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Shinoskye Posted 14 years ago

Poem analysis

Can anyone help me to analyse the poem 'Listening to grownups quarrelling'?
Here is the poem
Standing in the hall against the
wall with my little brother, blown
like leaves against the wall by their
voices, my head like a pingpong ball
between the paddles of their anger
I knew what it meant
to tremble like a leaf
cold with their wrath
I heard the claws of the rain pounce.
Floods poured through the city
skies clapped over me
and I was shaken, shaken
like a mouse
between their jaws
  

Top answer

Here are a few places to start: First, the images of helplessness. The speaker identifies with a series of items that embody something gripped by a greater power: a ping-pong ball in the middle of a game, a leaf in a storm, a mouse in the jaws of a cat. Second, the contrast of the two and the one.

  • Here are a few places to start: First, the images of helplessness.
  • The speaker identifies with a series of items that embody something gripped by a greater power: a ping-pong ball in the middle of a game, a leaf in a storm, a mouse in the jaws of a cat.
  • Second, the contrast of the two and the one.
  • Even though his parents are two people, they are in the midst of a single encounter which ignores the children.
  • They are two ping-pong players battling it out.
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1 Answers
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Here are a few places to start:

First, the images of helplessness. The speaker identifies with a series of items that embody something gripped by a greater power: a ping-pong ball in the middle of a game, a leaf in a storm, a mouse in the jaws of a cat.

Second, the contrast of the two and the one. Even though his parents are two people, they are in the midst of a single encou

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