A* level arguments, language analysis and themes regarding Julia Copas' 'An Easy Passage' - from Poems of the Decade for A-level English Literature, Unit 3: Poetry.
Topic: An Easy Passage
By Julia Copus
Key Points/Arguments
-
Themes Literary/Dramatic Devices Techniques of
whole poem
Transition/ ‘halfway up there’ – halfway through growing up, she possesses a liminal space in between identity Free verse – period of
liminality ‘bikini’ symbolic of adolescent sexuality/freedom transition almost a
‘family’s house’ – yearns to leave/be an individual, confronting/descriptive stream of conscious –
Childhood vs. ‘narrow/ sharp/ drop’ – adjectives emphasise danger of adulthood intense
Adulthood ‘half in love’ – contrast between adult/child relationships (liminal space) Exophoric narrator –
‘open window,/ the flimsy, hole-punched, aluminium lever’ – opportunity in adulthood is contrasted by next line expressing a outside narrator,
state of insecurity detached
‘warm flank of the house’ – zoomorphic, dichotomy of a safe place she wants to leave ‘rite of passage’ – ironic,
‘still crouching’ – still in awkward adolescent period, passive, she hasn’t moved on yet not easy
‘petrified beach’ – oxymoronic as beach is liminal space in between land and ocean – transitionary phase Starts in media res –
‘her tiny breasts’ – constant reference to body parts, she is not comfortable in her own skin growing
‘What can she know/ of the way the world admits us less and less/ the more we grow?’ – adverb, poet interjects, she lacks the References to mother
freedom and flexibility of youth and secretary are
‘lit’, ‘gold’ – light references youth (temporary) emblematic of what the
‘long, grey’ – girl’s natural glow juxtaposes the adult world future holds
‘far too, most far, from the flush-faced secretary’ – objectified, becomes her job, mirrors the distance she is from her future
‘evening class,’ ‘astrology column’ – astrology alludes to unfulfilled drams and desires to escape from monotony of her life
‘next to nothing’ – innocence and lack of responsibility
‘silver’, ‘shimmering-’ – world the girl inhabits is bright and sparkling, juxtaposes drab factory
‘oyster-painted toenails’ – connotates pearl trapped in oyster, she is trapped inside home, quite youthful and idealistic (oyster
symbolic of possibility)
‘armaments’ – symbolic artillery, intensity of youth, violence and danger ahead of them
‘before/ dropping’ – enjambement, sudden yet natural
‘shade of the house’ – nice, shielding connotation, shelter from outside world. Implies growing up is natural.
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