filling station

Why, oh why, the doily?
(Embroidered in daisy stitch with marguerites, I think, and heavy with gray crochet’.
This long ‘i’ sound emphasises the continuous question ‘why’.
• Sibilance [Sibilance is repetition of ‘s’ sounds]
Note that ‘s’ is used fourteen times in the second stanza, in addition to the ‘s’ sound of the ‘c’ in ‘saucy’. This sound fits the meaning well as the poet is writing about greasy dirt that covers everything.
• Rhyming
There is no regular rhyming pattern in this lyric. The only obvious line rhyme is ‘et’ in the second and last line of the fifth stanza. But there are many other sound repetitions. The lack of line rhyming suits the conversational manner. Rhyming dictates word choice and can make word order seem stiff.
• Internal Rhyme
[Internal Rhyme is a word or sound rhyming within a line.]
Note the way the ‘SO’ sound occurs four times in this line:
‘ESSO—SO—SO-SO’.
There are many more examples for you to find.
• Note the repetition of ‘oil’ twice in the third line:
‘oil-soaked, oil-permeated’.
• Rhythm
The rhythm has a natural feeling with the run on lines and everyday phrases like the last line: ‘Somebody loves us all’.
Other sound repetitions and the two and three beat lines of the poem give it a quick and flowing rhythm.
Sometimes the rhythm slows down. These complicated phrases cause the reader to think about the image more.
The dominant rhythm is casual but fast. The last stanza is particularly fast with the ten repetitions of ‘SO’. The rhythm builds up fast to the final decisive statement.

IMAGE:
• There are images of people in the poem – the family.
‘Father wears a dirty, oil-soaked monkey suit that cuts him under the arms…’
• There are images of setting in the poem.
‘Filling Station…
Oh, but it is dirty!’
• There are sarcastic images in the poem.
‘Be careful with that match!…’

1. What images of the filling station stand out after your first reading of the poem?
2. Is the poet a character in the poem?
3. Would living in this filling station appeal to you? Why?
4. ‘Oh, but it’s dirty!’ Describe, using quotations from the poem, just how dirty the filling station is.
5. In this poem, the father and sons have a lot in common. Discuss.
6. Describe the filling station.
7. ‘Somebody’ makes an effort to make the place pretty; what details has this person added?
8. On the surface the filling station looks ‘oil-soaked, oil-permeated’ and ‘grease-impregnated’, but what lies beneath?
9. The poem ends with an unexpected ‘Somebody loves us all’. Where does this idea come from in the poem?

HOMEWORK: Write a character sketch of either the father of the sons. Remember that a good character should have a name, an appear