Poem:
Poem: Bruises heal
Poet: Polly Peters
Era Written: Early 21st Century
Point of View:
The poem is written from the point of view of a school student who is being discriminated
Subject matter:
Because she is smart, a student is constantly picked on by a girl at her school. The student’s self esteem and emotions are deeply damaged, and she states that if damaged with fists, at least there would be bruises (which as the title indicates, will heal)
Purpose:
To display the kind of damage that verbal discrimination can have on people
Theme/message/ideas privileged:
Verbal discrimination can sometimes be more harmful than physical, because often, mental damage is a lot more serious and harder to ‘heal’
Emotion and mood:
The poem has a very depressing and hurt emotion. It makes you feel spite towards the discriminator (as does the student being picked on) and feel sadness for the narrator.
Poetry Techniques/craftsmanship:
• Structure – regular four-lined stanzas
• Language – vivid and emotive language
• Imagery -
o Stanza one; metaphor~ words are scalpels
o Stanza two; metaphor~ little cow
o Stanza four; metaphor~ poisoned words
o Stanza four; simile~ wears them like a cloak
• Movement –
o Slightly slow/moderate pace
o movement allows us to absorb and imagine the descriptive images
• Sounds –
o Rhyme; ABCB
Register:
The character has written in a very personal and honest register, as if thinking to herself. The words that have been chosen help display the cold, depressing and spiteful tone of the poem.
Discourse:
The writer is a very intelligent school student, and her discourse is one that values education and despises those who dislike smart people. She probably isn’t popular and would have a more anti-social attitude.
Reading Position:
Readers are positioned to see the opinions and emotions of the student being bullied/abused. We are also positioned to see the other student in bad light (as a ‘villain’) because she is always bullying the narrator.
Socio-cultural views:
This era portrays modern schooling, where in our society ‘nerds’ or ‘smart people’ are bullied.
Gaps & silences:
The poem uses a silence, at the end of the poem; where the text finishes with ‘at least there would be bruises.’ In this line, it does not tell you why having bruises would’ve been better, but instead, it expects the reader to deduce from the title of the poem, that bruises would’ve been better because they could heal, whereas emotional wounds were much harder to fix.
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