Daddy (1962)

‘You do not do, you do not do’

Epizeuxis - repetition of phrase in quick succession

Apostrophe - ‘you’ - addressing someone that cannot respond in reality

‘black shoe / In which I have lived like a foot / For thirty years, poor and white’

Metaphor - father’s memory, oppression felt directly attributed to father

Allusion - child’s nursery rhyme

‘Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.’

Voice - child-like

Imagery - oppressive, suffocating

‘Daddy I have had to kill you. / You died before I had time —’

End stop

Em dash - lack of closure, emphasises grief and confusion

‘Ach, du.’

Means ‘oh, you’

End stop - emotional exhaustion, endearing

Foreshadowing - German

‘Of wars, wars, wars.’