Chainsaw

Question 1

main ideas

Answer 1

manmade v nature
masculinity v femininity

Question 2

chainsaw and the grass are both what

Answer 2

extended metaphors

Question 3

all winter unplugged
nose down
under the hatch

Answer 3

repression of masculinity

Question 4

it knocked back a quarter pint of engine oil

Answer 4

colloquial language - represents masculine drinking culture

Question 5

juices ran
oozed

Answer 5

masculinity waiting to be released/explode

Question 6

weightless wreckage of wasps…wool

Answer 6

alliteration emphatic of destruction (of masculinity or the manmade)

Question 7

day-glo orange power line

Answer 7

colour imagery - orange represents hostility - masculinity as dangerous?

Question 8

like powder from a keg
walked
flicked
clipped
dropped
gunned

Answer 8

simile and dynamic verbs present masculinity as active and destructive

Question 9

, just an instant rage,

Answer 9

caesura emphatic of the explosive anger due to repression

Question 10

perfect disregard

Answer 10

disregard seems callous while perfect makes it seem as if there is a sense of enjoyment in this masculine release of emotion

Question 11

flesh
bones
kick back
rear up

Answer 11

animalistic imagery to present the chainsaw as having primal qualities of violent behaviour

Question 12

how is nature presented as feminine in the third stanza

Answer 12

cloth
jewellry
hair

Question 13

warmth
light

Answer 13

immediate contrast to the femininity of the natural world

Question 14

twelve foot spears

Answer 14

femininity ready to defend itself

Question 15

or a pitchfork to lever it out at its base

Answer 15

mocks masculinity for being so over the top

Question 16

Overkill.

Answer 16

minor sentence used to mock his ridiculous masculine aggression

Question 17

dabbed
lifted
docked

Answer 17

change to more gentle verbs - the calm contrasts its earlier aggression

Question 18

this was a game

Answer 18

callousness of the manmade/masculine - an ease of destruction

Question 19

repetition of raked and cut

Answer 19

active verbs desperation to be released/dominate

Question 20

‘…wouldn’t be dug up with a spade or prised from earth’

Answer 20

masculinity fails - the end stop conveys it is futile

Question 21

choked with soil or fouled with weeds

Answer 21

change in dynamic verbs - the femininity/nature has the power now

Question 22

.I left it at that.

Answer 22

caesura emphatic of the short utterance which conveys how easily masculinity was defeated

Question 23

new shoots
sprang up
riding high
wearing a new crown

Answer 23

dynamic verbs now about natural world - that has the power

rebirth, regal, triumph etc

Question 24

the chainsaw seethed

Answer 24

defeat, the futility of aggression - comical?

Question 25

what kind of poet was Simon Armitage?

Answer 25

Prose poet