Analysis of 'Time' by Allen Curnow?

Answer 1

'Time' by Allen Curnow -- Student's Worksheet

A) Put the following lines into four stanzas. Organise them how you wish:

I am the mileage recorded on the yellow signs.

I am the sums the sole-charge teachers teach

I am the place in the park where the lovers were seen.

I am the water-race and the rust on railway lines

I am recurrent music the children hear

I am dust, I am distance, I am lupins back of the beach

I am nine o'clock in the morning when the office is clean

I am the slap of the belting and the smell of the machine

I am level noises in the remembering ear

I am cows called to milking and the magpie's screech.

I am the sawmill and the passionate gear.

I am the nor'west air nosing among the pines

B) Vocabulary -- close analysis of the first four stanzas. Here are some notes to help you with the difficult vocabulary

Vocabulary help:

Line 1: pines are evergreen trees that produce woody cones and have needle- shaped leaves

Line 4: Lupins are a common sight on the South Island of New Zealand where they have become wild (plants)

Line 5: sole-charge teachers are found in about 8% of primary schools in New Zealand. These are usually rural schools in isolated villages which consist of only one class and one teacher.

Line 6: magpies are birds noted for their chattering call

Line 8: belting -- either the material used to make belts (it could be the belts of a machine) OR belting can also be a beating or a thrashing (being hit with a leather belt)

Line 10: recurrent means occurring repeatedly

Line 12: a gear is a part of a machine used to change speed

C) Questions about the stanzas to help you think about the meaning of the poem.

Stanzas 5-7

a) Look at the simile in stanza five: "like a mist". Why do you think all of the above memories are compared to a mist? How can memories exist "among my mountainous fabrics"?

b) "So do they the measurable world resist". Comment on the following line.

c) Look at stanza 6 and suggest the meanings of the phrase "your conscious carrier".

d) Look at line 16 -- what does time do to these memories?

e) The poem is called 'Time"; pick out all the references to time. What is being suggested about time?

f) The last line 'I am ... the Beginning and the End' is derived from The Bible:

Revelation 22, v.13. There are also echoes of 'East Coker' (Eliot's Four Quartets)

with its closing lines 'In my end is my beginning'.

Does this help to reveal the meanings of the poem? OR does the poem remain "private and unanswerable?"

g) Look closely at the final stanza and the use of listing. Comment on the choice of nouns in the list.

h) Look closely at the use of punctuation in the last three stanzas and in the poem as a whole. Comment on the effect of this punctuation.

Does this help to reveal the meanings of the poem? OR does the poem remain "private and unanswerable?"

Answer 2

Context: It is Time himself, the persona talking about himself. It is a bit like an autobiography of himself. He wants the audience to know who he is. If you read the poem, Time is everywhere. Time can do anything. It is the reason why we have memories, why things exist in our world. He is everything. Time is more than what we can imagine, he is the thing that we cannot deny. It is part of our life, and it is the reason why we are born at first, and died in the end.

Tone: In my opinion, I think Time is pretty arrogant and his tone makes it as if he is powerful, and pervasive. You can say that the more you read about Time, he gets even more arrogant and makes himself a huge deal out of himself. Pretty egoistic to me.

Literary Techniques: (these are just some)

Metaphors: 'I, Time, all these, yet these exist- Among my mountainous fabrics like a mist.'

'I, more than your conscious carrier.'

Personification: The whole poem is a personification of Time.

Repetition: 'I am'

Alliteration: 'I, Time, call down, condense, confer.'

Theme's: Time, Nature, and Memory

*Please note that when you are going to talk about the techniques, make sure you explain what they are trying to tell the readers.

**I think writing a brief analysis is better, I don't want to write a whole essay on Time because that is unfair and you guys won't really grasp the meaning of the poem. It is a great poem and just read it.

***I hope my notes help you guys a bit.