How Owen Sheers presents coming of age in Border Country
‘Border Country like other poems in the Skirrid Hill collection, suggests that coming of age is sudden and tragic’
How far, and in what ways, do you agree with this view?
The narrative of Border Country describes the relationship between the two boys one of whom has to make the jump into adulthood before he is prepared. Sheers presents coming of age as sudden and tragic and puts forward the idea that this period is delicate and is something requires time.
The title of the poem might serve different functions. ‘Border could represent the separation between childhood and adulthood and the division between the two of these worlds. ‘Country’ characterises a new beginning, something completely different and daunting – this is how the speaker’s friend ultimately feels about becoming an adult.
The poem begins in the present tense, showing that the speaker has gone back to a place that seems important to him as he’s looking upon a scene that brings back vivid memories.
He says that ‘nothing marks the car quarry now’, this could mean that that the narrator is claiming that nothing about the place is the same, it isn’t what it used to be in the past. The first image is compared to a ‘graveyard’ with words ‘headstone’ and ‘epitaphs’ also used. This creates a dark and ominous tone which foreshadows the forthcoming events in the poem. The character seems to use a form of personification with ‘wind written epitaphs’, this is giving human-like qualities to an almost inanimate object. He does this to infer that nature has been corrupted by death just like the innocence of the speaker’s friend.
The persona also makes a comparison between nature and machinery as he describes the scene as an ‘elephant graveyard of cars’. This links to the idea of how when elephants are old and dying, they go to a quiet place to die alone. This adds to the ominous tone that was presented in the earlier stanza and again foreshadows the events that are to come in the poem. The stanza puts forward
How far, and in what ways, do you agree with this view?
The narrative of Border Country describes the relationship between the two boys one of whom has to make the jump into adulthood before he is prepared. Sheers presents coming of age as sudden and tragic and puts forward the idea that this period is delicate and is something requires time.
The title of the poem might serve different functions. ‘Border could represent the separation between childhood and adulthood and the division between the two of these worlds. ‘Country’ characterises a new beginning, something completely different and daunting – this is how the speaker’s friend ultimately feels about becoming an adult.
The poem begins in the present tense, showing that the speaker has gone back to a place that seems important to him as he’s looking upon a scene that brings back vivid memories.
He says that ‘nothing marks the car quarry now’, this could mean that that the narrator is claiming that nothing about the place is the same, it isn’t what it used to be in the past. The first image is compared to a ‘graveyard’ with words ‘headstone’ and ‘epitaphs’ also used. This creates a dark and ominous tone which foreshadows the forthcoming events in the poem. The character seems to use a form of personification with ‘wind written epitaphs’, this is giving human-like qualities to an almost inanimate object. He does this to infer that nature has been corrupted by death just like the innocence of the speaker’s friend.
The persona also makes a comparison between nature and machinery as he describes the scene as an ‘elephant graveyard of cars’. This links to the idea of how when elephants are old and dying, they go to a quiet place to die alone. This adds to the ominous tone that was presented in the earlier stanza and again foreshadows the events that are to come in the poem. The stanza puts forward