Hearth Lesson by Paula Meehan

Theme(s)

• Poverty
• Childhood memories
• Relationships

Poetic Techniques

• Anaphora (the use of the same word of the start of several sentences)
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Personification
• Pun
• Allusion
• Enjambment

Rhyme Structure

• 35 lines
• 8 stanza
• written in free verse

Tone + Mood

• Reflective
• Dramatic
• Volatile
• Menacing

Imagery

• Child sitting by a fire in a flat
• Small child, head moving left and right as parents argue back and forth
• “Killing glance”, the mother looking angrily at the father
• Money being burned in a fire and the colours the flames turn to as a result
• Exotic birds

Symbolism

• Zeus + Hera, both Greek gods used to represent the poets parents, to children parents are like gods
• ‘like trapped exotic birds’, could symbolise that the child and mother are trapped in a life of poverty, unable, to achieve their goals