Read, annotate and respond to the essay question for lesson # 23 in your A.P. workbook: "Five O'Clock Shadow," by Sir John Betjeman.
Assignment specifics: Respond, on this blog, to the essay question on page 114 of your workbook. Responses should be a MINIMUM of 250 words and should analyze the poem, as instructed by the essay task. (This is not a re-telling of the poem.) Evidence from the poem should be quoted. It is not necessary for you to quote your classmates responses for this assignment. Blogs must be posted before class on Friday, December 2nd in order to receive credit.
Due date: Friday, December 2nd.
After reading Five O'Clock Shadow, I think it is clear to say that Sir John Betjeman may a somewhat disturbed citizen who can portray a really strong message that talks about everyday actions that goes on in a hospital whether it is a rev in a car or a nurse putting up her feet. So I want to discuss line 5. " A haze of thunder hangs". To me the whole line has a negative connotation period, I say this because "Haze" is usually used to describe death. Death stinks and it is important to keep in mind that they are in a hospital and death is everywhere I also think that dullness of a room may cause depression "One more surge of the pain and I give up the fight", and this right here could be explained by the depression. "thunder" is a funny word. When I first read "thunder" I thought of the sad person who has the cloud over them. "Hangs" is deffinitely negative. I think Betjeman included that word to make a connection between the actions that the character did in his life and way that he is paying for it furthermore; i think it is safe to say that his slow struggle to live can be compared to the slow death of hanging where it becomes difficult to breath. I'd like to close out that connection by connecting to "When he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly".
ReplyDeleteMichael javier
“This is the time of day when we feel betrayed.” The point of Sir John Betjeman’s poem is to express the despair and loneliness of those left in the hospital, uncared for by their families. Every aspect of their situation becomes colored by their despair. “…when the weight of bedclothes/Is harder to bear than a sharp incision of steel.” This is a metaphor relating the hospital bedclothes to steel. It shows that their situation is not only colored by their despair, but also that they feel entrapped and in pain. The immense loneliness is the cause of the painful despair. Also, the poet often juxtaposes the lonely hospital with the lives of the other people that don’t care for them. “Below the windows, loads of loving relatives/Rev in the car park, changing gear at the bend,/Making for home and a nice big tea and the telly.” This shows just what I mean. Betjeman uses the whole stanza that contains the quote to share bitter sarcasm about the hands-off attitude about the loved ones of the patients. The poet is clearly expressing both distaste and anger at that situation, which occurs fairly often. An important part of the poem to keep in mind is the suicidal suggestion at the beginning of the poem. “…’One more surge of the pain and I give up the fight,’/When he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly;” The point is that the loneliness and despair of being forgotten can easily drive people to desire death.
ReplyDeleteSir Jon Betjemen uses diction as a vessel to strike the reader with his potent feelings of resentment towards this “Five O’Clock Shadow” where he feels all of the demons of his illness weighing in on his will to live. The title itself, “Five O’Clock Shadow”, is meant to bring a whole new light, or dark, to a common phrase which in the context of this poem means the moment during the day when he felt his war was fought. In the small bio part, precluding the poem, it is noted that he had suffered from Parkinson’s disease toward the end of his life, which hints that the setting of this poem was probably the home to this poet when his illness became too much of a burden on his family. At line 12, where he says, “It can’t be long till the end,” he tells the reader that at this stage death is imminent and both the patient and their loved ones is already numb to the fact that the wick is soon going to burn out. With the words “haze (line 5)” and “thunder hangs (line 5)” the tone of the poem becomes ominous, making it clear that there is some grey area as to when the time will come but every occupant of the hospital bed knows that it is in queue and could process when they least expect it. This goes without saying that we all have this terminal fate that lies in the clouds above us, but for those who are told their life expectancy, every day is a grueling game of Russian roulette.
ReplyDelete~Ester
The author’s diction in the poem Five O’clock Shadow show the helplessness and vulnerability of a doctor or nurse in a hospital when faced with the burden they have to bear after the death or possible death of a patient they tried to save. Death is always there like a how a “haze of thunder hangs on the hospital rose-bed”. They cannot stop death from claiming lives and ultimately stain the hospital beds blood red. The narrator in the poem describes the wait for the outcome of a surgery or medical operation to be harder to go through compared to the actual treatment itself. This is the time where all the hopes, wishes and dreams of the relatives and doctors a like can and most likely will be destroyed. Life betrays them as the life of the patient is forsaken to death. The author uses words that carry weight to show the struggle during that time. The author seems to imply that death imminent and it cannot be stopped regardless of what a person’s action is, it can only be postponed. Regardless of what actions are taken, a person can only wait to see the outcome of the situation. Those that death claim will die and the people who still has time to live are free to be careless like how the sister acts, “safe in her sitting-room Sister is putting her feet up” as though not affected by death. But the point is death is still present and knowing this only “intensifies the lonely terror I feel.”
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Five O’clock Shadow” was written by a poet whom suffered for the last ten years of his life from Parkinson’s disease. His use of diction created a tone for the poem giving insight into what he must have felt like while being sick and knowing that he was dying. With his use of words he conveys visual imagery, “haze of thunder hangs” (line 5). From this line it is evident that the author was saying how gloomy the hospital can be although it is not meant to be a dark place, this makes for a morose tone. With the lines,” safe in her sitting room” (line 7) the author conveys a soft spoken tone almost solemn. The author is clearly in a position where he is dying and yet he is starting to notice the small things around him and the swiftness of how things can change is starting to take a toll on how the narrator feels. The narrator compares himself to a shadow and soon there will be nothing left of him. The diction used when the narrator talks about his sister there is a sad tone in these words. The narrator/ author also uses the lines “betrayed” (line 8) to express the way that he feels about life and in that moment while laying there as he watches the world around him continue on. He watches as “loads of loving relatives” leave the hospital but he does not seem to be saddened by this. It seems as if he is almost grateful that they left the hospital so that they won’t feel the way that he was feeling while laying on the hospital bed. He feels betrayed by death which he cannot control but instead he thinks about how uncomfortable he feels laying in the hospital. He acknowledges the fact that he won’t be going home with them to tea and television tonight or ever for that matter, the narrator sees death near and does not fear it. Instead the narrator fears the loneliness that he feels the moment his relatives have left. The narrator and the family seem to be well aware that his death is imminent and there is nothing that can change that. The author may have written this poem about himself and the way that he felt throughout the ten years of his life that he spent ill suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
ReplyDelete- Jasmine Berrios :D
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ReplyDeleteSir John Betjeman, uses word choice to strengthen the dreadful mood of his poem “Five O’Clock Shadow”. Betjeman uses alliteration in small amounts to further express this tone. For instance, “a sharp incision of steel” (line 14) has a greater impact to the overall painfulness of death than a more general word such as ‘pain’. He repeats the phrase “This is the time of day…” (line 4) to raise a sense of importance to the emotional impact that death may have on an individual. “Haze of Thunder” (line 5) likely relates to the uncertainty of death, because Haze or Fog represents mystery, and Thunder adds a pain factor that is suitable when referring to death. A major aspect of this poem is that the speaker, who is either himself dying, or experiencing death around him (the “Men’s Ward” being a hospital), is that there is a sense of betrayal from family members of the dying. “Safe in her sitting-room Sister is putting her feet up” (line 7) expresses the discomfort the speaker has in relation to how the Sister doesn’t understand the suffering like the bed-ridden people in the hospital do. The relatives in the third quatrain appear to be accustomed to the death of others, who all “Rev in the car park”, just to return home for “a nice tea and the telly” (lines 10-11). Betjeman then uses dialogue of the relatives in line 12 to expand on the idea that there is nothing they can do, so they should give up and leave the dying person alone. The “anonymous croak” or the transistor is almost like a timer counting the remaining time left for the person in question. The transistor has no feeling, and does not comfort as family does. Betjeman uses this to convey the pain and struggle of someone experiencing his or her own death alone.
ReplyDelete~ Dave
Sir John Betjeman uses strong diction to portray the feelings of patients left alone in the hospital. Sir Betjeman uses the phrase “This is the time of day which is worse than night.” (line 4). He is setting the dark tone of loneliness and terror that some terminal hospital patients can feel when they are alone. This time occurs after the “loads of loving relatives” have gone home and the “Sister is putting her feet up.” The patient’s “loving” families have gone home and the nurses and doctors are ending their work days. All the while the patient is left alone and scared, not knowing if they will make it through the night. “It can’t be long till the end.” Sir Betjeman is saying, through his use of strong word and phrase choice, that the people that a patient relies on most, can abandon them when they need care the most. This is the tone of loneliness throughout the poem. Sir Betjeman says in lines 13 and 14, “This is the time of day when the weight of bedclothes/Is harder to bear than a sharp incision of steel.” Sir Betjeman is using this comparison of bedclothes and an incision to vividly portray the loneliness of the patient. The patient would rather be cut open than be left alone with only his sheets. All of this adds to the tone of loneliness. It is also important to remember that Sir Betjeman suffered from Parkinson’s disease and more than likely had first hand experience with these feelings.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is a great representation of the concept that less is more. In this example, there is no immense paragraph with intense imagery, but it has short and sweet moments. These snip-its of information make for a great amount of the information to be left to the imagination. These gaps are filled in by or own emotions and feelings. As you can see, barely any emotions are supplied to you by the author, which is replaced by how we would feel when we were in this situation. As we read through the piece emotions of sadness, despair, and lack of hope fill our hearts and give us the feeling that we are in his shoes.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Adrian, I also caught on to the intense misery and pain of the loneliness of being in the hospital alone. When the poem reads, “Making for home and a nice big tea and the telly: ‘Well, we’ve done what we can. It can’t be long till the end,’” that really hit home the loneliness. Although this, most likely, wasn’t said in front of him, its not difficult to pick up on such feelings that a person has, that sadness of the knowledge that nothing can really be done, is difficult to hide and even more difficult to cope with. Speaking from experience, it is not easy to be in the presence, for any given amount of time, with a soon-to-be-dead person when you all know it is coming. So this is felt by the man who is in the condition, which imparts the debilitating feeling of despair.
Sir. John Betjeman creates a poem about a man facing death and left alone by his family memores and even the doctors and nurses. The, “haze of thinder hangs” referrs to the feeling that death is coming soon. A haze is something that cannot clearly be seen, it is more of a feeling, or an instinct rather than a knowledge of sometheing. Here that something is the feeling of death. He even says that this is it the time, “when he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly” (line 3). By using the word “can” the suthor implies that decending to death is almost a voluntary action, a willingness to give up. In other words, he has the choice to struggle and fight till the last breath or not. The man who struggles for breath is also struggling to find a reason to fight for his life.
ReplyDeleteThe words “safe in her sitting-room” (line 7) paints the mental image of a safe haven. The people who wait in the waiting area are never the people who are facing any danger. People who wait in the waiting area will be there after a relative has passed away. Here the author is looking from what might be his death bed, at a woman who will possibly remain in the waiting area after he has died. On the conrary, our author is sitting amongst a haze of thunderclouds. While he is braving the cold harsh weather with lighting foreboding over him, a nurse is sitting in a warm, comphy chair in the sitting-room.
In the Poem “Five O’clock Shadow” Sir John Betjeman’s unique writing style has a significant impact on the tone and how the reader depicts its meaning. The author’s tone: “struggle”, “lonely”, and “endless” portrays a very acerbic and depressing mood. For instance, the narrator stated, “One more surge of the pain and I give up the fight.” (Line 2). The narrator is revealing a strong sense of death and depression, which allows you to imagine his conflicting and hopeless emotions. Also, the author’s connotation of the characters health and well-being mirrors the situation of the author, Sir John Betijeman, and the malevolent battle he faced with Parkinson’s Disease.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the author’s use of alliteration, “Haze of thunder hangs” demonstrates how the character is in a deep fog of emotions and is trapped between a state of life and death. Also, the use of thunder illustrates a hidden pain because thunder is usually heard not seen, just like the narrators deep oppressions. Another example, in line 9 , “Loads of loving relatives.” uses sarcasm to demonstrate how the narrator feels that he is lost and everyone in his life is drifting away as he nears death. Also, it illustrates how he feels “betrayed” by his family and the society around him. The dark tone also illustrates how the narrator has given up. For instance , he stated, “When he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly,” (line 3). This ultimately shows the reader how the narrator is on his death bed and has given up on society and is in the dark state of a “Five O’ Clock Shadow.”
-Russ
Sir John Betjeman’s choice of words does really well to set a dark and gloomy tone throughout the entire poem called “Five O’clock Shadow.” This tone is set up first in the title itself, Five O’clock Shadow. The use of the word “Shadow” provides a slightly dark and grim nature to the poem. This tone continues on in first stanza when Betjeman writes “Think, ‘One more surge of the pain and I give up the fight,’/ When he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly;” These two lines set up the theme of death and the fatalist attitude of the poem. In the second stanza, the use of the words “haze of thunder” further sets the gloomy tone. Also in the second stanza, the lines “Safe in her sitting-room Sister is putting her feet up:/This is the time of day when we feel betrayed” are used to portray the disassociation and neglect shown by the hospital staff while the word betrayed is used to further the negative tone. In the fourth stanza the narrator says “the weight of bedclothes/Is harder to bear than a sharp incision of steel.” What this means is that the emotional pain brought on by the loneliness of the hospital is much greater than the pain any surgery could cause. Overall the diction of this poem provides a very gloomy tone about the depressing realities of staying at a hospital
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ReplyDeleteSir John Betjeman primarily uses a comparison of negative and positive language to convey the rather dismal situation at hand. Off the bat, the title "Five O'Clock Shadow” is a lead-in to the overarching theme. The idea of not bothering to shave is subtly juxtaposed to not caring about life, when one chooses to “give up the fight” (line 2). This is a considerably powerful comparison when we realize that the narrator is talking about his imminent, lonely death. The first stanza is filled with ugly expressions like “surge of the pain” and struggles for breath”. The narrator’s plight is deeply humanized by such language.
ReplyDeletePositive imagery begins to take a critical role in line 7, with the expression “Safe in her sitting-room Sister is putting her feet up…” Without understand the broader context, this statement would sound quite pleasant. But it is the lack of access to this image, the distance his terminal illness has placed between him and his family, that makes it so harsh. The entire third stanza is devoted to creating that sense of futile longing. Positive expressions like “making for home and a nice big tea and the telly” would normally incite joy or comfort, but the sharp contrasting language found elsewhere in the poem create an opposite effect.
It ends with the original dismal language, which serves to leave the audience with a certain melancholy taste. “The weight of bedclothes” (line 13) visualizes the drowning depression and helplessness our narrator suffers. The last two lines hit home the core message with passionate, well chosen words. “The endless anonymous croak of a cheap transistor intensifies the lonely terror I feel.” Suffice it to say, diction was aimed specifically at invoking pathos, and the juxtaposition and knowledge of connotation and syntax made this short piece extremely effective and interesting to read.
-Josh Pelton
Sir John Betjeman's diction in "five O'clock Shadow" tells the story of a lonely hospital bed at the worst time of day, when the patients are alone with their pain. This poem is more than just a story of a patient in the hospital, it their emotions, what they feel after the family check -up. The use of the word “betrayed” (line 8) for this time of day tells the reader that how when the patient feel when the "loads of loving relatives" (line 9) leave and go home with their perfect health and uninterrupted lives, and the patient remains in the hospital alone and sick. The betrayal could be to the family, that the 20 minute visit every couple of days is more for the family members to not feel bad for dumping the patient in the hospital than for the patient themselves, or to happiness for leaving them in such an awful state. On top of the emotions of the patients, the hospital itself is bound by gloom, this is shown in "a haze of thunder hangs on the hospital rose-beds" (line 5). The rose-beds can be taken as the rose-buds that are out side the hospital lining the wall of the building as a border that surrounds the hospital entrapping the patients in their own pain, or that the betrayal the patients feels from the world is so strong that the rose-buds the loving family member brought them carries a sort of weight that dims the mood of the room instead of brightening it. The word choice of the author strikes the reader directly with sorrow, there is no optimistic way to view the poem. The overall tone of these concepts give the poem a dark, lonely, and helpless feeling.
ReplyDeleteSir Benjamin’s poem Five O’Clock Shadow seems to have a tone that is very gloomy and forlorn. This tone is created when Benjamin says “"Haze of thunder hangs on the hospital rose-beds," giving it a depressing denotation when you look at specific words/phrases like “haze” and “the thunder hangs.” Also, synthetically, the Benjamin clearly seems to have an undertone that expresses true grief. For example, the quote, “Think, “One more surge of the pain and I give up the fight”, the use of the comma after “Think” gives is a psychological undertone that his guy is suffering.
ReplyDeleteDirectly, one can see that Sir Benjamin also creates a very clamorous setting in this poem. As David said, the quote “Safe in her sitting-room Sister is putting her feet up” displays the “discomfort the speaker” is feeling in that the people in the waiting room don’t seem to get the right perception of what is going on in the hospital. I believe that he does a brilliant job in using concrete details to explain an abstract thought. For example, he uses, “below the window”, “Transistor”, “Rev. in the car park”, “Hospital” to describe the fear that he is feeling which is expressed in the last sentence which says, “Intensifies the lonely terror I feel.” Just like what Dillon says, he uses these details to add up to the theme of loneliness which is clearly explained when the author notices the cheap transistor. This poem probably sculpted the emotions Sir Benjamin felt as he struggled to live with Parkinson’s disease.
Similar to what Josh said the title of the poem "Five O'Clock Shadow" has a connotation of its own right off the bat. When reading through the poem it seems obvious that the title is not just about a five o'clock shadow or not caring to shave, but rather it has a deeper meaning of the character not caring about his life having a tone of depression almost. This is conveyed, for example in line 2 when the main character says he's "giving up the fight" supporting that depression tone. It really seems that the character is also more laid back and just goes with the flow because of the use of words in this poem as well. An example of this would be in line 12 "Well, we've done what we can. It can't be long till the end" as if he is just waiting for something to happen and doesn't want to take actions into his own hands. This would also help explain the title again because this theme of laziness is again explained there because the 5 o'clock shadow is almost representing his life, and he doesn't want to change it. In continuation with this depression is the lines 13 and 14 where it states "this is the time of day when the weight of bedclothes is harder to bear than a sharp incision of steel". This is explaining that he is almost bed ridden and doesn't want to move because of this unknown depression tone that has been conveyed throughout the poem. It is almost like the story is being taken place, as Kiara said, in a lonely hospital bed explaining his depression and laziness.
ReplyDelete-Brandon Simone
Sir John Betejeman's poem "Five O'Clock Shadow" has gloomy and heavy tone. Like Josh, I saw the juxtaposition of the meaning of the title (not bothering to shave) to line 2, "I give up the fight." (not bothering with life). The phrase "haze of thunder hangs" (line 5) gives the reader the impression that not only is there something "thunderous" (heavily depressing) about, but it is hanging around, heavy on the soul. "Safe in her sitting room" (Line 7) describes the sadness of a lost love, which is a common reason for giving up on life, adding to the depressing tone. Along the same line of the previous quote is "betrayed" (line 8), suggesting that the lost love was lost due to her ignorance and betrayal. The quote "loads of loving relatives" (line 9) seems to have a sarcastic tone to me, saying that there are lots of people that all claim to love you, but they don't really love you; they just say they do because they're "supposed to". All in all, this poem is about giving up.
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ReplyDeleteLike many of my peers I also agree that Sir John’s poem "Five O'Clock Shadow" gave off this dark, and as Bright eyes said, a gloomy tone. Sir John’ s choice of words and the use of diction told me that maybe his use of words is exactly how he felt when knowing he was going to die due to the fact that Sir John had a disease known as the Parkinson’s disease. I felt that the author’s use of alliteration, “Haze of thunder hangs” demonstrates how the character which is he who is in a deep state of emotions and is isolated between a state of life and death, as Russel pointed out. This is one of the reasons why he feels betrayed. In line 8 where the author/narrator says the word “betrayed” uses that to show how he feels about life with the Parkinson’s disease. Essentially saying life isn’t fair and it betrayed him. Sir John feels betrayed by death because he cannot control it and instead of thinking about death he thinks about how uncomfortable he was laying in the hospital. After this, Sir John acknowledges the fact that he will not be going for any tea or television tonight and sort of accepts the fact he’ll never be going home because the narrator already sees death near and doesn’t fear it for that matter. The moment he accepts his death his relatives leave and Sir John cannot accept the loneliness he feels. Sir John and his family knew his the death of him was forthcoming. The narrator compares himself to a shadow which is there but not actually there and soon there will be nothing left of him. The diction used when the narrator talks about his sister there is a sad tone in these words.
ReplyDeleteIn line 5 “haze of thunder hangs” creates a tone that is dark, suspenseful and depressing. The word “haze” portrays the idea that there is something unknown or hidden, which creates a negative connotation. The word “thunder” within the same line, could symbolize danger or harm, which also creates a negative connotation. This danger or harm could represent the illness that the narrator struggles with. The line “safe in her sitting room” presents a positive connotation because of the word safe because without looking at the rest of the piece, it can be said that it creates an image that is peaceful and relaxing. However, in line 8 the word “betrayed”, presents a tone that is gloomy and sinister. In line 3 “struggles for breath”, the tone of this line is also negative, because of the word struggles. It presents the reader with conflict which the narrator faces. Within the same line, “struggles less strongly” could represent how the character is dying and struggles each day to survive. Within this line it presents a strong negative tone because it shows the conflict between the character and his illness.
ReplyDeleteI am dumb. I don't think I actually processed the poem...at all.
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