I’m depth summary and analysis of all 16 poems for the 2023 final IEB examinations, these notes got me 90% for my june examinations as a 70% student, the notes are structured to make it easy to understand the content.
, Moving through the silent crowd
The repetition of the title is an oxymoron and Tone in stanza 1 is
1 contradicts and emphasizes the division condescending and
Moving through the silent crowd bet ween the speaker and the “crowd”, the critical as the
speaker is alone and not part of the group speaker seems to
2 criticize the men of
Who stand behind dull cigarettes being “idle” and lazy
3
Those men who idle in the road, The speaker shifts the focus from the description of the men
to describing his feelings, (falling light) could literally mean it
is at the end of the day, this imagery enhances the mood which
4 seems gloomy, depressing and ominous.
I have the sense of falling light.
Relaxing / passing time
5
They lounge at corners of the street
Stanza 2 provides more detail about the
6 men as the speaker again shifts the focus
And greet friends with a shrug of shoulder from his feelings to the men, the word
“lounge” confirms the men’s unemployment,
7 the speaker again seems to be criticizing the
And turn their empty pockets out, men of being lazy, unproductive and
demotivated.
8
The cynical gestures of the poor.
The speaker compares the “silent crowd” of unemployed men to
Comparing men those who are employed, he says the unemployed men are
9 “better men” , these “better men” seem to be more productive.
Now they’ve no work, like better men
Overpaid
10 Stanza 4 - the focus shifts as the speaker
Who sit at desks and take much pay now homes in on his own feelings. He says he
Unemployed - unproductive members of society is “jealous” of the “hours” through which the
11 unemployed “stare”. This implies that the
They sleep long nights and rise at ten speaker himself is part of the working class
men who might have less free time
12
To watch the hours that drain away.
The consistent rhythm might mimic the steady pace of a
person walking as the speaker “[m]ove[s] through the
silent crowd”
Jealous of the time unemployed have
13 The fact that there is consistent rhythm and some sense
I’m jealous of the weeping hours of structure in the poem could reflect the idea that the
men have the same daily routines of waking up late and
loitering in the streets
They stare through with such hungry eyes.
14 I’m haunted by these images, Anaphora and repetition: the speaker describes in
the last 2 lines how he feels “tormented” by these
“empt[y]” “images”. The repetition enhances the
15 I’m haunted by their emptiness. ghostlike imagery of the “crowd” being
uncharacteristically “silent”, the image is eery,
strange and ghoulish.
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