English

Phoebe Lawford English Homework

In the second stanza, we see that Jennings uses a line to describe the couple, ‘tossed up like flotsam from a former passion’. Within this line we get the sense as though they have suddenly found themselves deposited from the passion they used to share. By using the noun ‘flotsam’ we imagine bedraggled and washed up debris that no longer has any purpose and is just waiting for something to happen. The phrase involves the sea which can be used to represent their early relationship or ‘former passion’. Perhaps it is used because the sea is so vast and has great depths with elements of danger which could be also said for life and relationships. Now and then you get the break of a wave as it hits the surf and it becomes wild and raging with lots of energy suggesting this is what their marriage was like before old age. However they are no longer riding the wave of young and passionate romance but are now the unimpressive remains of what was once exciting and unruly.
By using adjectives like ‘cool’ it connotes cold and unwelcoming colours like icy blues and greys that can be seen as dull or unwelcoming- as oppose to reds and pinks; warm colours that can be associated with love.

Throughout the poem there is a religious aspect as there is several references to the church. For example in the second stanza it mentions ‘chastity’- having no sex, and ‘confession’- the confession of one’s sins. The poet says that on the occasions that they do touch ‘it is like a confession of having little feelings-or too much’. This phrase has real depth and meaning as it is not often that touching someone is referred to as a confession implying it is almost a negative thing. Perhaps we are supposed to interpret this as though the couple are embarrassed at showing affection in a physical way and that they feel the burden of old age because they are no longer in a passionate, sexual relationship. Therefore have resulted to ‘hardly ever’ touching....