Effects - Alan Jenkins

Structure

• Singular unbroken stanza feels overwhelming/disorientating, where the lack of a discrete and regular stanzaic structure reflects a poetic inability to organise and impose structure over their emotions. Alternatively, this structure could reflect a passage of time, and the slow decline of his mother’s health. Enjambment throughout renders the borders of the lines fluid to propel the pace of the poem onwards, rhythmically embodying the decline of his mother’s health and persona’s feelings of helplessness in preventing this. The single stanza thus highlights this journey of deterioration, mirroring how the persona’s mother is slipping away from the speaker

• Cyclical structure of the poem through the focus on ‘hands’ at the beginning and then end, and the beginning and ending with personal pronouns ‘I’/’me’. The effect of finishing on a personal pronoun exposes the fact that the persona is now on their own after the loss of their mother  

• First person perspective creates a more intimate tone, informal diction used in a conversational manner ‘I’d never known her not to have that on’ seems confessional, honest, matter-of-fact. Stream of consciousness style. formulates a stronger sentimental bond between the persona, the poet and the reader

• Follows a loose iambic pentameter, with many variations, along with an inconsistent rhyme scheme – perhaps the speaker’s emotions remain unsettled to some degree.  

‘Effects’ ‘little bag of her effects’

• The title immediately has a multifaceted interpretation, where the reading of ‘effects’ is polysemic – both physical effects, meaning objects or possessions, but also emotional effects as the impact of his mother’s life upon the world. This could be referencing the fact that after his mother has died, all that is left are her effects, both her possessions and her influence on people/society, such as her son. 

• The title has a short, blunt syntax to perhaps reflect the blunt nature of grief, or the fact that the poem is not engaging deeply in emotions or figurative language

• If we consider his mother’s possessions to be symbolic markers of her identity, intrinsically linked to her life experiences and self concept, then the decline in her ‘effects’ throughout the poem represents a loss of identity and purpose. This structural contrast is presented between her initial ‘dressing table drawer’ full of objects, and only her ‘little bag of her effects’ at the end of the poem. These possessions act as an external marker of an internal change

‘Smudged black ink’ ‘blotched’ ‘crinkled’ vs ‘reddened’ ‘raw’ ‘rough from scrubbing’ 

• Semantics of paper rather than skin, the extended imagery of her hands has lost life and instead is being dehumanised. Contrasts to the beginning of the poem in which her hands were ‘reddened’  

• poet explores loss through a more detached tone, focussing on the metonymy of her physical body parts to avoid confronting the entire loss of his mother

• ‘smudged' suggests a physical inability to read her name written on the band, which becomes representative of the emotional or psychological ability to recognise her own sense of self. a name becomes a marker of identity, so this becoming metaphorically smudged suggests a lack of clarity over his mother's fading identity. Mimics her slow deterioration, and the fact that her life and identity is loosing coherency and structure

• ‘Reddened’ and ‘raw’ conveys the manual labour and hard work that his mother put into supporting their family, sacrificing her own comfort in the process. Red also as bright and vital, alongside the verb of movement ‘scrubbing’ emphasises her life at the beginning of the poem, thus providing contrast to her death by the end

‘Please don’t leave’ ‘but of course I left’ ‘Funny foreign stuff’ 

• Throughout there is a distinct lack of description about the mother’s character or personality, instead she is described primarily through her actions (such as the cooking), and her possessions (the ring and the watch).  

• This is one of the only occasions that we hear her voice within the poem, not only adding poignancy to the line, but also acting as a social commentary on the absence of female voice and autonomy within society.  

• ‘But of course I left’ seems almost self-condemning and accusatory, regretting the fact that he did not spend more time with his mother whilst she was alive. In conjunction with ‘please don’t leave’ as a desperate plea rather than a parental demand underscores her dependency and vulnerability - causing the son to later regret the fact that he left and did not return (inversion of parent-child roles, reduced to a dependent state)

• Fricative ‘f’ consonance creates a phonological effect that emulates his distaste towards his mother’s xenophobia. Did not see eye-to-eye?? 

‘Blinked’ Stared unseeing’ ‘Took her pills and blinked and stared... and drooled and swore’ 

• Repetition of ‘blinked’ throughout makes her seem empty and lacking in thought, almost an animalistic image of perhaps a deer in headlights 

• Disturbing image, implied that she is merely existing rather than living  

• Grieving his mother’s diminished capacity to perceive, both in the physical and metaphorical spheres, where sight acts as a metaphor for clarity and purpose. 

• Syndetic listing creates the psychotic atmosphere that the mother is in, illustrating her mental issues . Also imbues the line with a phonological heaviness that seems monotonous

• ‘Stared unseeing’ is oxymoronic, highlighting the jarring and paradoxical nature of his mother’s situation. The contrast between ‘stared’, with connotations of sight and perception, with ‘unseeing’ cruelly reinforces that his mother is losing touch with reality. Her deterioration does not feel like a natural process

‘Drink after drink, and gulped and stared’ ‘Night after night’ 

• A phonologically heavy line, where the diacope of ‘drink’ and ‘and’ use repetition to create a deadening effect to the rhythm. This repetition emulates the downwards spiral that his mother’s health is undergoing - repetition implies stagnancy, the poem is unable to progress

• ‘Drink after drink’ and ‘night after night’ structurally mirror each other, suggesting the empty endlessness to his mother’s despair 

• ‘Night’ is an abstract noun with negative connotations, representing darkness 

‘Her watch? - Classic ladies’ model, gold strap – it was gone’ ‘Thick rubber band’ 

• Frequent use of caesura and punctuation disrupts the flow of the poem, perhaps reflecting the decline of his mother’s mental state and fragmentation of her identity  

• ‘Watch’ is symbolic of the time that his mother has on earth, once her watch has gone, this life is running out. Also shows that she is now unable to not only keep time, but regulate the events of life, reflecting the decline in her mental state and logical reasoning (loss of watch = loss of perception of time = loss of touch with reality)

• His mother’s identity throughout is inextricably entwined with her possessions, so the loss of this watch acts as a tangible and physical representation of the loss of her identity - an external marker of an internal change

• ‘Classic ladies’ model’ shows that his mother was a normal and ‘classic’ woman who adhered to the expected role for herself. This is suggestive of the archetypal role for women in the 20^th century, how this ‘classic’ or traditional ideologies was expected of every mother (homogenised view). ‘Gold’ as a precious metal reinforces the traditionally decorative and ornamental purpose of wives  

• This watch is later substituted for a ‘thick rubber band’ at the ‘psychiatric ward’, showing the replacement of her identity (as symbolised by the watch) with her illness. This could act as a social commentary on the way in which people become defined or taken over by their illnesses 

‘Chopping, slicing’ ‘a saucepan, frying pan, cup’ 

• Consonance words sound harsh and impactful, creating an auditory image that makes the atmosphere of the poem more immersive 

• Verbs of movement and action increases the initial sense of vitality and life in his mother 

• Begins in a domestic setting of a kitchen, which is a familiar space, however also reflects traditional roles and expectations of working-class women in the mid 20^th century, confined within the household to care for the family. 

• Asyndetic listing of ‘saucepan, frying pan, cup’ shows how memories of his mother are surrounded by and entwined with household objects

Themes (to update)

• Loss: poignantly captures the lingering effects of loss 

• Family/Mothering: exploration of the inversion of parent-child dynamics, the way in which as parents age, their children must in turn take care of them 

‘Watching soaps and game shows’ ‘the TV in the corner blared to drown out some poor soul’s moans’ 

• The TV acts as a symbol of his mother’s experiences and identity, particularly the way she uses the TV. The progression of the TV from being used for entertainment, ‘watching soaps and game shows’ to being used in the psychiatric ward in a more clinical setting exposes the path of his mother’s life 

• ‘Drown’ bears connotations of suffering and death, ‘soul’ also with dying  

• The TV was initially an activity that she shared with her husband  

• Realism of ‘soaps’ and ‘game shows’ explores the comfort in the ordinary nature of his parent’s relationship