Poetry

(a) The persona in the first five stanzas of this poem had several different feelings. These were shown by the choice of words used by the poet in the stanzas, and these feelings were stirred up by what was happening around him.
Firstly, the poet felt that something terrible had happened. The poet used lines like "my father crying" and "had always taken funerals in his stride". It explains that even though the persona's father was always very strong at funerals, he had given way and cried this time round, showing that the persona's father felt that something terrible had happened such that even his father cried at this funeral. Then, the poet used the words 'hard blow' to explain that it was something serious that happened. Also, the poet used the line "coughed out angry tearless sighs" to show that the persona's mother had been crying so much that she had no more tears left. These words explain that something terrible had happened.
Then, the persona felt puzzled. The poet used the lines "was embarrassed" and "sorry for the trouble". These sentences show that the persona was puzzled at why the old men stood up to shake his hands and even said a word of apology to the persona, Therefore, the choice of words for this point explains that the persona felt puzzled.
Lastly, the persona was anxious. The poet used lines like "sat all morning in the college sick bay" and "counting bells knelling classes to a close". These sentences emphasize the anxious feelings in the persona. The persona sat all morning waiting for his neighbours to pick him, and anxiety would have built up as time ticked by, as shown by "sat all morning" and "counting bells".
Therefore, the poet described these feelings in the persona in the first five stanzas through these different choice of words.


(b) Imagery is used in this poem. They mainly bring out the pain and anguish of the speaker, as well as to bring out the strong feeling of death. Alliteration, which is a sound imagery, is also used in this poem.
The poet used alliteration in the first and seventh stanza, which is "bells knelling classes to a close" and "four foot box". The first example stresses on the vowel 'l' while the second uses the soft 'f' sound. These create a calm and solemn mood in the poem. On top of that, the word 'knell' is used in a context of a funeral, and here it is being used in this poem. Therefore, it allows the reader to know that someone had passed away. Another use of imagery would be in the line "The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram". This can be seen from a contrast to the solemn and sad atmosphere in the rest of the poem. Also, the poet used the word 'corpse' to describe his brother's dead body, which gives a strong feeling of death. Lastly, the poet described the bruise as a "poppy bruise". Poppies are a type of flowers that are used to create opium, and opium are drugs that can cause death. Therefore it again brings out the strong atmosphere of death.
These are the literary devices used in the poem, and they can be seen to describe the mood of the poem, which is anguish, death and pain in the poem.