Continuum - Allen Curnow
Continuum - Allen Curnow
Continuum
Allen Curnow
Summary: The author writes about his inability to sleep due to his inability to come up with material to write about (most likely a poem, could be another form of text). He therefore gets up in the dead of night when everyone is asleep and experiences a surreal world as his reality and dreams blend together in one beautiful work of poetry. It is ironic however, that when he finds nothing to write about, he writes about his inability to write.
Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)
Structure based analysis
1. No rhyme scheme. This is used to indicate a sense of disorganization in the writer’s thoughts and the way he puts it into words in the form of the poem. It also shows how his confusion affects his interpretation of the world at night as something surreal.
2. Three lines per paragraph. This demonstrates the author’s short minded-thinking and his inability to study any particular concept in depth. Note how he ends off the paragraph mid-sentence. This is used as enjambment to display the same thing, that he is unable to upkeep a coherent train of thought. The structure of the poem is also disorganized, with little patterns to it, elucidating the fact that the writer has spent little time redrafting his work concerning the poem.
Signs of literary awareness
1. “The moon rolls over the roof and falls behind my house”. This is a form of imagery at the start of the poem to create surrealism as the moon obviously cannot do such a thing. The words that follow “the moon does neither of these things” indicate that the writer is aware that he is half asleep, and that he is desperately trying to break out of this rut.
2. The Moon is cleverly used as a symbol for loneliness as there are no other objects in the sky mentioned in the poem. Furthermore it is usually the brightest thing we see in the sky in
Continuum
Allen Curnow
Summary: The author writes about his inability to sleep due to his inability to come up with material to write about (most likely a poem, could be another form of text). He therefore gets up in the dead of night when everyone is asleep and experiences a surreal world as his reality and dreams blend together in one beautiful work of poetry. It is ironic however, that when he finds nothing to write about, he writes about his inability to write.
Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)
Structure based analysis
1. No rhyme scheme. This is used to indicate a sense of disorganization in the writer’s thoughts and the way he puts it into words in the form of the poem. It also shows how his confusion affects his interpretation of the world at night as something surreal.
2. Three lines per paragraph. This demonstrates the author’s short minded-thinking and his inability to study any particular concept in depth. Note how he ends off the paragraph mid-sentence. This is used as enjambment to display the same thing, that he is unable to upkeep a coherent train of thought. The structure of the poem is also disorganized, with little patterns to it, elucidating the fact that the writer has spent little time redrafting his work concerning the poem.
Signs of literary awareness
1. “The moon rolls over the roof and falls behind my house”. This is a form of imagery at the start of the poem to create surrealism as the moon obviously cannot do such a thing. The words that follow “the moon does neither of these things” indicate that the writer is aware that he is half asleep, and that he is desperately trying to break out of this rut.
2. The Moon is cleverly used as a symbol for loneliness as there are no other objects in the sky mentioned in the poem. Furthermore it is usually the brightest thing we see in the sky in