Jackie Kay and Severe Gale 8

Severe Gale 8

A recording of the daily Shipping Forecast, which Scottish people will hear on the radio... which refers to Gale Forces.

This collection captures many of the stormier moments in daily life... and is more ominous in tone.

A more personal social commentary on life in Britain in the 1970's and 1980's.

The tone is darker and sadder than other collections, and contains a multiplicity of different voices (that often lead us wondering who is the speaker.

Indeed, we do have to pay attention to a) the speaker's voice (autobiographical or fictional?), b) themes and c) the different types of poems in this collection.


Kay is exploring important social themes of 1970's and 1980's Britain (Severe Gale 8 was published in 1991):


To explore these themes she uses creates Dramatic monologues

noun
 
  1. a poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their character while describing a particular situation or series of events.


Her works are often forms of Social Commentary.

Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace about a given problem and appealing to people's sense of justice.


Let's look at some of her poems:


"My Grandmother's Houses" (p45)

The Grandmother's move from a tenement building  to a high rise flat, with views over the city and located near to the Royal Infirmary.

A lovely piece of social commentary on the limited physical space the grandmother occupies but also the "endless" objects her rooms contain.

The simplicity of the grandmother - who reads the Daily Record and chews toffees until their stick to her false teeth... and who works cleaning rich(er) people's houses well into her 70's.

You can hear the songs of the time period...

including Lord Kumbaya and 'Oh Can you Wash the Sailor's Shirt'.

Consider these questions:

1. By referring to two examples of language, explain how the poet makes clear the speaker’s feelings about going to church. 

2. By referring to two examples of language, explain what we learn about the relationship between the speaker and the Grandmother. 

3. By referring to one example of language, explain how the poet creates a clear impression of the house that the Grandmother cleans. 

4.  By referring to one example of language, explain how the poet creates a clear impression of the attitude of the woman who lives there. 

5. Looking at the closing 3 lines. How are the ambulances personified and what is the effect?


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Summer Storm, Capolona

Is this Jackie Kay with her son Matthew in a push chair? 

See:

Because she was a lesbian, Fred D’Aguiar (an Afro-Caribbean British writer)  asked  her one day if she wanted to be a mother. She said yes but she wanted it by “the normal way” as she said. Thus in 1988 she gave birth to her son Matthew, who studied at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and he is now a film maker in London. Jackie doesn’t have any more children, although she wanted more but she didn’t want another man in the family or any donors.

Also see this resumé of Kay's life.

A narrative and descriptive poem, that seemingly recounts a real life experience, Kay shows respect and understanding for the rural Italians that welcome her in during a storm. Indeed, this poem does what Kay wishes: ‘poetry gives voice to the voiceless’.


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Whilst Leila Sleeps

Watch this BBC Bitesize analysis of the poem

The BBC page clearly states:

"This dramatic monologue is about a mother and daughter fleeing their home, only to be apprehended by the authorities. Kay does not give specific details, but we might infer that the woman is an immigrant facing deportation."

Follow the logic of the presentation of this poem, and do the quiz at the end.


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In the Seventh Year (p50)

In the Seventh Year

This poem is different to other poems we have read so far, as it is a crafted with a number of intentional poetic techniques.

The style follows the logic of romanticism movement, where nature is studied as a means to better understand the interior world of feelings and emotions. The style is meant to explore a spontaneous feeling or reaction to the natural world, one which helps us to better understand the emotion.

This is also a lyrical poem: a brief emotive poem that emphasizes sound imagery in addition to visual

Examples of poetic techniques:

alliteration in M: mysterious as morning mist.

personification: the sea with 'its flapping arms stretched out for dry land.'

                            'the sun dives in at night.'

Use of verbs: flapping, running, sliding, dives, stroking, spreading, clasping (the sea is an extended metaphor for the active energy within their relationship.

If you step back and look at these verbs, you can also see that their love is not a safe and secure place... being in love involves heels "running heels sliding over pebbles."

rhyming couplets: Stones /Bones (lines 6&7) anchors the centre of the poem

enjambment: like the morning mist, the structure of the poem is unending

Collective pronoun: "We" / "Our sea."

Adverb: "Still mysterious" - their love remains fully of mystery, even after 7 years

This poem is both easy and difficult to read.

We do not have a lot of biographical information to know to what degree this is a 'real life' address to 'Louise' but we do have the next poem "Photo in the Locket" to help us to learn about the speaker's inter-racial and complex relationship with 'Louise.'.


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3 Poems to do with AIDS/HIV


A series of dramatic monologues exploring the death of a son from Aids.

A great video on "He told us he wanted a black coffin." (p57)

An excellent article on "Dance of the Cherry Blossom" (p55) by Gabriele Griffin "HIV/AIDS and Jackie Kay's poetry). In the abstract for this article it is written:

Look also to "Lighthouse wall."

"In her collection of poetry entitled The Adoption Papers (and so included the sub collection Gale Force 8) the black British writer and poet Jackie Kay takes up the issue of the unspeakable violence, both psychic and physical, which is incurred by those regarded as marginal in mainstream society, and establishes a relationship between the experience of being adopted as a black child into a white family in Scotland with the experience of being gay in a heterosexist world. "

It also says, "In ‘He Told Us He Wanted a Black Coffin’ (The Adoption Papers 52) and in ‘Lighthouse Wall’ (The Adoption Papers 53) the persona, in the former instance the mother of a man who has died from AIDS related illnesses, and in the latter, a man suffering from AIDS lying in a hospice, both remember the past as they are suspended in their grief for a future no longer to be had."


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Homework:

For class on Friday 16 September, create a short presentation(be ready to teach us) one of the following poems from Severe Gale 8:

Summer Storm, Capolona (p47)

In the Seventh Year (p50)

Whilst Leila Sleeps (p65)

The collection of 3 dramatic monologues on AIDS.


The plan.

8h10-8h20/25

Team 1 reads Summer Storm alouds, explain the 'story' of the poem', the 'autobiographical message, strong images, social commentary, poetic techniques...

8h25-8h35/40

Team 2 presents In the Seventh Year (p50) by reading it aloud and explaining its merits as lyrical poem (etc).

And so on.

Each of you will receive the information presented but also take the time to revise your knowledge of each poem using links above. 



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