THE GUN by Vicki Feaver

English Literature

Structure

Structure

Dramatic Monologue: Irregular line length. It may mirror the instability brought by a gun.

There is no rhyme scheme, but occasional half-rhymes perhaps reflect the discomfort of the presence of a gun. Free verse, freedom.

Two short stanzas. ‘Bringing a gun into a house changes it’. Sets up the central incongruity of the poem, revealing the existence of a weapon of death and juxtaposing it with the nurturing setting of a house. Armitage makes the reader ponder on the effect of a gun.

Themes and Summary:

Violence

Power and Sexuality

Permanence

Role reversal

Violence quotations

‘The Gun’: Phallic. Destructive potential. Fragmented sentence sets the jarring and violent tone.

‘it’s just practice’: Nonchalant tone, callous and casual attitude is unsettling

‘like something dead’: foreshadowing, imagery of caskets

‘jutting’: harsh, angular verb

‘like when sex was fresh’: simile. Eyes are a symbol of sexual desire and passion,

Futility quotations

Role-reversal

Pardox

‘casting a grey shadow’

‘A gun brings the house alive’: Disrupted anaphora.

‘Stirring, slicing…’: sibilance, sinister tone.

Pace increases, more excitement.

‘the King of Death…stalking…his black mouth sprouting golden crocuses.’ – Here, the gun is personified and is described as the ‘King of Death’ which has connotations associated with hell. The animalistic verb ‘stalking’ introduces the reader to the idea about how guns are able to pursue life, similar to how a predator in the wild would pursue its prey. The disturbing image of a ‘black mouth sprouting golden crocuses’ compels the reader to comprehend the effects that a gun has. Crocuses are beautiful and vibrant flowers that appear beautiful but this is only to deceive the one admiring them. Crocuses are actually poisonous flowers and are completely toxic. This could introduces the much explored theme of appearance and reality. In this case, this ‘polished’ gun may appear enticing as it may make one feel safer and secure – however, in reality, guns are toxic as any consequences that they produce are absolutely negative