National Trust - 1978

What is the significance of the title of the poem ‘National trust’?

• Polysemic literally used to indicate a charity but has this metaphorical meaning of how we trust each other and represents the lack of trust between the different classes in British society

• The National trust literally describes itself as ‘a charity that works to preserve and protect historic places and spaces for ever, for everyone.’

‘Bottomless pits.’

• This imagery is part of this bigger conversation, referring to how there is no limit on national trust money while Miners are losing money during this time.

• Short dramatic sentence immediately hooks us in to the narrative of the poem and conveys how the speaker has been considering his thoughts for a while and is ready to speak.

• We begin on a foreboding note

‘Castleton’

• Peak district, Derbyshire

• Cavernous depths could be seen as a metaphor for the large divide between the powerful and the powerless.

‘stout upholders of our law and order.’

• An allusion toward conservative party, government, police or even more broadly anyone in authority

• Satirical tone from Harrison as if this is not the case which we understand to be true as he in fact defines them ironically

‘borrowed a convict hush-hush’

• Sense of irony, because there is no law and order, the onomatopoeia of ‘hush’ indicates how this is very unofficial, suggesting that those with authority and power do whatever they want, ultimately highlighting injustice and callousness of them. - becomes this metaphor of social injustice

• ‘Borrowed’ is also a verb used to objectify and dehumanize the individual, showing us how he is used as a human tool. but also it places us in the mindset of those of law and order who don’t see a problem with it

• This idea is exemplified by both the miners striking and then their strike being illegal so they are like ‘convict(s)’ but also the fact that a ‘convict’ was not allowed to vote.

‘Townaroath’

• Setting shift to this place, a tin mine under the care of the national trust and it is used as a symbol of the exploitation of the workers and the suppression of their voices

‘flayed, grey, mad, dumb’

• Asyndetic list of adjectives

• Convicts skin is flayed, grazed because of rubbing against the cavern walls and hair had turned ‘grey’ from fright/shock and he is now unable to mutter a word turning ‘mad’ and ‘dumb’

• Shows how this experience was transformative in the most traumatic way

• Overall symbolic of how the lower-class are exploited.

‘Not even a good flogging made him holler!’

• Oxymoron of ‘good flogging’ to critique their beliefs

• There is a casual tone with the exclamative and use of language of ‘holler’, showing that there is no care for his suffering

• Also expresses the depth of trauma the ‘convict’ faced that he became voiceless and desensitised to pain this highlighting the overall cruelty of his captors

‘dangling a scholar.’

• Here Harrison juxtaposes what is happening, suggesting rather the intellectual not the convict should be in this position

• Harrison critiques the hierarchy through reversal of positions.

• As the scholar is dangled you see the depths of Britains social and historical complexities, which highlights societal values and priorities

‘killed the language that they swore it in’

• Talks of Miners who would have spoken Cornish but now it is a dead language in Wales, with them being forced to speak a different way

• ‘killed’ a violent, aggressive verb that brings emotional impact about this theme of voicelessness as they lose this personified language.

• However, Harrison in his poetry creates a reversal of this at the end as we as readers are forced to speak cornish.

‘The dumb go down in history and disappear.’

• No evidence that you ever existed if you don’t speak, no one is held accountable… ‘dumb’ shows how they face consequences of their silence by being denied a voice.

• Comments on a wider class war and the deliberate marginalisation from the elite.

• Focus on historical suppression but can even comment on today

‘the tongueless man gets his land took.’

• Horrible, undermining sense of irony because he has to translate their words because he cannot help himself

• This predicts what has happened with the strikes in the following decade with trade unions reduced and votes reduced.

• This last line becomes symbolic of Harrisons message about how it is important to have a voice

• Shown through how it ends with a Northern dialect, finishing the poem with a sense of working class authenticity and solidarity. Poetry thus acts as a powerful tool, rebellious.

• Shows the significance of the loss and supression of language as it acts as a metaphor for the broader silencing of marginalised groups

• Juxtaposition between Poetry’s elitist connotations and how Harrison uses non-standard English here to make a statement about voicelessness.

How does the poems metre mirror the main message?

• Written in free verse with no specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern to express this freedom that is needed from suppression