Unseen Poetry Answer

So here's my unseen poetry answer. It's not perfect, but I got 20/20 for it- it just goes to show how easily the examiners mark this question, and how much wiggle room there is for interpretation. I spent 8 minutes too long on this question.

2009 Section 3 A

Father's Old Blue Cardigan- Anne Carson

( http://notyourmamasbookshelf2.blogspot.ie/2010/11/poem-of-week-fathers-old-blue-cardigan.html?m=1)

Q2- a) What impression of Anne Carson's father do you get from reading this poem? Support your view by reference to the poem.

A) I get the impression from this poem that the poet's father is a stern, silent, and independent man, whose natural tendencies are being usurped by the extreme nature of his condition.

It is made abundantly clear from the beginning of this poem that this is a firm man, of well- established routine and definite order. The "back of the kitchen chair" was where the poet's father "always" sat; he has "laws", rather than beliefs or habits. The tight, formal structure of this poem- a three line stanza pattern- is repeated consistently throughout. Words like "stamping", with it's immovable and angry "m" and "p" sounds, and the constant reference to cold, suggest a sharp, unwelcoming man. "Snow" and "coldness" are only thawed on a "hot July afternoon", by the man's condition- he is now a "small child", having lost entirely his previous rigidity and sterness.

It is implied that Carson's father is a naturally private man, whose relationship with his daughter strains and buckles under the weight of his silence. The poet states, clearly and abruptly, that "his laws were secret". Again, references to "snow" and "coldness" imply a tension between the two. When trying on her father's cardigan, Carson states chokingly that her father would not have performed this sentimental ritual- "He would not have done this." Sharp, bare "p" and "k" sounds in the line "coldness comes paring" are coupled with the shorn, raw image of a "moonbone" in the 9th line. Perhaps this mimicks the frugal and purely functional nature of their relationship. I feel, therefore, that the poet's father was a somewhat reclusive man.

Ultimately, Carson's father is man absolutely consumed and destroyed by his illness. His steadfast "laws" are disintegrating, as he is, with his condition. The firm man who stamped "the snow from his boots" is now "as a small child.". Time itself is unwound by the poet's father's illness- he is "riding backwards". The last sentence of the poem is ten lines long, the poet's pen perhaps wandering and losing control as her father was.

Overall, I find the poet's father to be a firm, private man, who has had his deeply-rooted ways unpicked by some terrible disease.

10/10

B) Briefly describe the mood or feeling you get from reading this poem and illustrate your answer from the text.

B) I interpreted this poem as being a slightly confused one, where the poet is seeking to come to terms with the loss of her father. It is reflective but not contemplative, as the poet has yet to fully understand her father's demise.

The poet focuses, as a child or an adult in shock would, on concrete objects as a means of understanding abstract issues. She does not discuss her father's personality directly here- instead, she focuses pragmatically on the "stamping" of his "boots". The "cardigan" shrouds her, rather than memories of her father. She focuses on the "haystacks" that shocked her father as a means of coming to terms with his deteriorating faculties. The muffled, echo-like thuds of "stomping" and "sat" suggest the cushioned realisations of an extreme change that cannot yet be fully recognised.

The poem's structure suggests an uncertainty on the poet's behalf. While uniform in format, a rhyming pattern is mot strictly adhered to. Sentence lengths range from five words- "His laws were a secret."- to ten lines (the last sentence of the poem). The rambling lines suggest incomprehension on the poet's behalf- the only thing she is concisely sure about is her living father ("He would not have done this."). I found this a powerful technique that illustrates the poet's confusion.

Perhaps most poignantly, the poet uses comparison to juxtapose the images of her living and dying father. Perhaps she does this to comprehend her loss. At first, her father is stern and rigid- a man who "stamp(s)" his solid, functional "boots"- who perhaps possesses a "coldness" like the snow he shakes off. This is in contrast to the "child who has been dressed by some aunt", for whom life is so overwhelming that "haystacks" shock him. The wobble of a lower lip and the quiver of realisation is suggested in the repeated "w" sounds- "windy", "will", "while". This comparison might ground the poet's understanding in a more familiar reality- it appears to me to be a method of understanding.

I conclude that the poet is struggling to come to terms with the cognitive- and possibly physical- loss of her father, resulting in a slightly confused, lost, and reflective poem.

10/10