1. Poetry
L.O: TO ANALYSE A POEM
AND CONSIDER HOW IT
LINKS TO THE THEME OF
LOSS.

2. Loss
 Cousin Kate: Rossetti (p. 6)
 Holy Sonnet 17: Donne (p. 11)
 Long Distance II: Harrison (p. 11)
 Catrin: Clarke (p. 12)
 What Has Happened to Lulu: Causley (p. 14)
 Mid-Term Break: Heaney (p. 15)
 On My First Son: Jonson (p. 19)
 My Heart is Like a Withered Nut!: Norton (p. 21)
 Sweet 18: Pugh (p. 23)
 They Did Not Expect This: Scannell (p. 33)
 Havisham: Duffy (p. 36)
 Song of the Worker’s Wife: Gray Jones (p. 46)
 The Hunchback in the Park: Thomas (p. 48)
 Refugee Blues: Auden (p. 52)
 MCMXIV: Larkin (p. 58)

3. Loss
 Remember for each poem we analyse
the focus must continue to be on this
theme.
 How does the poet present this theme?
 What forms of loss are being discussed?

4. The Hunchback in the Park
The hunchback in the park
A solitary mister
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark
Eating bread from a newspaper
Drinking water from the chained cup
That the children filled with gravel
In the fountain basin where I sailed my ship
Slept at night in a dog kennel
But nobody chained him up.
Like the park birds he came early
Like the water he sat down
And Mister they called Hey mister
The truant boys from the town
Running when he had heard them clearly
On out of sound
Past lake and rockery
Laughing when he shook his paper
Hunchbacked in mockery
Through the loud zoo of the willow groves
Dodging the park keeper
With his stick that picked up leaves.
And the old dog sleeper
Alone between nurses and swans
While the boys among willows
Made the tigers jump out of their eyes
To roar on the rockery stones
And the groves were blue with sailors
Made all day until bell time
A woman figure without fault
Straight as a young elm
Straight and tall from his crooked bones
That she might stand in the night
After the locks and chains
All night in the unmade park
After the railings and shrubberies
The birds the grass the trees the lake
And the wild boys innocent as strawberries
Had followed the hunchback
To his kennel in the dark.
DYLAN THOMAS

5. What do we need to look for in
a poem?
 A simple way to break up a poem is to
think about:
 STRUCTURE
 MEANING
 IMAGERY
 LANGUAGE
 EFFECT
What is the writer trying to say?
Where is the poem set? How does this
affect the meaning?
Who’s speaking in the poem?
Which words create the most impact?
Any lexical sets, particular word types
used for effect…
How does the poem look on the
page?
Does it rhyme or have a regular
rhythm?
Are any clear images formed? What
poetic techniques does the writer
use?

6. Task 2
 Work together to write a PEE paragraph
analysing any one feature from your stanza
in depth…

7. Like the park birds he came early
Like the water he sat down
And Mister they called Hey mister
The truant boys from the town
Running when he had heard them clearly
On out of sound

8. Past lake and rockery
Laughing when he shook his paper
Hunchbacked in mockery
Through the loud zoo of the willow groves
Dodging the park keeper
With his stick that picked up leaves.

9. In the fourth stanza there are some definite links to
The Tempest; ‘Past lake’ looks at water imagery
which is seen as nautical and can link to the
beginning of the play. In this stanza we come across
the line ‘Dodging the park keeper’ which suggests
he doesn’t like human interaction or the hunchback
isn’t allowed to live in the park and is avoiding being
thrown out. It also suggests he is lonely and isolated.
This stanza uses enjambment and the lack of
punctuation shows that the hunchback could have
little to no education (like Caliban). Also, the part
about ‘stick that picked up leaves’ shows a lack of
education or innocence as he doesn’t know what it
is called. Not only that but it speaks of nature a lot
(there is a lexical set of nature) ‘lake and rockery’
‘willow groves’ and ‘leaves’ this shows that the
hunchback spends most of his time outside and it is
all he knows.
Your example paragraph

10. And the old dog sleeper
Alone between nurses and swans
While the boys among willows
Made the tigers jump out of their eyes
To roar on the rockery stones
And the groves were blue with sailors

11. Made all day until bell time
A woman figure without fault
Straight as a young elm
Straight and tall from his crooked bones
That she might stand in the night
After the locks and chains

12. In this stanza the hunchback is imagining his
ideal situation while he is at his lowest. He is
imagining a person who is not deformed. It
says ‘straight and tall’ without deformities.
Also you have all the links to the night ‘Stand
in the night’ Night is often associated with
fears or negativity So when he is scared of
his future or feeling negative he imagines
being able to stand upward, be counted as
a normal person free from the ‘chains’
keeping him in place and the stereotypes
applied to him.
Your example paragraph

13. All night in the unmade park
After the railings and shrubberies
The birds the grass the trees the lake
And the wild boys innocent as strawberries
Had followed the hunchback
To his kennel in the dark.

14. Throughout the seventh stanza of the poem ‘The
Hunchback in the Park’ the hunchback is linked to
‘The Tempest’; ‘Wild boys innocent as
strawberries, This represents Miranda as she is
innocent of the rest of the world.
The ‘wild boys’ can’t see beyond the look of the
hunchback. ‘unmade’ an adjective pre-modifier
suggests the hunchback’s home is unmade and
unfinished. However this could also link to the fact
that he is trapped; perhaps if he was free he
would feel the park is made. This could also link to
Caliban’s poor living conditions in a cave.
Your example paragraph

15. Loss
 What types of loss are experienced?
 How does this link to The Tempest?