Extract from Out of the Blue - Simon Armitage

Extract from Out of the Blue - Simon Armitage

1. Poetic Techniques

   • Alliteration
     • 'building burning'
     • 'twirling, turning'
   • Questions
     • 'Does anyone see a soul worth saving?'
       • Rhetorical
       • Asks the reader to think
         • Is one life more important than another?
         • Death brings equality
           • Everybody dies
     • 'Do you think you are watching, watching a man shaking crumbs or pegging out washing?'
       • Aware of audience
       • Contrasting everyday action with the horror
     • 'So when will you come?'
       • Waiting for rescue
         • Or death
   • Enjambment
   • Repetition
     • 'I am trying and trying'
       • Powerless and desperate
     • 'The depth is appalling. Appalling'
       • Emphasises
     • 'Small in the clouds, but waving waving'
       • Cry for help, despiration

2. Title

   • Blue sky = peace, tranquility
     • Contrast
   • Unexpected event
     • Sudden
   • Out of the sky came the terrorist planes

3. Comparision

   • Charge of the Light Brigade
     • Both poems are public memorials for disasters

4. Language

   • 'A bird goes by'
     • Sense of height
     • Wishes he could fly?
     • The world is still going on
   • Ending
     • 'My arm is numb an my nerves are sagging.'
       • Becoming tired
         • Giving up
     • 'Do you see me, my love. I am failing, flagging.'
       • 'my love' - Reminds us that he's a real person
       • End of extract suggests end of mans life
     • Full stops at the end of each of the line
       • Sense of finality
   • 'but the white of surrender is not yet flying
     • White flag
       • Surrender in war/conflict
     • White shirt
       • 'white cotton shirt'
         • Implied that he's an ordinary business man
     • Not ready to give up

5. Subject and Themes

   • Written for the 5th anniversary of 9/11
     • The attack on the world trade centre
       • Written in the point of view of a man in the tower

6. Form and Structure

   • Seven stanzas but only an extract
     • Four-line stanzas