Notes on Poems

Born Yesterday | Point | Example | Effect | F | 2 stanzas of irregular length * First stanza talks about positive wishes made by the rest of society which are wished for every child * Second stanza echoes the structure of a sonnet (14 lines long and ends with a rhyming couplet) | In the first stanza, the poet talks about wishes of ‘being beautiful’ and ‘of innocence and love’ made by the rest of society, whilst the second stanza he wishes for her to be ‘ordinary’ and ‘dull’. | By presenting them in a stanza each, it clearly contrasts them to demonstrate his point of how unrealistic the wishes of the rest of society are.The second stanza has been written in the form of a sonnet (which is usually about love) and is about his realistic wishes to show he is wishing her these things because he cares for her and not out of spite. | L | Colloquial languageTwo meanings for the titlePivotal wordDirected at the babyAssonance | ‘stuff’, ‘well’, ‘in fact’‘Born Yesterday’‘But’‘Wished you’, ‘May you be’‘Unemphasized, enthralled’ | * Friendly towards the baby and the informality gives the impression that the poet knows the baby * Meaning 1: The baby was born yesterday/ is a new-born OR Meaning 2: the poet is referring to the saying, ‘I wasn’t born yesterday’, which shows the poet is not ignorant of current life, hence the realistic wishes he has made for the child. * The pivotal word at the start of the second stanza prepares the audience for the change in tone of the second stanza, which shows that all the previous positive wishes made for the child, are not what he wishes for the child * Directed at the child suggests that he knows the child as it makes it quite personal, however the poet still sounds detached from the baby by referring to her as ‘girl’ rather than her name or terms of endearment. This shows he is not a parent to the child. * Assonance literally ‘unemphasizes’ the word enthralled. | I | EnjambmentMetaphors | ‘Running off a spring’,