Well, if you really insist... - Kevin Ireland
The following poem describes the narrator's response to a poetry performance by another poet
Well, if you really insist...
It was just about
the crappiest poem
I had ever heard.
What made it worse
(5) than a mere item
to be clean forgotten
was the way it worked up
a sweat of fake sincereity.
There was a clammy
(10) self-congratulating
illeteracy of the heart
drooling from every word.
However, I loved the way
you lowered your book,
(15) after you'd done,
made a half-pirouette,
blinked as though blinded
by flashlights and grinned
like an ancient cadaver.
(20) Horror-film directors
would pay a fortune
for that look.
Afterwards there were drinks
and things to eat,
(25) but it was hard to separate
the appalling taint
of humbug verse
from the sausages,
and there was an aftertaste
(30) of unction in the wine.
Thanks, though, for the invitation
to meet again some time.
I'll think about it
when my skin stops crawling.
QUESTIONS
ANSWERS
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2006 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 25-26)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2007 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 26-27)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2009 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 32-33)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2010 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 25)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2014 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 32)
Well, if you really insist...
It was just about
the crappiest poem
I had ever heard.
What made it worse
(5) than a mere item
to be clean forgotten
was the way it worked up
a sweat of fake sincereity.
There was a clammy
(10) self-congratulating
illeteracy of the heart
drooling from every word.
However, I loved the way
you lowered your book,
(15) after you'd done,
made a half-pirouette,
blinked as though blinded
by flashlights and grinned
like an ancient cadaver.
(20) Horror-film directors
would pay a fortune
for that look.
Afterwards there were drinks
and things to eat,
(25) but it was hard to separate
the appalling taint
of humbug verse
from the sausages,
and there was an aftertaste
(30) of unction in the wine.
Thanks, though, for the invitation
to meet again some time.
I'll think about it
when my skin stops crawling.
QUESTIONS
- What does the title suggest? (A)
- Analyse, in detail, how the narrator's negative response to the performance is developed in the following expression:
"There was a clammy self-congratulating illeteracy of the heart drooling from every word" (lines 9 - 12) (A/M/E) - How is the narrator's negative response to the performance further developed in the final stanza (lines 23-34) (A/M/E)
ANSWERS
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2006 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 25-26)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2007 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 26-27)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2009 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 32-33)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2010 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 25)
(NCEA Level 2 English revision guide. 2014 edition, Really Useful Resources, pg. 32)