A full analysis of James K. Baxter’s poem ‘Farmhand’, tailored towards IGCSE students but also suitable for those studying at a higher level.
Includes the following:
VOCABULARY
STORY/SUMMARY
SPEAKER/VOICE
ATTITUDES
LANGUAGE
STRUCTURE/FORM
CONTEXT
THEMES
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CIE IGCSE Poetry Anthology
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Farmhand
“You will see him light a cigarette
At the hall door careless, leaning his back...”
James K. Baxter
(Full poem unable to be reproduced due to copyright)
VOCABULARY
Farmhand — someone who works on a farm, performing simple manual labour.
To yarn — to tell stories, sometimes over-embellishing the details (“yarn” is also another word for
wool).
Stooks — a bundle of sheaves (usually wheat) that are collected together for farming..
STORY / SUMMARY
We’re told that you can see the farmhand (when he’s off work) leaning
against a doorway, smoking a cigarette and telling jokes or gazing off into
the night. He is always really thinking about dances, and how his own
character and physique is very practical rather than romantic, music tears
“an old wound open” in his mind, suggesting that he may have had a
painful romantic experience in the past which is preventing him from trying
again to find a partner in the present moment. His physical and mental
characteristics are well suited to farm work, and less suited to finding love
— he’s an observer on the outside, looking in at the world of the dance. He
has “awkward hopes” and “envious dreams”, suggesting that part of his
instincts is still inclined towards finding a romantic partner in life and that
he’s jealous of those who do. In the final few lines, the speaker tells us
that we shouldn’t really feel sorry for the man as he is so skilled in his work
and perfectly suited to his job — he is almost beautiful in the way he lifts
up stooks with a pitchfork, and the care he puts into listening to the tractor
engine, his relationship with his work is almost like a marriage in itself.
, SPEAKER / VOICE
There is a clear addressee in the poem that the speaker is talking to, the first
word being ‘you’ (second person, direct address) — however, this addressee
seems to be a general audience rather than somebody in particular — he is
telling us, the readers, a story about a farmhand, a farm worker (the subject
of the poem). This gives the poem a removed / distanced perspective — we
are watching the farmhand, who is himself watching the people at the dance,
so we are placed in a similar position of passivity and can empathise with
how he feels.
LANGUAGE FEATURES
• The semantic field of farming — “sunburnt face” “hairy hands” “plough” “crops” “harvest”
“forking stooks” “tractor engine” — this creates a harmony between the man and his work, and
places him well within the context of farming (although he is more awkward in the context of
socialising), the visual imagery of these quotations also helps us to picture the scene clearly and
understand the specific tasks required for a farmhand.
• Simile — “girls drifting like flowers” on the dancefloor — the girls are depicted as beautiful and
fragile, but also a unified group rather than individual, emphasising the fact that it is hard for the
farmhand to talk to them or to get to know them personally. “Flowers” is also a natural image,
showing that the farmhand’s appreciation for natural beauty is present when he observes the girls.
However, this is also a rather cliched or standard comparison, so we could say that he’s using a
basic image to understand the girls because he’s unable to formulate a more personal one - again
demonstrating his awkwardness and lack of experience “crops slow-growing as his mind” — this
simile could be interpreted as a negative comment on the farmhand, suggesting that his mind is
slow or simplistic, however, it could also suggest that he’s a late developer and that he’s immature
— perhaps he is physically a man, but psychologically still a child.
• Alliteration — “listening like a lover to the song” — the ‘l’ sounds create a long, drawn-out phrase
— perhaps showing a sense of longing or lingering on the sound of the engine — which in itself is
metaphorically called a ‘song’ that the tractor sings.
ATTITUDES
• Single stanza — the poem is one long continuous idea, demonstrated by the single stanza (although
it shifts time and perspective throughout). This paints a vignette, a focalised portrait, of the
farmhand.
• Enjambment — “his eyes turn / To the dance floor” — the enjambment here creates a pause which
imitates the farmhand’s eyes as they shift focus.
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