Essay Questions

Examine the theme of old age in Douglas Dunn's 'Remembering Friends Who Feared Old Age and Dementia More than Death'.

The themes of aging and old age are apparent in this poem from the outset, demonstrated by the poem's title. A semantic field of aging - there are references to 'Old Age', 'Dementia' and 'Death' - concentrate the reader's attention on the theme, whilst 'Remembering' is an action we associate with the past. As Homi K. Bhabha, the influential critic, argues, however, "is never a quiet act of introspection or retrospection. It is a painful remembering, a putting together of the remembered past to make sense of the trauma of the present". The phrase 'just the other day' in the opening line of the poem indicates time and its changing nature. References to the ''aging process'' and 'the land of forgetting' indicate a preoccupation on the part of the speaker with what the future might hold, how they will change physically and how their memory might be affected by aging. Therefore, old age is a central theme of this poignant poem, published in Dunn's 2017 collection of poetry 'The Noise of a Fly'.

Explore the presentation of human relationships in Douglas Dunn's 'Curmudgeon'.

Human relationships are intimately explored in 'Curmudgeon'. The narrator's repeated references to 'He' suggest a simultaneous emotional closeness and distance. The stichomythic exchanges that open the poem - "Coexistence? He doesn't believe in it. / Give you the time of day? Not one minute. - imply a frustration with the 'he' referred to, suggesting he is an unlikeable character. The fact that he 'dismisses several generations' and 'disagrees with his own agreements' gives the reader the impression that he is a despondent, misanthropic character, who is also inconsistent in what he says. It is implied by the speaker of the poem that this person is xenophobic, or even racist' - 'And as for 'foreigners' - oh-ho!'. He doesn't like 'foreigners'. We are left with the overall impression, thus, that this person described is an epitome of the title of the poem - 'curmudgeon' - surly, miserable and downcast in his view on life.

How far do you agree that Douglas Dunn's poem 'Second Opinion' is "a touching tribute".

'Second Opinion' is a poem that was printed in the collection 'Elegies', which won the 1985 Whitbread Award for Poetry. 'Elegies' deals with the death of Douglas Dunn's wife, Lesley Balfour Dunn, which was caused by cancer. As the title of the poem suggests, 'Second Opinion' is about visiting a doctor to obtain a 'second opinion' on a medical diagnosis. The poem is a narrative poem and is as much about the speaker's wife's experiences as it is about the speaker's reaction to what they are told. The poem opens by scanning the waiting room and seeing who else is there, 'those with bandaged eyes and dark spectacles'. The speaker's declaration that 'The minutes went by like a winter', a simile, highlights the stress and emotional difficulty associated with waiting to go and see the doctor. Time slows down and seems to last longer than it really does. The speaker's confession that 'My body ached to suffer like her twin / And touch the cure with lips and healing sesames' discloses the intimacy between the speaker and the person he is with, who we can assume is his wife. Though it is a diagnosis about her body, he feels it as sharply. The image of 'touch[ing] the cure with lips' is a touching and moving image. The poem ends with the sight of a 'wedding ring', emphasizing the centrality of marriage to this poem. In sum, the poem is "a touching tribute" to the speaker's wife, the institution of marriage and the power of love.

Analyze 'Love Poem' by Douglas Dunn.

'Love Poem' by Douglas Dunn is an extraordinarily lyrical poem. Though short, it delivers a great deal of emotional power. The opening line - 'I live in you; you live in me' - is a tribute to love, referencing the marriage rites and religious love and the sexual love that exists between a married couple. The image of fertility and renaissance is continued into the second line - 'We are two gardens'. However, the image that the 'two gardens' are 'haunted by each other' is slightly more sinister. This more anxious tone continues when the speaker announces 'Sometimes I cannot find you there'. Does this person love them as much? Are they having an affair? Perhaps they have passed away? Simple objects - a 'swing' and 'your favourite book' - are the things by which the speaker remembers the person they 'live in'. So this is a love poem, but one that touches on regret and possibly anguish, emotions that are inseparable from the state of being in love.