, even during the dead of night

Brief summary: What is being described?

Displaying the modern setting of a

working life, where the scenic, tranquil beauty of the milky way overhead becomes obstructed by a melancholy of trucks. It is difficult to bask in natural beauty when humans focus more on work and urban life. Key ideas:

Regardless of the time, how late or how early, humans are always preoccupied with work.

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Stanza 4 Mountainside dusk; white flowers through the bush, the milking-shed lights.   

Annotate Creates a contrast between periods of the day (Dusk vs. Dawn). Enforces the passing of time and cycle of the day, beginning to end “White flowers through the bush”, use of imagery appeals to the sense of sight. Exemplifies the image of natural

beauty which captures human attention Brief summary: What is being described?

The portrayal of a beautiful, natural landscape blending with the unpleasant, unnatural presence of “milking shed lights”

Key ideas:

Natural beauty can co-exits with the eyesore of human activity. None is greater than the other.

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Stanza 5

Annotate

Drying her eyes, outside on the hilltop street; hiding in the wind. 

Drying of the eyes highlights the action of wiping away tears, which mimics human emotion and ifers sadness. Also conveys the inability to cope with responsibilities. Preoccupations have piled up to the point that the

person has reached their tipping point. Brief summary: What is being described?

The hardships of modern life. How modern living attacks humans because of how difficult it is to maintain their preoccupations.

Key ideas:

The on going responsibilities of modern living put so much pressure on human beings that they want to hide from their responsibilities.

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Stanza 6

Annotate

A railway hotel in the rain. Reading early by soapy yellow light.

Alliteration - use of the ‘r’ sound being repeated throughout the stanza “Soapy yellow light” refers to the dim, barrage of lights emanating for the hotel. “Reading early” indicates how it is open until early in the morning. But how the light of the sunrise is feeble compared to the yellow lights which penetrate the darkness of an early morning

Brief summary: What is being described?

The setting of a railway hotel sitting in the midst of a dark, early morning sky. With an army of lights emanating from the hotel charging through the darkness.

Key ideas:

The passing of time has no effect on human activity. Modern life is sleepless, similar to the humans that keep this dreary living on going.

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Annotate

Stanza

 

Hot night. In the yard, tighten the tap. It keeps dripping. The mosquitoes come.

Brief summary: What is being described?

The narrator's uncomfortable sleeping situation on a hot summer night.

Key ideas:

“The mosquitos come” - colloquial language establishes the land in which the narrator is present, which is AUStralia.

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Annotate  

Stanza A cathedral long tapers of rain light candles on the twilit river.

Brief summary: What is being described?

He is seeing rays of light reflecting off the river, which are described as candles

Key ideas:

Beauty of nature

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Annotate  

Stanza Two magpies stepping on the verandah. Ploughed hillside, smoke, and cumulus.

Brief summary: What is being described?

The magpies are waddling on the hills, while he sees smoke and cumulus clouds

Key ideas:

Natural beauty

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Annotate  

Stanza I sit and watch the way the rain is falling, its eyes closed.

Brief summary: What is being described?

The reader is closing his eyes with the sound of the rain enclosing him.

Key ideas:

Appreciation for the natural world

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Annotate  

Stanza After a quarrel she makes love in the shower to the limbs of the water.

Brief summary: What is being described?

She is relaxing in the shower after an argument.

Key ideas:

Everyday mundane experiences

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Annotate  

Stanza The crows go over All day, back and forth, anxious to lace night with night.

Brief summary: What is being described?

Crows in the scene are flying in the night sky, but without ease, as

Key ideas:

Appreciation of nature.

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Annotate  Hospital rooms are usually thought to have people who are alive but might be dying, so their thoughts of living are looming in the air.

Stanza A hospital room; in the curtains, a slight breeze. Thoughts of living.

Brief summary: What is being described?

A hospital room

Key ideas:

Life looms, breeze symbolizes spirits in the air.

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Annotate Evocative language

Stanza Bring my mother in from the morning, she will vanish in that light.

Brief summary: What is being described?

His mother dying in hospital

Key ideas:

Death is a beautiful thing that we often associate with darkness, however, due to his religious beliefs, it is a moment where we meet God

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Annotate  

Stanza The shadowy sides of everything, on the way down to the white sea.

Brief summary: What is being described?

The light shining down onto the walls and floor

Key ideas:

The eeriness of death filling the room and escaping out onto the moonlit water.

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Annotate  

Stanza In the vase, flowers from deep in the heath open their eyes.

Brief summary: What is being described?

That his mother loves flowers and that her eyes open up with excitement

Key ideas:

Flower is beautiful

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Annotate  

Stanza Moon, a spinnaker on the bay of night, and stars make a distant shore.

Brief summary: What is being described?

Describing the view from the hospital room window

Key ideas:

The beauty of the simple things

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Annotate  

Stanza Thick sunset waters, golden as whisky. In this light the tree-roots will walk

Brief summary: What is being described?

Describing the natural awe of the sunset on the water, describing that it is beautiful enough to make trees walk or make the impossible possible

Key ideas:

Beauty of nature

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Annotate  Imagery/archetypal metaphor – time of the day, adjective ‘later’ inferring the last rays of sunlight – continuity and cyclic symbolism continuing the thought throughout the poem. Personification - light is trapped for the moment.   

Brief summary: What is being described? The sun's reflection is settled to the back corner of the shed Key ideas: light

Stanza 19 Late afternoon sun in the back of the shed, cornered and still.

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Annotate  Symbolism – light, dusk, evening foreboding. Metaphor – potential available by the ‘piano’ being open and ready to play. Tension – the abstract noun ‘Urgent’ and sense of need to escape in ‘Sail…’   

Brief summary: What is being described? The silhouette of the pianos outline resembles the same shape as a sail Key ideas: shapes and lights Image 1 Copy and paste an image of the scene

Stanza 20 In the dim room a piano-lid propped. Urgent sail, far from home.

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Annotate  Metaphor – ‘gunshot’ – shock or impact of news or realisation. Extended metaphor – verb ‘wounded’ suggests the impact and consequence on ‘work’ – if this is a metaphor of writing poetry, of experiencing creativity, then there is the inference of being prevented by a shock or interruption of the processes of thought.  

Brief summary: What is being described? The lasting effects of materialism and the burdens associated with work. Key ideas: Materialism and modern life pressures Image 1 Copy and paste an image of the scene

Stanza 21 Open the door on the gunshot of the morning work all day wounded.

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Annotate  Metaphor – the ‘breeze’ is a shift in tone, potential for renewal when the speaker searches within for the music of poetry. Reprisal of motif – the ‘string’ of the metaphorical ‘ocean’, life or experience links back to the opening Stanza/poem. The adjective ‘pure’ infers a seeking for inspiration in nature.   

Brief summary: What is being described? The essence of nature makes one feel alive and free Key ideas: nature = freedom Image 1 Copy and paste an image of the scene

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Stanza 22

Into the room, a breeze, the pure note on the ocean’s single string.

Annotate  Religious allusion – ‘pious’ – a deeply spiritual experience continues the motif of light and cycles of day and night across the entirety of the whole work. The collective nature of life and death – symbolism of ‘crows’ aligned with ‘gulls’ both scavengers of the detritus of the human world – sit at the end of day watching and waiting. 

Stanza 23 A pious sunset at the boatshed. Crows with gulls along the rail.

Brief summary: What is being described? During the lasting hours of the day, the scavengers are waiting for a feed. Key ideas: light, it could possibly representing the greed of some Image 1 Copy and paste an image of the scene

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Annotate  Metaphor – the ‘bus’ is a metaphor for a journey, the movement away from home and the familiar, or travelling continually. Symbolism – the light – the verb ‘paused’ indicates a suspension of day and with it active thought. Adjective ‘endless’ to describe the metaphorical ‘journey’.  

Brief summary: What is being described?

Stanza 24 In the bus, white neck, black hair. Light paused on its endless journey.

The journey's light “paused” captures the moment in time where the journey is endless when in nature. Key ideas: the power of nature, light Image 1 Copy and paste an image of the scene Image 2 Copy and paste another image of the scene

Louis’ stanzas (stanzas 7 to 12)

Annotate  Enjambment represents the flowing movement of the grass in water

Metaphor - ‘adagio’ – the sounds of a violin played in slow time extends the metaphor of the movement of ‘grass’, ‘water’, Archetypal metaphors – water as a symbol of renewal

Stanza Hot night. In the yard, tighten the tap. It keeps dripping. The mosquitoes come.



Brief summary: What is being described?

The narrator's uncomfortable sleeping situation on a hot summer night.

Key ideas:

“The mosquitos come” - colloquial language establishes the land in which the narrator is present, which is AUStralia.

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Annotate  

Stanza A cathedral long tapers of rain light candles on the twilit river.

Brief summary: What is being described?

He is seeing rays of light reflecting off the river, which are described as candles

Key ideas:

Beauty of nature

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Annotate  

Stanza Two magpies stepping on the verandah. Ploughed hillside, smoke, and cumulus.

Brief summary: What is being described?

The magpies are waddling on the hills, while he sees smoke and cumulus clouds

Key ideas:

Natural beauty

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Annotate  

Stanza I sit and watch the way the rain is falling, its eyes closed.

Brief summary: What is being described?

The reader is closing his eyes with the sound of the rain enclosing him.

Key ideas:

Appreciation for the natural world

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Annotate  

Stanza After a quarrel she makes love in the shower to the limbs of the water.

Brief summary: What is being described?

She is relaxing in the shower after an argument.

Key ideas:

Everyday mundane experiences

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Annotate 

stanza The crows go over All day, back and forth, anxious to lace night with night. 

The crows flying back and forth from both directions symbolises the anxiety faced by humans “Lace night with night” personification and metaphor which suggests the crows are active each and every night as said in ‘laced’ as it means connecting two rope ends in a knot. The connection to the crows' activity and the night are conveyed in ‘lace’.

Brief summary: What is being described?

Crows in the scene are flying in the night sky, but without ease, as

Key ideas:

The crows flying back and forth from both directions symbolises the anxiety faced by humans.

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