'Chainsaw versus the pampas grass' Simon Armitage

Structure

• eight irregular length stanzas with lines also of irregular length

• no rhyme scheme or regular metre

• stanza are also discrete with no enjambement between them - gives a sense of clear opposition, two elements in clear conflict

Phonology/ Sound devices

• alliteration of ‘g’ s suggest strength and power

• onomatopoeia to evoke sounds of powerful action

Form

Free verse

Themes/ Motif

• Human technology vs nature

• Violence force vs quiet persistence

• Human nature

• Masculinity/gender roles

‘ grinding it’s teeth in a plastic sleeve’

• personification of chainsaw

• can further be viewed as zoomorphism of chainsaw

• like an animal ready to attack

• however it is only powerful in the hands of humans and can easily be prevented - this is seen in the fact it is being prevented by plastic

‘ it knocked back a quarter pint of engine oil’

• masculine imagery and perception on power and dominance

• colloquial tone to it - gives poem more of a light hearted tone

‘ it’s mood to tangle with cloth, or jewellery, or hair. The chainsaw with its bloody desire, it’s sweet tooth for the flesh of face and bones underneath’

• the nouns ‘cloth’, ‘jewellery’ and ‘hair’ create a sematic field of femininity

• this shapes a strong sense of masculine particularly sexual violence against the innocent feminine

• phrases ‘bloody desire’ and ‘sweet tooth’ further reinforce this idea

‘ The pampas grass, taking the warmth and light from cuttings and bulbs, sunning itself, stealing the show with its footstools, cushions and tufts and its twelve foot spears’

• masculinity of chainsaw balanced against femininity of pampas grass

• ‘ stealing show’ critique the double standard women face when in need of attention - placed down as vain

• syntactic parallel with line 5 of previous stanza - antithesis of each other

‘ the chainsaw seethed. I left it a year to work through its man - made dreams, to try to forget’

• personified ‘ man - made dreams’ making clear it is not the chainsaw that has dreams instead man

• an example of a hypallage