🗊Презентация A shape poem «better late than...» by Patrick Winstanley

A shape poem «BETTER LATE THAN...» by Patrick Winstanley By Guretskaya Daria and Smolnikova Daria, group 0-18-46

BETTER LATE THAN... BETTER LATE THAN... Are you one of those punctual People who organises everything With precision? Utterly dependable Totally reliable wholly predictable. Or is your entire life lived in a state of Chaotic confusion? Rushing hither and Whence: late arrivals missed meetings Delayed departures and in your wake A trail of disappointment and despair I am the former; my wife the latter ‘Hurry up, if we don’t leave now We’ll miss the plane’ shouted Plaintively from the foot Of the stairs produced A sound of hurried Footsteps and Her muffled Response ‘Hold On I Am Only Putting My make-up On, I promise I Won’t be a jiffy. And I must just run a Brush through my hair And hurl some clothing into A suitcase’. My fingers drummed On the bannister as I felt my anger Welling from deep within me, ‘Ready?’ I asked, as I bounded into our bedroom I laid my hands upon her shoulders and I began caressing her neck as I repeated The question. ‘Ready?’ ‘Lordy, how many Times am I going to have to repeat this, I’m ready when I’m ready, not before’ Was the rather strangulated reply, The last words spoken by my dear Late wife before she departed.

Backgrounding means Aposiopesis in the title of the poem marked by suspension points (...) demonstrates the narrator overcoming with anger, excitement. It is the famous proverb "Better late than never" that is often expressed with a degree of sarcasm, saying something positive but merely hinting at somebody's lateness. 

Foregrounding means There are words and expressions relating to the thematic field of time and hurry, e.g., "punctual", "rushing", "late", "missed", "delayed", "hurry up", "hold on", "I won't be a jiffy", "Ready?".  It is noteworthy that the enumerations of certain traits of character ("Utterly dependable totally reliable wholly predictable...") or of successive events ("...late arrivals missed meetings delayed departures...") are without commas, that helps to create the effect of being in eternal rush. The second enumeration is put in parallel structure with the line "...a trail of disappointment and despair..." that helps to highlight the idea that life is too short to be in a hurry.

Foregrounding means Asyndeton in the line 10 creates an effect of two separated spouses. A metaphor "strangulated reply" contributes to the idea of a drastic difference between the two spouses and between their emotional states that are antithetic to each other: while the wife is slow, her response is "muffled", the husband gets rattled as his "...fingers drummed on the bannister as (he) felt (his) anger welling from deep within (him)...", he "bounded into" their room which presupposes a high level of excitement. The antithesis is not only marked verbally but typographically. There is a gradation of negative emotions of husband: «My fingers drummed on the bannister as I felt my anger welling from deep within me, ‘Ready?’I asked, as I bounded into our bedroom I laid my hands upon her shoulders and I began caressing her neck as I repeated the question. ‘Ready?’»

Grammaticality Subject ellipsis in the last sentence "Was the rather strangulated reply..." contributes to a conversational tone so as to bridge the gap between the author and the readers.

Message It is evident that all the means in the poem make it clear that the message the author strives to convey is «Better never late».

Thank you for your attention!