Q1 of 14 Page 98

Read the extracts and answer the questions:

'Already division piles emphasis like bullets, Already the one dark air is separate and strange'.


i) Which words describe the 'dark air'?


ii) Explain 'Already division piles'.


iii) What effect does the repetition of the word 'Already' have on the poem?

(i) The words separate and strange describe the dark air.


(ii) This phrase reveals the harsh effect of separation on the psyche of the two lovers and how it engulfs and isolates them almost immediately.


(iii) The repetition if this word emphasizes the speed with which separation surrounds and isolates the lovers, who now have to face very bleak, solitary worlds.


More from this chapter

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4

In the last stanza, 'goodbye' is called a ‘quiet disaster’. With one murder, instead of death, are born two ghosts who will, like Hamlet, inhabit two worlds apart from henceforth. But all these stanza-specific images point to the global symbol of separation i.e., Curtain.

Now find two images from each stanza, which eventually focus on this global symbol.


Stanza 1 (i) ___________________ (ii) ___________________


Stanza 2 (i) ___________________ (ii) ___________________


Stanza 3 (i) ___________________ (ii) ___________________


Stanza 4 (i) ___________________ (ii) ___________________

 5

Collocation is the co-occurrence possibilities of words. Cup and saucer, chair and table are acceptable collocations. But poets use marked collocations. Poets take liberties and use unusual collocations for effect. 'Clinic heart' (line 15) is an example of this. The poet uses it to describe the emotionless state of the heart.

In the table below are listed a few more instances of such collocations in the poem. Write down the effect of each in the space provided. Write the effect this has on the poem.


 1

Read the extracts and answer the questions:

'Goodbye'


There is no touch now. The wave has broken.'


i) Quote the line which states that the two people who are separating are not within touching distance anymore.


ii) What does the word 'wave' symbolise?


iii) Which one word in the above extract describes the theme of the poem?

 1

Read the extracts and answer the questions:

'That in the small white murder of one kiss


Are born two ghosts, two Hamlets, two soliloquies.


Two worlds apart, tomorrow?'


i) Explain the comparison in the poet’s reference to the ‘two Hamlets’ in your own words.


ii) Murder normally leads to death, but here, murder leads to the birth of two worlds. This is ironical. Explain the irony.


iii) 'Two worlds apart'. How does this expression focus on the title of the poem, 'Curtain'.