An Undisclosed Fortune

Meaning of the title

'Undisclosed' - secretive, kept hidden

'Fortune' - Good luck, inheritance, money/assets when somebody dies

Medical lexical group

"blood"

"muscle"

"limping"

"pancreatic ooze"

"bruise"

"ER"

"fingers"

"heart"

Family/relationships lexical group

"lover" "mother"

Religion lexical group

"breathing life" "like a God"

Time/mortality

"one day" "each day"

Context

ER - American medical television drama

Cycle/creation of life - Story of Adam and Eve, God breathed life into clay

Resurrection

"she sucks the mucus from my tiny nostrils so I can breathe"

Unpleasant and surprising first stanza

Slightly heroic

Self-sacrifice

Anecdote, reflecting back on childhood memories

"pictured her, breathing life back into me like a God"

Aspect of resurrection

Creation story of Adam and Eve God breathed life into clay

Commenting on the circle and fragility of life

Breath is symbolic of life and gives the ability to grow

Structure

First six stanzas: organised in tercets

Last stanza (seventh): couplet

Can represent the energy and consistent growth from when he was a baby in the first stanza to the persona experiencing the aging process which causes a deterioration of the structure, hence the couplet which differs from the rest of the poem

No regular rhyme or rhythm

Stanza 1: fragility of life, emphasised by the persona's mother breathing life back into him

Stanza 4: realisation of the aging process

Stanza 7: Reflecting on the idea that dramatic events that the persona has seen on ER, can happen at any time in reality

Short poem - suggests how age is creeping up on him

"the single grey hair I know is there"

Message of mortality to come

Represents the cycle of life and how precious life can be due to how fast time passes by bringing the aging process

"each day is a coin from an undiscovered fortune"

Enjambment between stanza 5 and 6 represents unpredictability of death

"undisclosed fortune" adjectival phrase is separated from the noun "coin"

Metaphor

Life is a gift but it is not known how long it will go on for

2 sides to a coin - Represents life and death

Coin suggests gambling

Circle of coin represents circle of life

Different types of coins can demonstrate the value/strength of a life

Coins represent value (currency)

"or force breath back into place, one day, it might come to this"

Long complex sentence

Varied punctuation

"had me limping for days:"

The colon introduces the theme of mortality and preciousness of life

“My mother’s fond of the story in which”

Mother = the subject, dependent clause

Delayed main clause means reader must wait to hear anecdote