Why did Armitage write Out of the Blue?
Simon Armitage reads his own poem 'Out of the Blue', and talks about why he wrote it. He explains the narrator's voice, and how it was inspired by a real-life image of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Out of the Blue (Extract) by Simon Armitage was penned to describe someone who was within the World Trade Center during the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001.
poet's message - eventhough we judged the man and went through his possessions, we still don't know anything about the real him. So, the poet is trying to say that you should never a person's actions, as their might be a motive behind them.
This poem, which is divided in seven stanzas of four-lines each, tells a story about a man who is working in one of the “Twin Towers” the day of the attacks; this man discovers that what he considered other ordinary morning is not, when it changes suddenly to become a catastrophic and violent hell.
Two key themes within the poem are a loss of hope, and loss of control, both of which are portrayed through the structure and language of the poem.In terms of structure, Armitage uses a childlike rhyme scheme (ABAB) to portray an initial sense of hope, and potentially to contrast with the dire subject matter of the ...
"Out the Blue" is a song written by John Lennon and originally released on his 1973 album Mind Games. The song is included on the 1990 boxset Lennon, the 2005 two-disc compilation Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon, the 2010 album Gimme Some Truth and the 2020 compilation album Gimme Some Truth.
The poem "The Writer" is spoken from the poet's point of view as he comments on the writing efforts of his young daughter. The theme is the challenge of the writing life, especially for a young person struggling to make sense of the world.
"Blue" is the title song from Joni Mitchell's 1971 album of the same name. The song is generally thought to be about James Taylor, with the line "Here is a song for you" being directed to Taylor.
Some writers may use blue to represent serenity and tranquility, instilling a scene with a calming effect. Blue can also signify sadness, melancholy, or isolation.
By opening in media res, the poem also reflects the chaos of war and how unpredictable it is. By mentioning that “on another occasion we get sent out” the speaker is saying that this is a typical operation in the life of a soldier, and is a reality the soldiers have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Was Simon Armitage in the war?
He survived [the war] but apparently it's much easier to find out about people who were killed than those who survived. He was the only member of our family to fight in the trenches. He came home, but he was scarred, mentally and physically - he'd been gassed. He used to just sit and stare into the fire.
Analysis. "Out Out—" tells the story of a young boy who dies after his hand is severed by a "buzz-saw". The poem focuses on people's reactions to death, as well as the death itself, one of the main ideas being that life goes on.
“Out, Out” tells the tragic tale of a boy injured in an accident. Just as he is about to go in for his dinner, his arm gets caught in a buzz saw—he loses his hand, and subsequently dies from blood loss. The poem is thus a stark reminder of the fragility of life, and that tragedy can happen to anyone at any time.
The poem ends with poet saying that he will bring colours of Raade, colourful stripes for his mother's dupatta and colourful pebbles for his mother so that his mother would look like a girl as she was in young age.
Etymology. Short for out of the clear blue sky, likening a sudden and unexpected event to something unexpectedly falling out of the sky.
phrase. If something happens out of the blue, it happens unexpectedly. One of them wrote to us out of the blue several years later. See full dictionary entry for blue.
As lightning is not expected on a bright, sunny day with a blue sky, so "a bolt out of the blue" is a metaphor for something sudden and unexpected. The adverbial phrase "out of the blue" can be used by itself to mean "suddenly and unexpectedly." Well, that goal came out of the blue.
Based on the true story of New Zealand's biggest-ever mass murder, in which lone guman David Gray killed 13 people in small seaside town Aramoana.
The poem has seven quatrains (4 line stanzas) – offering a sense of regularity.
Having always immersed himself in the African American music of his era, Handy eventually began writing songs describing the hardships he had experienced. In 1912 he published “Memphis Blues,” now considered the first blues song.
What is the aim or purpose of the poem?
Poetry is a type of literature that aims to evoke an emotional response in the reader through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.
The term theme can be defined as the underlying meaning of a story. It is the message the writer is trying to convey through the story. Often the theme of a story is a broad message about life. The theme of a story is important because a story's theme is part of the reason why the author wrote the story.
Poems are pieces of writing in which writers express their senses of feelings, and ideas for particular events. Every word, line, and paragraph has its meanings. Poems come in different shapes, sizes, tones, and stories. Some comes in sad moments. Some comes in happy moments.
I never wrote one for anybody." In his autobiography Bill Mack's Memories from the Trenches of Broadcasting, Mack again debunks the publicity claim that he had written the song specifically for Cline, when in fact he did not have Cline in mind when he wrote it.
True Blue is his best known song but also his most misunderstood. It was written on commission in 1982 for ad-man John Singleton, who wanted music for a new Australiana TV show which never got up.
Kind of Blue popularized a new approach to improvisation. Rather than basing its five tunes on a rigid framework of changing chords, as was conventional for post-bop music, Davis and Evans wrote pieces with a more limited set of scales in different modes.
Although we commit mistakes and face failures there is always a hope for a next chance in our lives. We must have a strong desire to try and make our life and our world better.
Blue: The Infant (Shakespeare) the dawning of human life, as well as truth, intellect, and the void. It is also the color of nothing. of life, as well as power, justice and temperance.
DARK BLUES represent trust, honesty, and loyalty, while LIGHT BLUES give us more of a perception of wisdom and self expression.
But he believes that a poet's life is more than just words - Armitage insists that his life is fulfilled through teaching and taking poetry around the world.
What inspired Armitage to write remains?
It was written to coincide with a TV documentary about those returning home from war with PTSD. It is based on Guardsman Tromans, who fought in Iraq in 2003. *Armitage said 'These are poems of survivors- the damaged exhausted men who return from war in body but never, wholly, in mind.
Known for his deadpan delivery, Armitage's formally assured, often darkly comic poetry is influenced by the work of Ted Hughes, W.H. Auden, and Philip Larkin. As a reviewer for the PoetryArchive.org observed, “With his acute eye for modern life, Armitage is an updated version of Wordsworth's 'man talking to men. '”
- Still I Rise by Maya Angelou.
- Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare.
- O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman.
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
- Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas.
- i carry your heart with me by e.e. cummings.
- Power by Audre Lorde.
- The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.
- William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow” ...
- T. S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” ...
- Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” ...
- Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool” ...
- Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art” ...
- Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not stop for Death –” ...
- Langston Hughes, “Harlem”
Armitage will take home an annual stipend of £5,750, along with the traditional butt of sack: 600-odd bottles of sherry. It is no longer a lifetime position and his tenure is set to last, as for his predecessors Carol Ann Duffy and Andrew Motion, for a fixed term of 10 years.
Born and brought up in Huddersfield, England, Armitage worked as a probation officer before becoming a full-time writer, a job that provided a particularly rich source of anecdote for his poetry, as did the transition from one calling to another.
Currently, the poet laureate receives a $35,000 annual stipend, endowed by a gift from Archer M. Huntington. On October 3, 1985, the U.S. Congress passed legislation authored by Senator Spark M.
The irony of the poem is that the crash occurs close to the end of the working day. At sunset, it occurs when the boy's sister interrupts her job and says that supper is ready. Dramatic irony is the technique of the poet in the text.
Meaning of Out, Out-
It tells of the untimely death of a young man, and in doing so, it draws attention to the fragility of life and the somewhat callous nature in which life must go on in the face of such an untimely death.
The title alludes to Macbeth's poignant speech on hearing of the unexpected passing of his wife, with the metaphor, 'Out, out, brief candle'. This reflects the tragedy of the accidental death of a child doing a man's job. Frost's use of setting, imagery, and tone create a moving poem with a shocking ending.
What does the boy symbolize in Out, Out?
The Boy. The poem's symbolic message relies on the fact that it is a child, not an adult, who dies. Traditionally, youth represents innocence.
Thus, the conflict between man and nature is expanded into a conflict between man's destructive qualities and his innocent acceptance of the natural world. At the climax of "Out, Out-" Frost clearly reveals the horrible nature of the conflict within man.
The first two sections focus on the elements of the scene and the accident, during which the boy is alive. Then, after the young boy dies, the poem ends abruptly, as though there is nothing more to write about.
In the poem “Bluebird” Charles Bukowski, a German-born American poet, short story writer and novelist portrays the hardships of a man who has a troubled childhood, and the emotional rollercoaster he has to go through in his everyday life.
Source: Four Canadian soldiers, sleeping and writing letters in the trenches near Willerval. (IWM, 2019).