A level poem summary sheet on 'Journey 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.
CONTENT: Journey is a poem about a night-time car journey that Clarke went on. In the poem she
talks about the different things she saw and did not see. As a passenger Clarke submits to whatever
her journey has for her. This Journey is metaphoric of our human life experience and how we are
‘driven’ by life into oblivion and unknowingness and are powerless to change it so in the end we
submit to the journey.
THEME: Life, Death, Fate/Higher Power (who is doing the driving)
STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS
STANZA 1:
Clarke begins ambiguously as she states that she has no idea where her and others in the car with
her are going. However, this seems to be a subjective response to her situation as she speaks in first
person – others may know where they are going in life, but she does not. Life is a subjective and
personal experience you must know where you are going for yourself or you will get lost. Nothing on
either side emphasises this idea of darkness and unknowingness surrounding Clarke and her feeling
as though there are no signs of hope, light, or destination it is just nothing. Clarke turns this from
first person to a very unusual 2nd person narrative for line 6. As she addresses the person driving the
car but also us the readers as she lets us know that we are all driving our own cars in the dark of our
lives searching for some sign of a future or a relationship of substance and value to us. The
alliterative and metaphoric ‘darkness drips’ is very powerful as Clarke give darkness a physical nature
and thus makes it tangible to us the readers. Metaphoric of a leak as if the build up of darkness is so
dense that to relieve some of the pressure it must drip out. Makes no clear distinction between
sleeping and death as if they are one in the same. Is the other world possibly the future in which the
darkness ahead waits for her and some people are dead and others alive? The use of sleeping
insinuates a dream like state in which they will eventually wake up – resurrection?
STANZA 2:
More hopeful imagery of a future and happiness however this is still crushed by the weight of guilt
over past failings and mistakes. The semantic field of hope created by bright words such as ‘White’,
‘Morning’, ‘Grass’. Pathetic fallacy is used by the mention of the gates waiting- hopeful for morning.
Speaker is now able to see things suggesting that things are not as dark as they were implied to be or
that they have progressed in their journey to a place where they can see things. The emphatic
position of lamps at start of the line shows that darkness is still present. The ‘sterility of conifers’
indicates a barrenness and inability to produce and is symbolic of many peoples lives where they feel
as these logs and as though they have become sterile whether due to their own or others cutting
down the trees in their lives.
STANZA 3:
Clarke describes her sleepy state as complacency but why is this should she be staying focused on
her journey and be prepared for her next stop on her journey. Why suddenly is she content within
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