Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poem 'Long Distance I,' is written from the first person perspective, addressing someone else, possibly the speaker's dad: 'I let your phone-call take its dismal course,' and dealing with the dialogue unfolding.
Form and Meter
'Turns,' is written in two sestets and a quatrain.
Metaphors and Similes
The poem 'Turns,' includes the simile: 'I'm opening my trap
to busk the class that broke him for the pence
that splash like brackish tears into our cap.'
Alliteration and Assonance
Harrison lists the professions in the poem 'V,' and uses alliteration for emphasis: 'butcher, publican, and baker, now me, bard
adding poetry to their beef, beer and bread.'
Irony
It's ironic that the sweets 'Lifesavers,' are referred to in the poem 'Long Distance I,' since the speaker is diabetic and his sugar levels must be balance for him to live a healthy life.
Genre
'Long Distance II,' is a reflective poem, a picture of the speaker's father after the death of his wife/the speaker's mother.
Setting
The poem 'Long Distance II,' is set in the past, in the speaker's parents' house.
Tone
'Long Distance li,' has a sad, mournful tone.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist in 'Book Ends,' is the speaker, most likely Harrison himself.
Major Conflict
The conflict in the poem 'V' is between the speaker's family and youths that vandalize and litter at graves.
Climax
The real climax of the narrative in 'Book Ends,' is when the mother 'suddenly dropped dead,' revealed in the opening line.
Foreshadowing
The phrase, 'When the chilled dough of his flesh went in an oven,' in the poem 'Marked With D.' foreshadows the bakery language and reference to death at the end of the poem : 'ash (not unlike flour) for one small loaf.'
Understatement
'I can't squeeze more love into their stone,' in the poem 'Book Ends,' refers to the need for an inscription on a grave and subtly reveals the fact that the father figure is now dead at the end of the poem too.
Allusions
The phrase 'my daily bread,' in 'Marked With D.' is a reference to the Lord's Prayer in the Bible.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The phrase 'All the pension queue came out to stare,' in 'Turns,' represents the people in the queue.
Personification
N/A
Hyperbole
In 'National Trust,' the reference to the death of a language and the manipulated, deliberate nature of it is exaggerated in 'those gentlemen who silenced the men's oath/
and killed the language that they swore it in.'
Onomatopoeia
The phrase 'a convict hush-hush,' in the poem 'National Trust,' is an onomatopoeic phrase.
