Download True North

True North
SIMON ARMITAGE
Read the poem …
 What is the poem about?
What is the significance of the title?
 Think about ‘true north’ as opposed
to ‘magnetic north’ on a compass.
‘Magnetic North’ can tend to shift
whereas ‘True North’ converges
with the North Pole and is constant.
Armitage comes from the north of
England.
Discuss the tone and speaker of the poem
 What age do you think the speaker is and
why?
 The tone is quite complicated as the
adult/mature speaker seems to reflect upon a
visit home when he was a student.
Throughout your analysis, look out for words
and phrases that reveal a subtle disapproval
and disappointment in his younger self.
 When was the poem set? What clues are you
using from the poem?
The difference between poet and speaker…
 When a ‘poet’ writes a poem, he/she
may create a persona whom we refer
to as the ‘speaker’. Whilst we should
treat the poet and the speaker
separately, in some poems, which
includes this poem, there may be
enough evidence to assume the poet
and the speaker are the same person.
Language – stanza 1
 Which words/phrases suggest a
rather nonchalant/blasé attitude
regarding his journey?
 What impression do you gain of his
journey?
Language – stanza 2
 Portsmouth is geographically opposed to the
speaker’s home-town. Why is the adult speaker
keen to highlight that the subject/his younger self
has only been away for ‘one term’?
 Why has his used the word ‘Poly’ – what does this
suggest about the speaker?
 Look at the phrases ‘clutch of houses’ and ‘toy
snow-storm’. What does this suggest about the
subject’s attitude?
 Look at the verb ‘settled’. What does this suggest
about the northern town?
Language – stanza 3
 Why does the subject expect a
welcome with ‘flags and bunting’?
 Why does the speaker use the phrase
‘stir it’ when talking about his younger
self?
 Look at how the tone changes from
celebratory to ordinary between
stanzas 3 and 4.
Language – stanza 4
 In this stanza the speaker describes ‘two
men’ in the ‘Old New Inn’. What
impression do you gain of the men
through the reference to ‘arm-wrestle’?
 What does the verb ‘dithered’ suggest
about the subject’s attitude towards his
home-town?
 How does the simile ‘like a compass
needle’ relate to the title of the poem?
Language – stanza 5
 The ‘Malvinas’ is the Spanish for the
Falklands. What impression do you
gain of the subject through him using
this term?
 What is the effect of the repetition
‘wrong’?
 What impression do you gain of the
subject through ‘I hosted a new game?
Language - stanza 6
 What impression do you gain about
the local’s attitude towards the
subject through the simile, ‘like a
snare drum’?
 Why has Armitage used the phrase,
‘the penny dropped’?
Language – stanza 7
 Look carefully at the verbs ‘yawned’ and
‘lectured’. What impression do you gain
of the guests and the speaker as a younger
man?
 Bothnia is in Sweden. Why is the subject
talking about wolves in Bothnia?
 What do you understand from the last
line of the poem? How do the wolves
serve as a metaphor for the subject’s
attitude towards his home-town?
Layout and structure
 What is the effect of the
enjambment throughout the poem?
 There is no evidence of a rhyme
scheme – why?
What is your personal response to the poem?
 You may appreciate, from reading
the poem, that whilst you may
move away and change, those you
leave behind remain settled and
constant. There may come a time
when you realise that you may not
be as knowledgeable and worldly as
you initially thought.