Questions on 'Ukritye' and 'Fence'
The two poems are reprinted, with the kind permission of
the poet, from Mario Petrucci's Heavy Water: a Poem for Chernobyl,
published by Enitharmon Press. Heavy Water was inspired by the
book Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich, (translated
by Antonina Bouis, published by Aurum Press) which records interviews
with the survivors of Chernobyl. Copies of Heavy Water may be ordered
from Enitharmon Press at http://www.enitharmon.co.uk,
or direct from the poet at http://mariopetrucci.port.5.com
Some background material on the accident at Chernobyl may be advisable as an introduction to the poem. Further information can be found here on the SCND web-site. Also helpful is the information that the slabs for the 'sarcophagus' around Ukritye were put up with the help of helicopters and robots and the haste in constructing it is said to be a cause of the cracks which have developed in it (See 'Voices from Chernobyl', p.2).
Detailed questions which have been discussed with the poet are set out below. Notes on these are given separately.
Initial discussion
The poet considers that responses to the poems will be most valuable if the students are first allowed to explore their feelings and thoughts about it before any close textual analysis is undertaken. A general question such as 'How do you react to this poem? What feelings does it arouse in you? could start a class discussion.
Questions
The following questions on each poem (which have been discussed with
the poet) are divided into three sections: Understanding, Form
and Structure, and Follow up work.
For information on the answers see the Notes section
Questions on 'Ukritye'
Understanding
1. 'Ukritye' means 'shelter'. Why do you think the author chose this as a title?
2. 'Even the robots refuse'. How does this sentence relate to the last lines of the poem, 'Concrete and lead can only take/so much. What remains must be done by flesh'?
3. Comment on 'invisible hail'.
4. What is meant by 'that upwards cone/of technicide'?
5. 'Black running guts': what is being described here? Why is it a particularly appropriate image?
6. What does 'silent as brides' suggest to you?
7. 'Still they shovel ... liquid life': what is being described here?
8. Why do you think the soldiers are compared to children and described as having 'the wide stare of the innocent'?
9. Why is the word 'crosshatch' used in the sixth stanza? What word does it relate to in the following stanza? Why do you think the crayon image is chosen for concrete - something we think of as solid?
10. Comment on the effect of: 'liquefy', 'no deer graze', 'roots strike upwards', 'puff spores'.
11. 'Yet Spring still chooses/this forest'. What does this mean?
Form and Structure
12. What is the form of the poem? What is the overall effect of this form?
13. Pick out an example of alliteration, an example of assonance (similar vowel sounds), an example of consonance (similar consonant sounds at the ends of words rather than, like alliteration, at the beginning) from the poem and discuss their effect in the line/stanza in which they occur.
14. Why do you think the words Firemen, Soldiers, State Concrete and Spring all have capital letters in the poem?
Follow up work
'Ukritye' means 'The Shelter'. Write a poem about something else that is supposed to offer shelter and perhaps doesn't.
Questions on 'Fence'
Understanding
1. Who do you think is speaking in this poem? Who is he or she speaking to? What kind of a person do you think he or she is?
2. 'This side clean. That side dirty'. What do 'clean' and 'dirty' mean here?
3. 'You must forget that soil is like skin'. In what ways might soil be like skin where fallout is concerned?
4. 'Imagine a sheet of glass coming down from the sky'. Why does the speaker suggest this?
5. What do you think of the way the speaker answers the question 'What if my cow leans over the fence?'
Form and Structure
6. What is the effect of using short lines and three-line stanzas in this poem?
7. Look at where the words 'clean' and 'dirty' are placed in stanzas one and three. Why do you think this is?
8. Most of the lines run on in meaning to the next line, even when the
next line begins a new stanza, e.g.
Or interlocking scales
on a dragon.
Look carefully at the lines where the sense runs on into the next line
or stanza. Why do you think the author made the break in the line where
he did?
9. Why do you think the last word in the poem is 'stupid'?
Follow-up work
Imagine a nuclear accident has taken place in a reactor in Scotland. Write a poem or short conversation/story from the point of view either of an official explaining what has happened to a member of the public or from the point of view a member of the public wanting to know what has happened from an official.
TEACHERS ARE INVITED TO SEND POEMS AND OTHER WORK BY THEIR CLASSES
ARISING FROM WORK ON THESE POEMS TO A.C. CLARKE c/o SCND OFFICE, 15 BARRLAND
STREET, GLASGOW G41 1QH (email: acclarke6@btopenworld.com)
Copyright Mario Petrucci and A C Clarke
Teachers should feel free to reproduce these questions for use in class. They may not be reproduced for any other purpose (e.g. on other sites or in other publications) without the permission of the authors.