Hour

Hour

1. known for poems that give a voice to the dispossessed (people excluded from society); she encourages the reader to put themselves in the shoes of people they might normally dismiss.

2. Subject

   • About feeling that arise when spending time with loved ones
   • Being with a loved one, even for an hour is precious
   • Presents traditional idea of time being an obstacle to lovers

3. Structure

   • Sonnet - 14 lines
   • Predicable rhyme scheme (a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g)

4. Language

   • Reference to money and riches, contrasting concept of material wealth against love and time spent with loved ones
   • Line 3 puns on the word "spend" theme love and money
   • "We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers Or wine, but the whole of the summer sky and a grass ditch."
     • Replaced "flowers" and "wine" for a "whole of the summer sky" and "grass ditch"
     • Rich in meaning, loving couple lying down together and looking up
   • Time is important "For thousands of seconds we kiss" - excess "thousands" limited by available time, shows how precious time is to the writer. Seen as a 'treasure' to be carefully counted.
   • "Time slows, for here/we are millionaires, backhanding the night" time is frozen. the hour spent together has given a sense of power, they can bribe the darkness to hold back, immense joy and wealth
   • Contrast between traditional romantic and ordinary "flowers" and "grass ditch", "gold" and "straw" emphasise the romance of the lovers time together
     • Traditional romance unimportant compared to personal experience
   • Frequent reference to images of light. E.g. "Bright", "summer sky", "Midas light", "shining hour", "candle", "chandelier or spotlight"
   • "now" right now, only thing that is important

5. Attitudes, themes and ideas

   • Love versus time "Time hates love"
   • "love spins gold, gold, gold from straw" - Rumpelstiltskin
   • Love can find riches in anything, straw or a grass ditch
   • Enjoying intimacy in the moment rather about thinking of other things
   • Material possessions cannot replace something as special as time with loved ones

6. Compare

   • Sonnet 116
   • To His Coy Mistress
   • In Paris With You