Summary
Summary Poem Analysis: Giuseppe
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3 1/4 pages analysing the poem ‘Giuseppe’ by Roderick Ford. From ‘Poems of the Decade’ from Edexcel A-Level English Literature.
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Giuseppe (Roderick Ford)Voice
The poem is a confessional monologue, where Giuseppe documents the actions that
occurred, depicting the brutality of what happened alongside its alleged justification. The
detail suggests that Giuseppe was present during the action (he and the reader question
whether he shares the guilt of those who killed the mermaid as a by-stander – degree of
complicity that has prompted this confession). The release of information is gradual across
the poem, which draws out the moral uncertainty of the mermaid’s slaughter and means
that the reader’s opinions change across the poem.
The tone of the poem is factual and unadorned – this stark account is eerie and disturbing,
further highlighting the ideas of guilt. The lack of descriptive imagery reinforces the blunt
realism, and the contrast of the mythical concept of a mermaid with the harshness of war
expresses the shock that these actions are literal/real in their brutality rather than
metaphorical.
Significance of the mermaid
The mermaid functions allegorically for war crimes and guilt, expressing the savageness of
war and the desperation/vulnerability it creates on a human rather than military level. It
additionally connotes fear of the unknown (as a mythical creature) and suffering of people
in society who are treated as ‘other’ and unwanted (note ‘because she was simple’).
The poem deploys the uncertainty as to whether a mermaid is a person or an
animal/object of humans (‘she, it’), and the dehumanising of her as justification for
killing her also reflects how war crimes/atrocities are dehumanised/desensitised and
placed in a surreal, distanced category, which take on an almost mythical status so that
they can be comprehended.
Could also be interpreted from a feminist angle – mermaid as symbol of iconic female
beauty, male dominance and control, women taken advantage of as objects/inferior
humans, often victims of male violence during the atrocities in wars. Savage sacrifice of a
young woman evokes comparison to Iphigenia and Polyxena in Trojan War mythology
(similar issues of justification and blame).
Form
5 stanzas of 5-7 lines, no regular syllable/rhyme/rhythm patterns. Lack of formality in
structure reflects the conversational tone of the poem.
Possible themes
• Guilt vs innocence
• Myth vs reality
• Masculinity and femininity
• Suffering
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