‘Day Trip to Donegal’

Poem deals with poet’s sense of alienation – psychological and spiritual .Imagination clearly at work in the poem

Vivid, sensuous imagery throughout

Regular form of the poem contrasts with the chaotic feelings the poet stresses in the final stanza (5 stanzas, 6 lines, aabbcc)

Alliteration adds to the change of mood in the poem

Conversational language at the beginning. Clever use of language throughout

‘As ever, the nearby hills were

a deeper green/Than

anywhere in the world’

Idealised sense of place – rural, coastal beauty spot

‘grave’, ‘grey’ and ‘grimmer’

Hint at a darker vision. Alters the atmosphere

Alliteration – repetition of

harsh ‘g’ helps to alter mood

‘we changed-down into suburbs/Sunk in a sleep no gale-

force wind disturbs’

Difference is highlighted between life in Donegal and Belfast.

‘And still the fish come in year after year – Herring and mackerel, flopping about the deck/In attitudes of agony and heartbreak’

Suggestions of pain and death add to the atmosphere of underlying unease set up in the first stanza

‘That night the slow sea washed against

my head’

‘Performing its immeasurable

erosions...muttering its threat

‘spilling into the skull’

The poet is anxious

We are plunged into the terrifying world of the subconscious. We can almost hear the sound of the sea and its power

Images of the sea are blended with the experience of dreaming. Conveys the surreal, frigthening atmosphere of dreams

Alliteration – repetition of soft

‘s’

Onomatopoeia

‘At dawn I was alone far out at sea...no promise

of rescue’

Alienation – psychological and spiritual

‘cursing my constant

failure...contriving vain overtures to the vindictive wind and rain

Utterly intense atmosphere. Elements of nature symbols of obstacles in life- death,lossOrdinary ‘trip’ has forced him to face his deepest fears

Metaphor

Symbols