1. The main themes of the poem are introduced in the title and first six lines
Identify one main theme and show how poetic technique is used to introduce this theme. (3)

2. By referring closely to lines 6—20, analyse the use of poetic technique to achieve a change of mood from alienation and uncertainty to one of confidence. (4)

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the second stanza as a conclusion to the poem. (3)

4. 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. (10)

The thread is a very appropriate title for this poem. The poem talks about Jamie’s birth and the aftermath which saw him fighting for his life. In this sense the thread is a metaphor for the thing that kept him alive. In the second half of the poem there is an image of Paterson, Jamie and Russell all running down a hill together in a line. Here the thread is the family as they stretch out across the grass.

The split in the poem creates a clear division between the past and the present. The past was a tense time as they thought that Jamie might not make it, however now Jamie is very much alive and filled with energy.

The flying metaphor in this poem helps us understand both Jamie’s birth and the life he is living aged 2. In line 2-3 it tells us that Jamie “made his landing in the world so hard he ploughed straight back into the earth”. The use of “landing” makes it seem like Jamie is some otherworldly being who has arrived on our plane. This suggests he is a gift to his parents. It also suggests the speed and panic surrounding his difficult birth, especially with the follow up of “so hard he ploughed straight back into earth” which suggests he almost died.
The metaphor of flying is again used to describe Jamie, aged 2. This time it suggests family and a vibrant energy about Jamie. We are told that Paterson and his two boys make a “great twin-engined swaying wingspan” as they run down the hill. Here the word choice creates a sense of a family unit and vitality. The word ‘great’ suggests that this family is powerful and mighty in some way. “twin-engined” shows us that it is the boys who give their father his energy and drive and swaying wingspan” again suggests the size of this family, they feel invincible in this moment as they run down the hill. Jamie in particular stands out as we are told his lungs “somehow out-rev every engine in the universe”. There is a suggestion here that Jamie is far more powerful and alive than anything that has been made by man.

The language in lines 2 and 3 creates a sense of wonder at Jamie’s survival. His landing is so hard that he went “straight back into the earth”. Although this is a metaphor for the landing plane it has other connotations of a body being laid to rest hinting that Jamie came very close to death. We are told the doctors “caught” him, which suggests he was falling in some way. We already know he was almost dead from the previous line. The seriousness of the issue is put across in the “one breath”. It suggests that Jamie only had one shot at living and that this was it.

In the final three lines Paterson uses structure to create a sense of the thread holding the family together. First of all line 12 talks about the “long week” of Jamie’s hospitalisation at birth. This creates a sense of worry. Paterson then quickly moves on the thread giving us a time shift with the word “now” that comes after the caesura, this lets us know that he is going to be focusing on the present. He then places the words “the thread” at the end of line 12, which emphasises its importance as a key idea in the poem. He then goes on to say that the thread is “holding all of us” which lets us know he is talking about the whole family unit. This time he expands the family unit further to include his wife. There is a colon which goes on to introduce the mother “look at our tiny house,/ son, the white dot of your mother waving” which gives us the full image of the family – father and sons at the top of the hill with their mother at the other end of the thread at the bottom of the hill.

Line 7 is very effective at creating an image of the family strength by focusing on the male members of the family. Paterson uses a metaphor to compare himself and his two boys to a plane with a “great twin-engined swaying wingspan”. Paterson clearly feels that his energy is derived from his boys and that they drive him in some way. They are clearly one unit, as together they form the plane and there is a sense of immensity here with the word choice “great” and the implication of size through “wingspan”.

The difference Russell makes to his father’s life is to give a new purpose and sense of direction. Before Russell was born the speaker felt he was simply drifting through life, but now he has a child to raise and look after.

Language is used to create a contrast between the child’s smile and the speakers ‘grin’ – the former is a true smile whereas the latters is forced. Paterson’s old smile is made to sound false and difficult. He calls it ‘hard-pressed’ suggesting he was once intensely cynical and had become world-weary. He was often just going through the motions of appearing happy. On the other hand, Russell’s smile is one filled with genuine joy. It is described as something that ‘dawned on him’ suggesting it was something that got bigger and wider the longer it went on. There is also this idea that it completely takes over Russell as we are told his grin “possessed him”. It is an unbreakable smile, with nothing unable to break it – “it would not fall or waver”. Russell has not encountered anything to make him unhappy yet.

The sestet comes first in the poem and is addressed to an unknown listener. The octave which forms the final 8 lines of the poem is addressed directly to Russell.

In lines 8-9 Paterson is using an allusion to the path of life from Dante’s Inferno to get across the idea that his life now has meaning. In line 8 he talks about the “true path” being lost to him, which means that he felt his life had no definition or point to it. He was lost in some way,

The poet’s use of language is revelatory. Everything about Russell has changed the poet’s perception of life. This revelation hits the day he wakes up next to Russell – “it all began” showing us that this is the beginning of something new for Paterson. He talks about finding “the true path” suggesting that now he knows the purpose of his life whereas before he was simply going through the motions of living.

This image is very effective in conveying the point that Russell is a huge natural force that has taken over his life. First of all Paterson mimics the noise of a river by having lots of ‘r’ sounds in these lines. This creates an impression of the rushing noise of a river. Paterson also talks about the smile being “poured”. The word choice here is again suggestive of a great force which is unstoppable, just like a river.

The first light imagery is in the first few lines when he talks about Russell’s smile “dawning” on him. This suggests that the smile will grow and brings light and therefore happiness with it. There is also an idea of light connected with Russell when he interrupts his father on the path of life, and acts as a guide to his father, showing him what the meaning of his life now is. We are told in very simple terms that Russell “lit it as you ran”. Really Paterson should be guiding Russell as his father, but here it is the other way round as Russell shows his father the true meaning of life.

The whole of the poem is in rhyming couplets which makes it sound like a nursery rhyme as this gives it a lyrical feel. There is also a clearly identified protagonist in the first line – Don Miguel – who is clearly on some form of mission which makes this seem like a fairytale.

The poem is about two trees that are first of all tied together by Don Miguel and then separated by an unnamed owner. There are themes here of new life and separation or death. The poem is clearly split into two stanzas, each of these could be said to represent a tree as the stanzas are of equal length just the trees are equal to each other. The trees also form a pair, and throughout the whole poem there are rhyming couplets again highlighting for us the two trees. The storyline also deals with the joining of the trees by Don, this is clearly focused on in the first stanza. This leaves the second stanza free to deal with a later section of time and the separation of the trees – which they manage to survive.

The word choice in lines 4-5 makes clear to us the difficulty of joining the trees. First of all the speaker talks about how “it took him the whole day” suggesting it was strenuous and lengthy work to put the trees together. It also speaks about having to “work” them free from their original spots which again hints at a great effort being put into this task. The difficulty is also suggested in the words to do with pain in lines 5. “lay open their sides” suggests that the trees are in some way exposed, and “lash them tight” suggests that they are having to be held together in a violent way. The “lash” has connotations of being hit with rope or pulled tight.

The kids think the tree is magic because for them it appears as one tree that is somehow able to produce the fruits from two trees. The fact that this is an illusion is given in the expression “looked like”, as the tree is still two separate ones each putting forth their own fruits. The fact that there is a double harvest is given in “double crop” which tells us it provides both lemons and oranges.

Don Miguel is cast as the hero and the man is cast as a villain. This is reinforced through word-choice. At the start of the poem the words are short and have an upbeat effect. We also get a sense that Don Miguel is excessively hard working and enthusiastic about his idea – “Don Miguel got out of bed/ with one idea rooted in his head”. Although it doesn’t say whether this is a good idea or not the lyrical effect of these two lines creates a happy tone and we automatically think that the splicing of the two trees is a good idea.

The man is made to seem like a villain as he remains nameless, he is a shadowy figure in the poem. We are told that he “had no dream” which makes him seem aimless in comparison to Don Miguel. We are then told that his decision to separate the trees is a “dark malicious whim”. The word choice here is very effective at creating a sinister personality for the man as opposed to Don Miguel’s happy persona. His thoughts are “dark” and therefore unwanted and evil. He is called “malicious” suggesting that he aims to cause hurt and finally his actions are perceived as just a “whim” – this is something he hasn’t even bothered to plan out, he is acting spontaneously without thinking about the effect almost as if he is a small child doing whatever he feels like.

The effect of the parallel structure in lines 17-19 is to reinforce that the two trees were not harmed in any way by their separation. This is done with the repeated “no”s at the start of each line and then the unbearable experiences they did not go through – suffering severe loneliness, becoming infertile, suffering from wounds that are incapable of healing properly.

The tone in these lines is didactic and a little sad, the speaker is trying to teach us that despite separation things can survive. The language is quite formal, almost archaic with the use of “nor”, and verging on flowery to create these grand poetic images. This creates an image of a wise person feeding us important information. The language begins with “they did not die from solitude” suggesting that they were not feeling too alone, it continues with the lack of “sterile fruit” again suggesting that they were still able to bear offspring or continue to make produce. There is also the word “flanks” used to describe their open scars from the separation which makes them sound like beasts. It ends on the rather desolate image of “empty, intricate embrace” to describe the trees survival without each other which has left them saddened – their lifes’ are now a little devoid of something, and what they had before was complex, and they provided a comfort to each other.

The final lines of this poem are effective as they challenge the reader to think. It talks about how trees are passive living things – they do not “ache or weep or shout”. This comes after the speaker has suggested that the trees do have human emotions and we would expect the trees to be aching or weeping or shouting. In the final line Paterson’s meaning is ambiguous as he states “trees are all this poem is about”. If this is the case then it is a very simple poem. However, the fairytale structure would suggests that Paterson does actually want us to read a deeper meaning into this story and that there is a moral point here about surviving traumatic separations.

1. How does Paterson bring a fairytale like element to this poem? (4)

2. How is the splicing and separation of the trees made to sound difficult and then easy? (4)

3. What tone is created in lines 17-22 and how is it effective? (2)

4. The final lines of this poem are ambiguous. With detailed reference to one or more other poems, examine the role ambiguity plays in Paterson’s poetry. (10)

1. Explain how the thread is used as a theme throughout the poem. (4)

2. How is a sense of energy created through language and/or sentence structure in lines 7-10. (6)

3. This poem explores childhood. How is this idea developed in another poem or poems by Paterson that you have read?

4. This poem explores childhood. How is this idea developed in another poem or poems by Paterson that you have read?

1. What is the difference between the two types of smiles in this poem? (2)

2. How is a contrast created between the poet’s life before Russell was born and now he has arrived? (4)

3. How does Paterson use the traditional love sonnet style to shape this poem? (4)

4. The speaker in this poem reflects on the nature of life. With close textual reference, show how Paterson examines the nature of life or existence in another poem (or poems) that you have read. (10)

The poems title is very appropriate to the central concerns of the poem – them being time and place. The title speaks of the time they will get the bus 11:00. There could also be another reference here to time – the eleventh hour as at the end of the poem the world has become very apocalyptic with everyone dying. The poem also focuses on a journey, with the destination quite clearly being marked out as Baldovan.

The sense of adventure is introduced in lines 1 with the phrase “base Camp” to describe the bus stance. It suggests that this is where they are starting out from and where they will return to after a voyage, like they are scaling Everest or going on an expedition. This idea is further created with the “steel flag” in line two. This suggests they have somehow conquered this land and are claiming it as their own before they go out exploring

The list in lines 5-8 describes the different types of coins the boy has. This creates a sense that the boy feels incredibly wealthy. It is also quite humorous as actually what the boy is carrying around is small change, but he feels he possesses a lot of money.

At the start of the poem there was a tone of excitement and adventure. This has changed to a sense of uneasiness. The word ‘however’ is placed right at the start of the line to emphasise the contradiction about to come. The boys are going on an adventure on the bus, but now they feel apprehensive about getting on it. He describes his worry as ‘obscure’ suggesting that there is no real reason to worry about getting on the bus as it is such an ordinary activity yet they have never done it before and are slightly freaked out about having to do it alone. The speaker also lists the questions he asks, showing he is unsure of what to do.

There is a metaphor in line 19 that conveys the speaker’s fears of travelling to a new place. He describes their destination as “another country”. They are not really travelling to a foreign place but he sees it as being somewhere spiritually different from his home and so associates it with the ‘other’. He then goes on to describe how the streets “suddenly forget their names”. This is a transferred epithet as in actuality the boys have forgotten the name of the streets in this foreign place. There is a sense of aggression in line 22 as the shopkeeper shows hostility in his “shaking” fist when they ask for sweeties he cannot identify. A more sympathetic shopkeeper would have offered the boys help. He then “calls his wife through” suggesting they will now mock the boys or chase them.

The parallel structure and repetition of ‘and’ in lines 21-30 creates a sense of growing panic. There is no break at all in these lines and the sense of terror is created through the lack of breath as much as the growing list of things that could go wrong. The ‘and’ connects a very graphic list of things that are not quite right in this new future world where the boys have found themselves. There is the old apocalyptic looking bus, the physical changes to their own bodies, the “black waves” which will suck them under and the lack of their families.

The sense of being in a nightmare is already established in line 24 when the speaker says ‘ever make it home again’. The word choice here gives a sense that there is a possibility of not returning to where they came from and that they might remain lost forever. The catastrophic image is then introduced with the word choice “charred wreck” to describe the bus. ‘charred’ suggests it has been physically burnt out and there is a possibility that someone has done this to the bus, physically inflicting harm upon it. The word ‘wreck’, short and simple, shows just how badly damaged the machine is. There is a sense that the boys no longer recognise themselves when it read ‘our voices sound funny’ they don’t understand to begin with why they sound so strange. It is of course because they have grown up into men and their voices have broken. The final nightmarish image is introduced in the last line – ‘our sisters and mothers are fifty years dead’. Their family has died and there is no one familiar near them. This last line is particularly significant as the family members singled out are female which could also suggest that the nurturing figures in their life are no longer present, making them feel incredibly vulnerable.

At the start of the poem the speaker seems very self-assured and in control of himself. There is only the slightest hint of worry at travelling without an adult. There is a tone of confidence in the phrase ‘first time ever on our own’. The emphasis on ever and own hint at the pride he feels doing this. There is then a simple statement ‘I plan to buy comics, sweeties and magic tricks’ which show he has a clear line of thought about what he intends to do when he gets to Baldovan. The creeping doubt kicks in nearer the turning point when he begins to list worries and questions – ‘where we should we sit, when to pull the bell’. Here we can see him worrying about what it is he should do when he gets on the bus, he isn’t sure about how to take responsibility for himself. After the turning point there is a genuine feeling of alarm. The speaker describes the streets as ‘wrong’ showing that he feels alienated from them. He reinforces this feeling with the phrase ‘no one will have heard of the sweets we ask for’. The blanket term that everyone in this new world will not have heard of the things they ask for shows that they are in an alien territory. The shop keepers speech to his wife ‘come her and see this’ again suggests that the boys are something to be mocked and that they are different and strangers in a world where nothing is familiar as the locals don’t take kindly to them.

The poem is about football and this title references a scenario in which both teams lose. Both the stories contained within the poem are about nothingness which is reflected in the title of double zero. Also the fact that the poem deals with two stories that both end in nothing is shown here as there is an idea of two teams (stories) being played.

Both the plane and the football club start on a high but by the end of the poem they are nothing.

In line 18 we find out that Farquhar has died and that he has probably been forgotten about. This is emphasised by the tone and word choice of ‘name-check in Monday’s obituaries’. There is an image here that he has grown old and that he has been forgotten about. The only thing he will be remembered for – name-checked- is his “spectacular bicycle kick”. Farquhar is later portrayed as a villain in the poem. He somehow manages to score an “own-goal” in a later match. He has sabotaged his team’s chances of winning when they are already on a losing streak.

The poet helps us to understand that the clubs fortunes have diminished over time by using a really long list. He lists all the things you can now see at a game “big tartan flasks, open hatchbacks, the half-time Satsuma, the dog on the pitch…” all this suggests that the atmosphere has gone a bit stale and that the team is now only playing at amateur level.
The word choice to describe this decline is also worth noting. Paterson calls it the “fifty year slide”. The decline is taking a long time to happen, and the slide part suggests that they have no control over it and cannot prevent it from happening.

Paterson uses specific word choice in his opening line to establish straight away that the club is experiencing success and glory. He opens with the phrase “from the top”. This suggests that the team is at the height of their game and are doing the best they possibly can. This idea is further reinforced with the phrase “the zenith” again suggesting that these men have reached the peak, no one can beat them. The team are clearly well supported as Paterson speaks of a “plague of grey bonnets”, the word “plague” suggests an epidemic of people so we know the grounds are swarming with supporters. The word “majestic” is also used to describe the skills of one of the players. This word bears connotations of being god-like and great or important. This tells us that the team holds a high position and is doing well.

The epilogue is very effective at summing up the central concern of nothingness in the poem. The speaker in the poem is addressing us directly after telling us the story of the club and plane descending into nothingness. He too is about to disappear into nothingness. He talks of “the failing light”, – the coming night will be complete darkness, “the trail as it steadily fades” – the path disappears, and then eventually mentions “nirvana” the state of non-being. All of this highlights and reinforces the idea that eventually all of us, no matter what, will become nothing.

In lines 19-23, Paterson is describing the decline of the football team. There is sense of humour and irony here as he describes the “spell of giant killing” as a “setback”. He is looking upon the teams short spell of victories as a bad thing because it causes a blip in their steady fall from the top. This is ironic as really this should be something to celebrate, the team are doing well. There is also humour in the mock heroic word choice. “spell of giant killing”. The team are not really knights fighting a deathly battle against huge beings, but a small football team challenging another football team. It makes it sound like the football matches were difficult and epic battles.

The idea of a decline is further established in lines 44-49. The team has been reduced to one wee boy “swanking” home on his own from the field that now acts as the football pitch. The town from which the football club once hailed has also fallen into decline, mirroring the demise of the club. We are told that he walks past “stopped swings, the dead shanty-town/ of allotments, the black shell of Skelly Dry Cleaners/ and into the cul-de-sac”. The “stopped swings” hints that once upon a time this area was lively with children playing but now they no longer come outside. The use of “dead” to describe the allotments also suggests this lack of life, and the “shanty-town” to describe the allotments appearance suggests great dilapidation has taken place. The Dry Cleaners that once sponsored the team has now gone bust as there is only a “shell” left, letting us know they are now empty. The word choice “black” lets us know it is darkness and could hint that it has actually been burned down so the area is now invaded by hoodlums who wreck what is left. Dramatic epithet is also used as the boy trudges home in “rain” which suggests a sad and dreary mood and setting for the poem at this point.

An ominous and foreboding atmosphere is created in the first ten lines when the speaker states “I stood with my back turned”. This suggests to the reader that there could be something behind the speaker, waiting to attack or approach him. It is reminiscent of the horror scene in which the attacker can be seen lurking behind the victim.

There is a very clear sense of duality in the first ten lines of the poem. This begins in the phrase “with ten minutes to kill”. This is a double agent. The speaker is saying that he has a lot of spare time before the ferry comes and he needs something to fill it. However in reality it is time that kills us, as we age or get ill. The duality is continued with “I took myself on for the hell of it”. There is a clear image here of a man in a pub playing himself at pool. There are two of him – there is even a hint that he could be playing for his life further on in the poem.

The first image of death in the first ten lines appears when the speaker states “I was magnetized by a remote phosphorescence/and drawn, like a moth, to the darkened back room.” Here the speaker compares himself to a moth and the back room of the pub to a light which attracts the moth. However, given that there is an overtone of Greek mythology and death to this poem a deeper reading of this simile shows us that actually it is his soul that is moving towards the light. There are also echoes of the western idea of being pulled towards the light when you have died.
The second image of death appears in the phrase ‘a striplight/ batted awake in its dusty green cowl”. The metaphor which the light fitting becomes a cowl is suggestive of death’s hood and robe.

In lines 11-20 the speaker states that “the black did the vanishing trick”. The word choice here could simply be talking about the ball being pocketed. However it could be a metaphor for the life of the player ending. This is his passage from the real world – the green felt of the pool table – into the underworld – the inner mechanics of the pool table.

The ferry’s arrival is made to sound sinister through word choice. We are told that it arrives from “somewhere unspeakable”. The place from which the ferry has come is unnameable. It suggests through the ‘unspeakable’ that it is physical impossible or painful in some way to utter the name. The sibilance in these two words also adds to that idea, as they are almost hissed out again making it sound like the ferry has arrived from somewhere dangerous or disagreeable.

The light colours in this poem are all associated with life where as the darker colours come to be associated with death. In the first stanza the colours are mostly associated with the pool balls. The coloured balls are used to represent those who are still living, whereas the black ball is eventually potted and is put inside the table – or to use the wider analogy of this poem, the black ball who represents the speaker is taken to the underworld. Even the green felt of the table and light fitting come to represent life as opposed to the blackness of death. There is a clear simile in the final stanza, where the sea is compared to the “black” of the speaker’s guiness. Both the sea and the drink are able to hide things within their depths.

One of the allusions to a Greek myth is when the speaker ‘slots a coin in the tongue’ of the pool table. In Greek times the dead would have had coins placed on their eyes. These were to pay Charon, the ferryman, who would take them along the river Styx and into the Underworld. Here instead the speaker pays the pool table with the coins before he gets on his own ferry.