Some of you may still be struggling with the ten marker questions at Higher. Below is a reminder of how to complete it with a sample answer.
First 2 marks – identify the commonality, the thing that links both the poems you are using. Make it very clear how it is shown in both poems.
Next 2 marks – show how this commonality is demonstrated in the poem in front of you. Do this by quoting a relevant section or phrase and then analyse it in detail.
The remaining 6 marks are best split into 3 lots of 2 marks OR 2 lots of 3 marks. Referring to the other poem you are using, show how it demonstrates the commonality by quoting a relevant section or phrase and then analyse it in detail. The amount of detail in your analysis will determine whether you get 3 or 2 marks in this section.
In this poem, Paterson uses an apparently ordinary experience to explore a deeper truth about humanity. By referring to this and another poem or poems by Don Paterson you have studied discuss how he uses poetry to explore the deeper truths behind ordinary experience.
The Ferryman’s Arms and Nil Nil are two poems by Don Paterson. Each of them take an apparently everyday event and turn it into a deeper look at our lives. The Ferryman’s Arms would appear to be about a man waiting in an island pub for the Ferry that will fetch him home, however a deeper reading of the text reveals that it could actually be about dying. A similar truth is revealed in Nil Nil when Paterson suggests that everything will fade to nothing through the tale of a declining football team and a devastating spitfire crash during WW2. Both poems then could be read as teaching us about death or nothingness.
In The Ferryman’s Arms there is a clear reference to death when Paterson writes about being drawn to the pool room “like a moth”. This simile is effective on two levels. First of all he is comparing himself to a moth and the pool room to a light. This suggests that he can’t help himself in finding something to fill ten minutes. On a deeper reading though, the poem has multiple references to Greek mythology and we see that here as a moth represents the soul and we could read it as his soul being taken somewhere. There is another idea of death here as well as the moth is being ‘pulled towards the light’ just like the western euphemism for death.
In Nil Nil there is an idea of nothingness or death introduced straight away in the phrase “plague of grey bonnets”. Here Paterson has used a metaphor and word choice to shape his idea. The “plague” of grey bonnets is the spectators’ hats but the word “plague” suggests they are a disease which will eradicate the football. There are connotations of a “plague of locusts” which leave nothing behind when finished. The colour “grey” is also nondescript again hinting at the nothingness to come.
At the end of Nil Nil there is a definite image of nothingness or death as the speaker addresses us directly in the phrases “failing light,” the trail that “steadily fades” and eventually “nirvana” and “the plot thinning down to a point so thin not even angels can dance on it”. Paterson carefully selects specific words here to hint at the nothingness. “failing” tells us that the light is no longer there, that it is dying out. “steadily” again repeats this idea that it is definitely declining into nothing. Nirvana is the state of non-being, it is a passive nothingness. The final image shows us that there is nothing left of the story as not even the delicate angels are able to do anything on it as it no longer exists.
