National 5 Set Texts

1. National 5 Set Texts

2. ‘ Bed ’

4. Analysis • Before you look at the poem, bullet point the connotations the title of the poem suggests to you. What do you think it will be about? What do you think the key theme/message will be? • Highlight and identify the key poetic techniques used (word choice, imagery, repetition, tone etc.) • Analyse how these techniques are used to convey the speaker’s personality, relationship with daughter and views on life/old age.

5. Questions • Look at the poem as a whole and identify four of the main ideas contained in the poem. 4 • By referring to lines 1―20, show how word choice and sentence structure give a description of the speaker’s helplessness/reliance on others. 4 • By referring to lines 16―40, explain one thing that we learn about: • (a) the community the speaker lives in 2 • (b) the speaker’s attitude to her life at this time. 2 • 4. Jackie Kay often explores relationships in her poems. Refer briefly to the central relationship in this poem and go on to discuss a central relationship in at least one other poem by Jackie Kay. 8 • Total: 20

6. She is that guid tae maeso she is an Am a burden tae her, I know Am ur. Stuck here in this big blastitbed year in, year oot, ony saint wuid complain. • Patterns and inflections of real speech – ‘so she is … I know Am ur’ etc. • Sounds like she is just chatting to us like a friend; suggests her loneliness/need for company/ understanding. • Almost like a confession – opens up to us when ironically, doesn’t talk to her daughter. • Sense of guilt/sorrow/sadness that she is inflicting distress/affecting daughter’s life – ‘am a burden tae her, I know am ur.’ • Alliteration – plosive ‘b’: her frustration, ‘big blastit bed’ – almost like she’s spitting out words in her anger at being stuck in this bed/inside • Repetition suggests the length of time and how bored she is that nothing ever changes. This life is monotonous/tedious/without variation. Mirrored in title – bluntness/starkness of title – ‘Bed.’ This is all she knows • Word choicesuggests a sense of her martyrdom (shows unhappiness etc. to incite sympathy)

7. There’s things she has tae dae fir me A’ wish she didnaehuv tae dae. Am her wean noo, wey ma great tent o’ nappy, an champed egg in a cup, an mashed tattie. • Humiliations/indignities of being cared for. She is very aware of her situation. Body is weakened but mind is not. • Feels guilty that she is now needing to be looked after and that their relationship has changed due to this. • May explain why they now find it difficult to communicate as roles have been so dramatically reversed – ‘am her wean noo.’ • Metaphor– the size of the nappy suggested; exaggerated perhaps to emphasise the extent of her embarrassment/role reversal. • Typical food of an invalid/baby food; bland, unexciting, mundane reflects/symbolises the tedious nature of her life

8. Aw the treats A’ used tae gie her, she’s gieing me. A’ dinny ken whit happened. We dinny talk any mair. Whether it’s jist the blethers ha been pluckedoot o’ us • Nostalgic tone – sadness at the loss of the way things used to be and her confusion at how suddenly and dramatically this has altered. • Suggests the lack of control she has over her life/decisions; she is a passive recipient – ‘she’s gieing me.’ Symbolises she is stuck in situation and has to accept the way things now are. • Short declarative sentences – highlight/emphasise her shock at suddenness and dramatic changes in life/relationship. • Sadness that they don’t have the same connection/communication/intimacy anymore when ironically, their relationship is much more intimate due to tasks daughter has to do, which explains why it is now so awkward between them. • Word choice: Trying to find explanation for why they don’t talk now. ‘Plucked’ suggests suddenness/abruptness to loss of communication. Suggests it has gone forever, is irretrievable.

9. an Am here like some skinny chicken, ma skin aw bubbles and dots and spots, loose flap noo (an yet as a young wuman A’ took pride in maaguid smooth skin.) • Image extended into a simile – ‘like some skinny chicken’ – vulnerability; feels ugly, unnatural, unhappy with physical changes too. Comparison suggests being prepared for the end. • List – suggests effects of illness/disease/old-age. Blunt in her description of herself which suggests her honesty and also her dissastifaction with the ravages of time/illness etc. • Contrast with the indignity she is now experiencing. ‘guid’ – comment on way society sees old age as bad – youth is ‘good’ • Nostalgic tone highlighting all she has lost – skin used to be smooth and she liked the way she looked (‘took pride in…’)

10. Aw A’ daeis sit an look oot this windae. A’ve seen hale generations graw up an simmer doonfray this same windae – that’s no seen a lick o’ paint fir donkeys. • Word choice: ‘Aw’ – everything, the only thing she has; passivity: trapped behind the window, can see but not communicate. Relies on daughter for information from outside (stanza 6.) Link to referring to it as a ‘prison’ (last stanza.) • Time passing – whole generations coming and going; growing up – suggests length of time she’s been stuck inside and watched ‘fray this same window.’ Again suggests tediousness of her life. • Symbolises lack of attention/care/highlights effects of time/age – how she feels too?

11. The Kerrs have disappeared, but the last Campbells ur still here so Am telt– tho’ hauf the time A’ dinny believe her: A’ve no seen ony Campbell in a lang time. • Highlights/links to idea of change: everything she once knew has gone – ‘The Kerrs have disappeared.’ • Symbolises detachment/distance from life (‘so am telt’ ) receives facts/knowledge second hand; doesn’t experience for herself. • Symbolises distrust/distance from daughter – doesn’t trust her views/judgements as they don’t fit in with what she sees – ‘A’ve no seen ony Campbell in a lang time.’ • Doesn’t realise her view is restricted/limited whereas daughter sees more.

12. My dochter says ‘Awright mother?’ haunds me a thin broth or puriedneep an A say ‘Aye fine,’ an canny help the great heaving sigh that comes oot • Daughter’s question has no real meaning; dark irony; not seeking an answer as the answer is clear. Mother’s reply is equally meaningless: doesn’t want to cause daughter pain or realises it won’t change anything anyway? • Word Choice: broth is weak and insubstantial; turnip like baby food. Lack of care/attention in preparing food for mum? Or, mum’s lack of awareness that this is all she can handle now? • Long vowels suggest the sigh/her despair and hopelessness. Enjambmentacross the two quatrains replicates the sigh. • Lack of control over behaviour/actions – suggests the strength of her emotion as it cannot be contained.

13. my auld loose lips, nor ma crabbit tut, nor ma froon when A’ pu’ ma cardie tight aroon ma shooders fir the night drawin in. Am jist biding time so am ur. • ‘ma crabbit tut’ – shortness of vowels/jagged consonants suggest disapproval/irritation • Symbolises fear/vulnerability – wraps her cardigan tighter around herself to feel safer. Knows death is imminent – ‘the night drawin in.’ ‘jist biding time.’ the thought of this causes her to ‘froon’ – frustration, sadness? • Or, annoyance that she still has to do a lot for herself? Is that why she frowns? It’s cold and she has to cover her shoulders when daughter should do it? Is this why their relationship has broken down? Daughter not meeting her needs/fulfilling her expectations?

14. Time is whit A’ hauld between the soft bits o’ ma thumbs, the skeleton underneath ma night goon; aw the while the glaring selfish moon • Shift in stance. Sense of reflection. More philosophical. • Reflective/pensive tone: tenuous grip on life, not much left • ‘the skeleton’ – withering and wilting away – just bones left. Death is getting closer. Idea that her proximity to death is unknown by daughter? It’s hidden underneath her gown. • Personification of moon – annoyance that it will always exist and get to watch what’s going on (like she has done for many years) but her time is almost over? Or, anger it shows/highlights how trapped she is ? (see first line of last stanza) Again, highlights the brevity of life/speed by which time passes as it’s now night.

15. lights up this drab wee prison. A’ll be gone and how wull she feel? No that Am saying A’ want her guilty. No that Am saying Am no grateful. • Her bed and her body like a prison – mind is still obviously active. ‘lights up’ – brings a small amount of cheer/joy/relief? Or, shows the truth: the misery of her entrapment? • Symbolises emptiness/loss for daughter when she dies. Although doesn’t want to cause her pain, she wants to be missed. Highlights mother’s need to feel important/valuable when she dies as she has not felt this during old age/illness. • ‘guilty’ - Exactly how she does want her to feel. • Repetition of ‘no’ – outward denial but she does want her to feel guilty and she doesn’t feel gratitude towards her. = Bleak conclusion to their fragmented relationship – emptiness/frustration and lack of resolution.

16. Structure/Summary • Written in 10 quatrains and in a Scots dialect. • The speaker is someone we sympathise with we can also detect what seems to be her bitterness and anger. • The speaker is marginalised – demonstrated clearly in her position at the window. She has no access to the world outside; an invisible barrier. She is both aged and invalided, a double marginalisation. • Ideas about communication. She can communicate her feelings quite clearly – the poem evidences this. But with the daughter, there is only the pretence of communication.

17. Although a very narrowly focused domestic piece – even the title firmly positions it not just in the home but in a bed – it is vast in its scope, and offers and almost Shakespearean lament on the destruction of beauty by time. • Shift in tone between stanza 7 and 8. in Stanzas 1-7, we read about the negatives, the difficulties, the fragilities of such a life. From Stanza 8 onwards, it seems more about wisdom and insight; an idea that this is the point of clearest understanding of her predicament and future. (could link to acceptance/understanding of child in ‘Lucozade’ for last TA question.)

18. Key Themes/Concerns • Complexities of relationships • Brevity of life/Passing of time • Consequences of old age/illness • Difficulty of communication across generations • Importance of communication • Isolation/loneliness

19. Comparisons • Keep thinking of how the poems’ content/themes/structures are similar for last TA question. • For example: • Role reversals (all poems) • Complexities of relationships (all) • Failure to communicate/misunderstandings across generations (all) • Old age/illness (‘Lucozade’ and ‘Bed’)