Alarm Matrix for Shells by Debbie Westbury
Name/Define | Technique | Explain/Effect | Concept | Appreciate – link to life Whole idea | Stanza one – eternal process/naturalLiterally describing shells. Metaphorically describing different people and how they liveSome people live in scattered places, moving a lot and some people stay in one place like to be with others | Metaphor ‘shells collect in undulating tides’AlliterationPiled up in midden mounds | Describing the variety of life styles people have … some people live in cities on top of each other in unit blocks etc… ‘piled up in midden mounds’Affect us deeply… coloured grit’Some people between the toes | Life is made up of processes, natural processes coming and going, ‘undulating tides’ people live and die, eternal process | No matter what, we live and die | Section IISecond section of the poem describes a child playing in a rock pool and being fascinated, free to explore and impressed by everything | Second person to describe child playing…Lacerated, miracle, infinite horizons…= superlatives to describe the experience | Metaphorically trying to show there are no boundaries when we are young innocent children. ‘infinite horizons’ ‘shells enclosing life’ juxtaposing two ideas | The contrasting of ideas having no boundaries when we are young, to being bound to time limits, closed ides etc. | Sharing life with similar | Section IIIAbout retirement and the change from working and living in the city to entering retirement and buying either a holiday home, a caravan or a tent to camp | ‘grown up and grown old’ repetition of the word grown implies their life is coming to an end…‘clustered like limpets’Lists ‘fibro, aluminium and canvas’ as a way of describing their choice of retirement holidays | | Effect of describing people as ‘colonies with the aging playmates’ suggests a playful tone | | Section IVTalking about activities | Alliteration and assonanceRhythm/flowRepeating ‘at’ to show involvement‘dull, drunken, domestic’Superlative‘bliss’ | This