I made this PowerPoint in preparation for my A-Level English exam, in which I achieved an A*. This PowerPoint contains detailed annotations of each line of the poem, separated by stanza. The analysis contains insight into the poem's context and complex literary techniques.
• The title of the poem is taken from John Milton’s sonnet ‘On His Blindness’,
written in 1655 after the poet’s complete loss of sight. Milton initially copes badly
with his condition and how it stunts his capacity to serve God, but he ends with
determination to bear his blindness philosophically, stating that ‘They also serve who
only stand and wait.’
• Thorpe takes a different approach, acknowledging that his mother, like most of us, is
less stoical than Milton, for all her pretense at being able to see more than she does.
The line where she confesses “It’s living hell, to be honest Adam" rouses the reader’s
sympathy.
• The fact that his mother has to endure the humiliation of bumping into walls and can
easily lose her dignity — though he claims that she doesn’t — is made clear. But it is
after her death that the poet imagines that ‘she was 'watching us somewhere in the
end’ — an ironic resolution. On a spiritual level she has found her sight.
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