English

October is about how everything dies. It is not really about bloody
death. This poem reflects on the death and funeral of a close friend
of Gillian Clarke. She talks of the changing of seasons changing this
is indicated by ‘gradually turning to gold’. This means the gold is
the last bit in there life and are going to die. The atmosphere is
very sorrow and calm.

In the second line ‘my dead friend’ is very blunt and makes you pay
attention it is also unusual because you would normally be gentle in
describing such a thing.

When the place name ‘Orcop’ is mentioned you discover that this is a
real recollection of something that has happened in her life.

In the second stanza the word ‘stony’ takes you back to the point when
a stone lion is talked of. In both times it describes a face, stony is
used to the effect that everything is very sombre.

The onomatopoeia ‘thud’ at the end of the second stanza is used to
describe the sound of the coffin going into the ground. Thud is very
dead sound that is why it is used.

In the third stanza there is a change of pace it is much quicker on
the tongue but the stanza is also longer.

I feel in this poem if you read this poem without reading into the
words you would get the feeling that the poem is just about the
countryside and funeral. But if you read into the words it is
describing that everything is eventually going to die. It is not in a
gruesome way.

Mid-Term Break is the dealing of death in a family, waiting for the
funeral, attending the funeral and after the funeral. Before the
funeral he is alone listening to the clock counting down slowly till
he gets picked up.

A half rhyme is in the second line of the first stanza ‘classes to a
close’ a half rhyme suggests that something is not right. The thing
that is not right is the death in his family.

At the start of the second stanza ‘my father crying’ in this is no
personal statement as if he has no... [continues]

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