A level poem summary sheet on 'Baby-Sitting by Gillian Clarke' including notes on stanza by stanza analysis, form, structure, techniques, themes and overviews. Perfect for A level revision of Gillian Clarke poetry or perfect even for templates on how to analyse poetry.
Poem Summary Sheet: Baby-sitting
CONTENT: Baby-sitting is about the speakers experience of baby-sitting someone else’s child and the
discontentment and satisfaction that both the speaker and baby felt by looking after and being
looked after by a stranger
THEMES: Relationships – mother and child bond
STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS:
1ST STANZA:
The use of present tense is very effective because it gives the impression to the reader that they are
there with reader. The adjective ‘strange’ introduces this idea of an unfamiliarity and
uncomfortability. The phrase the wrong baby implies there is a right baby from this we can infer that
the speaker has a child of their own and know what it feels like to feel that connection with the right
baby and therefore this baby is the wrong one. The description of the baby’s sleep is very vivid and
descriptive of a beautiful baby which makes us wonder why does she not love this child and
contrasts with the next line ‘I am afraid of her’. - The caesura in this line emphasises and highlights
the fact that she is scared of a baby. The description of her crying as ‘hot midnight rage’, ‘stream
disgustingly’ and ‘fail to enchant me’ shows the baby as ordinary nothing special and undesirable.
There is no attraction to this baby. There is an underlying comparison of the child the speaker is
baby-sitting with speakers own child if their baby’s breath failed to enchant her clearly the speakers
know what it is like to be enchanted by baby’s breath and if this is the wrong child then there must
be a right one. Maybe the speaker feels guilty for leaving her own child to come and look after this
one.
2nd STANZA:
The alliteration of ‘absolute abandonment’ emphasises how the baby feels at this moment as they
feel they have been abandoned by their parents. The metaphor of the lover and widow express the
most devastating and lonely points in a person’s life where they feel abandoned by their loved ones
and then makes them seem as nothing compared to a child being left by their parents in the hands
of a stranger. This baby’s loss of its parents is worse than any abandonment to come in the future
and is the most significant and heart breaking form of abandonment – as it is the separation of the
mother and child. The monstrous land and lack of milk-familiar comforting emphasises the child’s
need for her parents and the pain and loss she feels from not having them there. The repetition of ‘it
will not come’ also emphasises that the bond and comforting between mother and child is not
something that can be forced but is natural and selective.
STRUCTURE:
The poem is broken up into two stanza’s the first one focuses more on the speaker and their feeling
and experience of baby-sitting however as the poem progresses moving into the second stanza the
speaker shifts their attention towards the baby and focuses on their experience and feelings of
having a stranger look after them and their feeling of abandonment. The speaker ends the poem
with one repetitive statement which further emphasises the point she is trying to make about baby-
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