The Summer of Lost Rachel

Structure
1. It has a 9 quatrain structure. littered with enjambment across both lines and stanzas
2. The rhyme scheme is quite loose with some half rhymes
3. The enjmabment creates a steady flow and quickens the pace of the poem, refleccting grief
4. The fluid nature created by the enjambment is interupted by the short, ture line at the end of stanza 2, "There's a ring around the moon"
  1. Pattern of long, run-on verses continues for the next five stanzas
    1. There is a structural change in the last two stanzas which use full rhyme, The short, dramatic "but no" draws our attention to this shift
5. The use of full rhyme injects a sense of finaltiy into Rachel's death
6. The poem's structure refl=ects the five stages of grief
7. The closing lines of the poem act as an epiphany like conclusion that Heaney must accept Rachel's death but not let her be forgotten
Theme
1. The main theme of this poem are grief, anguish and regret. In many ways it acts as a tribute to the girl
Content
1. Language
  1. Tone
    1. There is an underlying tone of remorse and bitterness at how the natural world continues to flourish and thrive.
    2. Heaney agonises over the fact that his neice lost her life that is meant to bestow life
    3. Heaney conveys an eternal sense of distrust in the season of summer from here on as it is when Rachel died
    4. Tones of regret, wistfulness and longing permeate stazas 6 and 7 as Heaney and his family earn to have Rachel back. In these stanzas Heaney recounts more of the actual accident
  2. Technique
    1. Meatphiorical langauge
      1. The "ring" is suggestive of a halo but also adds an ominous note of foreshadowing- bad times are coming
      2. Heaney employs the metaphor of a film to stress his desire to rewind/ turn back time
    2. Onomatopoeia
      1. Use of onomatopoeia further intensifies Heaney's exasperationat the season which continues to provide life and growth.
    3. Repitition
      1. "Flooded"/ "flooding" shows how thw natural world is saturated with life giving rain
      2. Repeated referance to white concerning Rachel gives a ghostly appearance- poignant and sad- the colour white also reminds us of her innocnece and young age
    4. Juxtaposition
      1. Rachel is presented in strong contrast to the accident which killed her
    5. Alliteration
      1. "Safe adn sound" highlights the futile desire to have everything back to normal
  3. Visual imagery, alliteration and repeated consonance sounds repeated to capture the vibrancy of the poem
  4. The plosive quality of the word "plout"augments Heaney's anger as it creates the impression that he is spitting out the words
  5. Imagery
    1. The prolific imagery in stanzas one and two is incongruous to the theme of seath which prevades the poem.
    2. Heaney's use of haunting imagery conveys the devastation the whol family faced at the death of Rachel. The term "broke down" indirectly conveys the impact of greif on the family
    3. Heaney creates a memorable image of Rachel in death by emphasising "still" and "mercy"
    4. Refernces to the bright rimmed bike remind us once again of her youth and radience and her vibrancy- this reminds us of the similar descriptions of summer
    5. Heaney captures his descriptions in the physical sense of her death- he juxtaposes the twisted spokes of the wheels with "straightened out" to emphasise the
  6. "We" gives a sense of personalistation through the use of various pronouns as Heaney appears to address Rachel directly
2. Langauge and imagery creates a sense of abundance and plenty in the natural world. The imagery is vebrant and sensual
3. We see the fagility of humans when they are faced with extreme grief

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The Summer of Lost Rachel

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