The Deliverer

The Deliver

One of them was dug up by a dog,

Thinking the head barely poking above the ground

Was bone or wood, something to chew.

‘One of them’ = careless, girls lack true identity in this world.

blunt monosyllables, alliterative ‘dug’ & ‘dog', constantly rhyming rhythm is shocking > likened to food for a dog = status of inanimate object

‘Bone’ may be a reference to the malnourishment of the child - offers a dramatic climax

They haven't seen or touched her yet.
Don't know of her fetish for plucking hair off hands,
Or how her mother tried to bury her.

‘her’ = new life is beginning, given an identity , contrast previous ‘one’

‘fetish’ connotes a sexual pleasure, adding to the grim tones of the poem > anxious imagery, contrast out expectations of innocence and carelessness for a child

Alliterative ‘hair off hands’

Mother burying provides an extreme violent twist, highlighting her twisted past.

How it happens in some desolate hut
Outside village boundaries

Where mothers go to squeeze out life,

watch body slither out from body,

Sibilant ‘s’ in ‘squeeze’ and ‘slither’ create an uneasy sense, combined with noviseral omatopiea > detached, unemotional account may imply it is repeated and a sense of duty

‘Mothers’ - contrast expectations of a mother, mothers are presented as a vessel for childbirth, capable of doing the unthinkable

stanza length gets shorter - may reflect speed at which act takes place

Trudge home to lie down for their men again.

Longest line in poem, this event will continue to repeat

‘Trudge’ = ambiguous, may reflect the woman is also trapped in this cycle, lacking privilege to speak up on the matter

Slant rhyme between ‘men’ and ‘again’

Emphasised by end stop

Language and structure

There are three parts, each with three triplets or tercets, that is stanzas of three lines each. The first and last parts end with additional one-lined stanzas. There is no rhyme scheme, and lines are uneven in length. Possibly to emphasise, this is not a story but a real event.

Language: each 3 stanzas represent a different viewpoint, a lack of description as the shocking, heartless imagery speaks for itself