Mr. W's English lit group

The dark humour is shown here with the med students laughing at Miss Gee's horrible situation and the fact that the surgeon just cut Miss Gee in half, it doesn't make it sound like he's performing an operation to try and save her life.

there is horrible imagery of Miss Gee being hung up like an animal and not like being very human anymore

The dark humour in this stanza is that they dont actually care about her only that it is an interesting project to look at.

The doctor is the only one that cares about Miss Gee. The doctor's wife just dismisses the doctor's sympathy for her, and seems more interested in their dinner.

Its sort of explaining that nobody knows the truth and nobody really cares enough to find out, so they just make up things. But to her she wants the truth, she doesnt just want to have to wait and find out what really going to happen.

Good. What can you say in terms of the lies that are presented to her in the poem?

These two stanzas show dark humour because even her having a happy dream is ruined by something and she cant escape from her current life - the mentioning of the back-pedal brake emphasises this. Also the fact that the Vicar asks her to dance implies that she may have some kind of temptation towards him because later on in the poem while she's at church she says 'Lead me not into tempation, but make me a good girl please'. Auden mentioning the vicar in this is quite patronising in a way because she wont get him or anything that she wants and we are pretty much aware of this from the beginning because it is quite a dark poem. Its also quite patronising towards the church and religion because although she has been good all her life and always goes to church she still gets cancer and her life ends in a horrible way.

Cancer isn't really that funny. It may be odd and mysterious in a way, especially when this was written about 60 years ago as it was pretty much incurable therefore it was quite a mystery. Still I wouldn't describe cancer as a 'funny thing'. That's like saying, 'funny thing, cot death'. No...no it isn't.

In my opinion, this stanza has the most dark humour because Miss.Gee's dead body is being hung from the ceilling. This gives me the imagery of dead animals hanging in a butchers ready to be cut and sold for people to eat.

Starts off sounding very nursurey rhymy. Creates a kind of sick darkness to it, like when you see in creepy 80's films of children singing 'ring around the roses' in a sort of demonic voice.

Starts off sounding very nursurey rhymy. Creates a kind of sick darkness to it, like when you see in creepy 80's films of children singing 'ring around the roses' in a sort of demonic voice. This emphasises the darkness and sadness of this poem by making it sound sort of nursery style and them dropping a huge cancer bomb on on top of which destroys the cuteness of it.

Quite edit note: It is read in the tune of St. James Infirmary, if that's any constitution.

Contrast of imagery... Velvet with trimmings-nice colourful clothing Dark Grey costume-horrible baggage and dull Makes it sound nice at first then horrible and nasty. Emphasises the darkness in it.

1st person thinks that because theyare soldiers, they will be woounded. 2nd person thinks they are too great/powerful to get hurt.

This shows that the narrator fear's the amount of control and power the soldiers have over people

I think that this stanza shows that the narrator feels threatened by the soldiers as he says 'but i must be leaving'. The soldiers have made him run away from his house and wife becasue he is so scarred of them. Through out the poem the narrator is in denial about the soldiers and why they are there, but now he is realising that they are actually coming for him and he is rather frightened and leaves.

I think that this stanza shows how the narrator feels about the soldiers because they have finally realised/come to terms with the fact that the soldiers are there for a purpose and aren't as harmless as they believed. I think that the person that is reassuring the other person knew from the beginning that the soldiers were coming for them but didnt want to admit it and was trying to comfort the other person, but once they were 100% sure that the soldiers were coming he ran away.

This stanza helps show us that the narrator finds it important not to worry and that if someone is worryng, you should reassure them.

Imagery of the weapons, the bayonets reflecting the sunlight perhaps.

This is an interesting point, where else is there reference to weaponary in the poem?

He feels that the stench of death is unacceptable and is a offence against the september time.

there is a sense of helplessness as it says no-one can save them, or even who will try

The war is irrational, it has 'driven them mad'. The cause can be 'pinpointed' - something small that happened in Linz - possibly could have been solved easily before it got too big ?

These lines show how Auden view's the war. He feels his life will be changed by the effects of war in a negative way but he is not exactly sure how it will change yet.

The war is irrational - started off as something happening at a Linz. Perhaps the war could have avoided if the problem at Linz was solved at the time, without it becoming a big worldwide problem?

This line makes Auden sound bitter and angry towards whoever has caused the war and is going to subject everybody to the same pain and grief that had been experienced in the first world war.

i think that it makes him feel angry, about how the war affects everybody and i think he believes that it shouldnt. Also that its wrong that school children are affected by the war.

This line suggests that Auden thinks that the dictators just talk lies and repeat them. I think this because he uses the phase 'elderly rubbish'. When people use the term 'rubbish' about what someone says it tends to mean it is lies, he uses the word 'elderly' to describe what they are saying, this could mean that their lies are old and have been said before.

This line shows that the war has effected all the children and they are afraid and never happy. Also, it shows that the children feel they have never been good because the war is happening. Auden has included this in his poem because it shows that the children are suffering for selfish decisions of others.