Macbeth Act 5 Notes

Act 5

Scene 1

• The scene are specifically short in act 5.
• Lady Macbeth is obsessed with washing her hands and thinks that Banquo might come out of his grave.
• This act is important because it shows that Lady Macbeth is decending to madness, and shows how she has transformed as well as Macbeth from the beginning of the play.
• Lady Macbeth never goes out without a light now which is said in lines 21-22.
• Lady Macbeth is known to repeat 'to bed, to bed, to bed' and repeats 'whats done cannot be undone' which she has said in the novel before.
• Lady Macbeth is afraid of the dark, and the novel is set it the dark.

Scene 2

•  Macbeth doesn't have any friends and that is clear by this scene as he has no one to back him up, who genuinely cares. The only people who fight alongside him are the ones who are scared of him or feel its a duty not a necessity.  

• No one argues with Macbeth but no one agrees with what he does.

Scene 3

•  This scene confirms Macbeth complete dominance.
• There is a significant amount of reference to colour in this scene.
• From line 20 onwards Macbeth seems to remark on how old he is and that he has lived his life and maybe it is time for the end.
• Macbeth is prepared to fight and wears his amour as soon as he finds out. He states that he is willing to fight until 'bones my flesh be hacked'
• When he is asking after his wife he says 'How does your patient?' this doesn't seem to show any love, care or affection for the women he has spent a proportion of life with.  He doesn't really care about his wife.
• Lines 46-47 are said by the doctor and these lines are important because it shows the doctor having a little moan at Macbeth. This is extremely significant because is shows how people aren't afraid of Macbeth any more now that they no an army is coming to fight him. 

Scene 4

• Line 9 suggests that Macbeth has lost all feeling, he has no emotions and doesn't have the behaviour of a human.
• When Macbeth finds out that his wife has died he doesn't seem to care and has an 'about time' attitude on the whole situation. Shows how detached the couple have become when dealing with their own problems that have developed.
• 'life is just a walking shadow' Macbeth describes life as meaningless and a waste.
• Macbeth is clearly showing through speech and attitude how nihilistic his life has become.
• Ring the alarum bell is told by Macbeth and this is important because it was what was said when  the Kind died. And not Macbeth is about to die.. is it foreshadowing?

Macbeth Act 3 Notes

ACT 3

Scene 1


In Act 3 Scene 1 the three witches are making a spell and talk about using body part within the spell. This is all part of the supernatural. During the spell they stop and say 'something wicked this way comes' (referring to Macbeth. The reference to Macbeth as 'something', this makes Macbeth seem less human which also fits with the theme of the play. But, also alongside the word 'wicked' also referring to Macbeth which shows how the witches see Macbeth even though they are supposedly wicked too.
Whilst Macbeth is with the witches in this scene he demands to know more on his future and to find out everything the witches know. Is Macbeth trying to obtain the knowledge and the power of the witches? Why? The witches then agree to show Macbeth a few more things about his future, however they do this through apparitions.

1. The first apparition is an armed head. - foreshadowing the end of the play, with Macbeth's head?
2. The second is a blooded child. - Who is the child, Fleance, Macbeth's unknown baby?
3. A child crowned with a tree in his head. -resembling the forest?

Macbeth thinks he is invincible and the no one will try to kill him. The 3rd apparition may have also been a reference to Banquo's children. Even though Macbeth is so assure of himself that no one will try and hurt him he still wished to no what is going to happen with Banquo's children.
Shakespeare has chosen for Macbeth to ask lots of questions when in the room with the witches, he has done this to show how worried Macbeth really is of the unknown.

Macbeth has also planned to kill Macduff's family. This relates back to how power hungry Macbeth really is and how mentally damaged he is becoming, that Macbeth is losing the reality point of life and has created a word of his own in which he assumes he will avoid all punishment and that he can do no evil.

Scene 2

[Notes on the reading: parts in bold are important.]

LADY MACBETH
Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Lady Macbeth talks with a typical rhyme much like the witches, and seems to talk very powerful until Macbeth walk in the room. Lady Macbeth also uses an exception amount of words beginning with the letter D, why?

Enter MACBETH

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

MACBETH
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the
worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.

Macbeth is known for referencing towards animals. Why has Shakespeare chosen to include such specific animals in Macbeths speech.The animals are chosen specifically in the book to help keep the gothic genre fluent throughout the book, its also another way to symbolize and show the situation and power shift that has taken place.

LADY MACBETH
Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.

Does this speech show how Lady Macbeth doesn't want him to carry on with what he is doing anymore, and that he should appreciate what he's got. 

MACBETH
So shall I, love; and so, I pray, be you:
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
Unsafe the while, that we
Must lave our honours in these flattering streams,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.

LADY MACBETH
You must leave this.

MACBETH
O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

A second reference to animals, which helps to back up the view earlier.

LADY MACBETH
But in them nature's copy's not eterne.

MACBETH
There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

LADY MACBETH
What's to be done?

This shows Lady Macbeth asking what Macbeth is going to do. This also shows the power shift, where as before Lady Macbeth was the one who had the plans for what they were to do. She is unsure of the situation.

MACBETH
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;
And with thy bloody and invisible hand
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow
Makes wing to the rooky wood:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still;
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, prithee, go with me.

The lines highlight show the weather change that has taken place, since the murder of the King, and also in this speech of Macbeth we see how Macbeth also begins to talk like the witches with the rhyming. Also, this is when we see that Macbeth has really changed, because he is making plans with out Lady Macbeth's involvement. 

Macduff's wife is highlighted as 'wife' in the play, she has no name, just her title. Shakespeare has chosen to do this because it shows how she isn't that important and that her status is nothing special.  The scene includes Macduff's wife, her son and Ross. Ross is the cousin of Macduff's family and he keeps check with the family whilst Macduff has gone to England to try and convince the King of England to come and fight Macbeth. A messenger comes along and tells the family they should flee because Macbeth has ordered for them all to be killed. However, its a little too late and the whole family are killed.

Exeunt

Scene 3

Line 13 'was once thought honest' was used to describe Macbeth, this shows that everyone is realizing Macbeth's true character and shows the change of Macbeth's character through the play. Macbeth is decribed horribly by Macduff and Malcom this is another reflection of how sinister Macbeth has become and also shows how Macbeth now has no friends.
This scene is important because it shows how things have changed and that everyone is now against Macbeth.
At the end of the scene Ross comes to England to personally deliver the news of his family, this has been included also to show his reaction when he told. Because this then explains why Macduff acts the way he does at the end of the play.

MACBETH ACT 2 NOTES

At this part of the play Macbeth has not been suspected as the murderer and the plan has come true and Macbeth has become the king. However, the kings two son's Malcolm and Donalbain the kings son's have been suspected of the murder, simply because they fled soon after finding out about their fathers death.
The next interesting part of the play is that after the king is killed, strange things begin to happen to the animals. Including the horses running away, and they eat each other. Also, there is a line in the book which symbolizes many other things, like a falcon towering in her pride of place was killed by a mousing owl. This could suggest that the world has been tipped upside down and that class has switched and people who should be higher in life are now not in charge simply because Macbeth who is a lower rank than the king has now taken over.
Another feature which shows a subtle hint of Gothic genre is the weather, it is said by Lady Macbeth that the weather has changed an now appears to be a lot darker during the day time, and stays dark even throughout the night. This may be because of the witches, however, it could also be because of the turn in events.
Nearer the end of the act Macbeth plans for Banquo and Fleance to be killed. This is interesting because this time Macbeth doesn't use his wife or even hear from her when he makes the decision. This is strange because of how different things are after a short period in the novel, and also this shows how things have changed and how Macbeth's attitude and remorse has shifted since the first murder and becoming King.
My final note is that Lady Macbeth begins to talk like the witches in a certain tone, even Macbeth is sometimes seen as talking in rhythm the same as the witches.

Macbeth Act One Reading Journal

Reading notes from act one of Macbeth:

• Macbeth is a consideration of male power.
• A work of destructive despair
• How power corrupts
• Marxism links with power and so Macbeth links with power, therefore Marxism
• Is Macbeth a morality play or a psychological drama?
• Is Macbeth the eponymous hero - linking with Marxism?
• Iambic tetrameter 
• Macbeth has a tragic flaw - believing one thing he has been told by the witches.
• Brave Macbeth - disdaining fortune
• The play opens with the captain talking about how Macbeth slaughtered someone.
• Macbeth character is power hungry
• Is Macbeth just effected by stress from the war - post traumatic stress.

200 word Mini-Essay

How far do you agree that the two novels are mainly about prejudice?

To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of how Scout Finch, her brother Jem and friend Dill learn about prejudice, honor, human nature and racism in the small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s.To kill a mockingbird is terrifyingly true, in the way that prejudice lingers a chilling theme through the episodic novel told by a six year old motherless girl; Scout Finch. The episodic events are all pulled together when a climatic event arouses Scout’s father, lawyer Atticus Finch, and agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, from the charge that he raped a white woman, a decision that divides Maycomb. This is when the bulk of prejudice hits the novel. We see just how bad times where in the south of the 1930’s and how in reflection to racial theme and it shows the novel is told through black and white and how one man can shock the town by standing up for someone with such allegations against him. However, I do not agree that prejudice is the main theme because although Harper Lee allows racism, gender issues, poverty, violence, and death in the novel; To Kill a Mockingbird has an emotional even romantic feel that doesn’t allow for true darkness and sorrow to enter it.

1st September 1939

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade: 
Waves of anger and fear 
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth, 
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death 
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use 
Their full height to proclaim 
The strength of Collective Man, 
Each language pours its vain 
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare, 
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are, 
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash 
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish: 
What mad Nijinsky wrote 
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart; 
For the error bred in the bone 
Of each woman and each man 
Craves what it cannot have, 
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
'I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,'
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game: 
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the dead,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street 
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky: 
There is no such thing as the State 
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

• Very cultural including many time references and significance.
• Setting - Manhattan, New York.
• Relates to death and mortality.
• Irregular rhyme.
• Free verse
• Symbolism and metaphoric speech.
• Unlike other W H Auden poems he isn't telling a story - more of a train of thought.
• The poem was republished just after 9/11.
• 'Where blind skyscrapers...'- All the power and height means nothing as you can't actually see what's going on in the society down below.
• Huge enjambment is used.
• Chronology time.
• Nijinksy and Diaghley  -Two people who had a stormy relationship- Represents the countries?
• Collective voice, not just individual voice.
• The masses falling for work.
• Is the poem him using his voice?
• Imagery -linking too the valley of ashes?
• Gives a feeling of lost hope.
• Relates too how life is not secret or good -They are all robots to society.

Victor

Victor was a little baby,
Into this world he came;
His father took him on his knee and said:
'Don't dishonour the family name.'

Victor looked up at his father
Looked up with big round eyes:
His father said; 'Victor, my only son,
Don't you ever ever tell lies.'

Victor and his father went riding
Out in a little dog-cart;
His father took a Bible from his pocket and read;
'Blessed are the pure in heart.'

It was a frosty December
Victor was only eighteen,
But his figures were neat and his margins were straight
And his cuffs were always clean.

He took a room at the Peveril,
A respectable boarding-house;
And Time watched Victor day after day
As a cat will watch a mouse.

The clerks slapped Victor on the shoulder;
'Have you ever had woman?' they said,
'Come down town with us on Saturday night.'
Victor smiled and shook his head.

The manager sat in his office,
Smoked a Corona cigar:
Said; 'Victor's a decent fellow but
He's too mousy to go far.'

Victor went up the his bedroom,
Set the alarum bell;
Climbed into bed, took his Bible and read
Of what happened to Jezebel.

It was the First of April,
Anna to the Peveril came;
Her eyes, her lips, her breasts, her hips
And her smile set men aflame,

She looked as pure as a schoolgirl
On her First Communion day,
But her kisses were like the best champagne
When she gave herself away.

It was the Second of April.
She was wearing a coat of fur;
Victor met her upon the stair
And he fell in love with her.

The first time he made his proposal,
She laughed, said; 'I'll never wed;
The second time there was a pause;
Then she smiled and shook her head.

Anna looked into her mirror,
Pouted and gave a frown:
Said 'Victor's as dull as a wet afternoon
But I've got to settle down.'

The third time he made his proposal,
As they walked by the Reservoir:
She gave him a kiss like a blow on the head,
Said; 'You are my heart's desire.'

They were married early in August,
She said; 'Kiss me, you funny boy';
Victor took her in his arms and said;
'O my Helen of Troy.'

It was the middle of September,
Victor came to the office one day;
He was wearing a flower in his buttonhole,
He was late but he was gay.

The clerks were talking of Anna,
The door was just ajar:
One said, 'Poor old Victor, but where ignorance
Is bliss, et cetera.'

Victor stood still as a statue,
The door was just ajar:
One said, 'God, what fun I had with her
In that Baby Austin car.'

Victor walked out into the High Street,
He walked to the edge of town:
He came to the allotments and the rubbish heap
And his tears came tumbling down.

Victor looked up at the sunset
As he stood there all alone;
Cried; 'Are you in Heaven, Father?'
But the sky said 'Address not known'.

Victor looked at the mountains,
The mountains all covered in snow
Cried; 'Are you pleased with me, Father?'
And the answer came back, No.

Victor came to the forest,
Cried: 'Father, will she ever be true?'
And the oaks and the beeches shook their heads
And they answered: 'Not to you.'

Victor came to the meadow
Where the wind went sweeping by:
Cried; 'O Father, I love her so',
But the wind said, 'She must die'.

Victor came to the river
Running so deep and so still:
Crying; 'O Father, what shall I do?'
And the river answered, 'Kill'.

Anna was sitting at table,
Drawing cards from a pack;
Anna was sitting at table
Waiting for her husband to come back.

It wasn't the Jack of Diamonds
Nor the Joker she drew first;
It wasn't the King or the Queen of Hearts
But the Ace of Spades reversed.

Victor stood in the doorway,
He didn't utter a word:
She said; 'What's the matter, darling?'
He behaved as if he hadn't heard.

There was a voice in his left ear,
There was a voice in his right,
There was a voice at the base of his skull
Saying, 'She must die tonight.'

Victor picked up a carving-knife,
His features were set and drawn,
Said; 'Anna it would have been better for you
If you had not been born.'

Anna jumped up from the table,
Anna started to scream,
But Victor came slowly after her
Like a horror in a dream.

She dodged behind the sofa,
She tore down a curtain rod,
But Victor came slowly after her:
Said; 'Prepare to meet thy God.'

She managed to wrench the door open,
She ran and she didn't stop.
But Victor followed her up the stairs
And he caught her at the top.

He stood there above the body,
He stood there holding the knife;
And the blood ran down the stairs and sang,
'I'm the Resurrection and the Life'.

They tapped Victor on the shoulder,
They took him away in a van;
He sat as quiet as a lump of moss
Saying, 'I am the Son of Man'.

Victor sat in a corner
Making a woman of clay:
Saying; 'I am Alpha and Omega, I shall come
To judge the earth some day.' 

• A,B,C,B
• linea chronology
• Ballad
• 'Do you ever tell lies' - Relates to how his wife lied to him.
• Repetition
• Sounds like Victor has done very well in life.
• Corona Cigar - Reasonably posh.
• Jezebel - Slut reference
• His life changes when he meets the girl, Anna.
• Imagery.
• She doesn't seem to love him?
• Dialog.
• Did she force herself to be with him?
• 'Gay' resembling happy, also representing the time the poem has been written.
• Religion - god - heaven.
• Ambiguity
• Father - Holy Father?
• Contrast from Victor being very happy and now sad, angry and ashamed.
• The stanza's are told in a way to represent chronology.
• Foreshadowing - 'But the Ace of Spades reversed'
• Victor is confused.
• More than one voice to tell the poem?
• Objective voice - Unemotional and detached. 
• Imagery.
• Many stanza's start with 'Anna' or 'Victor'
• The pace changes from being very quick and skimming life, right too one day.
• Religious reference -Resurrection'
• 'Alpha and Omega' First and last letters of the Greek alphabet, also relates to God and Christ.
• Mood and Tone changes.
• Does faith punish him or her?
• She never loved him, only used him instead.

As I Walked Out One Evening

As I walked out one evening,
   Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
   Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
   I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
   'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
   Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
   And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
   Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
   Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
   For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
   And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
   Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
   You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
   Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
   And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
   Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
   To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
   Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
   And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
   Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
   And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
   The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
   A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
   And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
   And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
   O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
   Although you cannot bless

'O stand, stand at the window
   As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
   With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
   The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
   And the deep river ran on. 

• Line 21 is where the tone changes.
• Relations to time, 'Time watches from the shadow' 'And time will have his fancy'.
• Starts positive and ends as a tragedy.
• Repetition 'look, look' 'late, late'.
• Starts romantic.
• A,B,C,B - Ballad form 
• There is no real twist in the poem because the poem is already at the climax.

James Honeyman

James Honeyman was a silent child;
He didn't laugh or cry:
He looked at his mother
With curiosity.

Mother came up to the nursery,
Peeped through the open door,
Saw him striking matches,
Sitting on the nursery floor.

He went to the children's party,
The buns were full of cream,
Sat there dissolving sugar
In his tea-cup in a dream.

On his eighth birthday
Didn't care that the day was wet,
For by his bedside
Lay a ten-shilling chemistry set.

Teacher said: "James Honeyman
Is the cleverest boy we've had,
But he doesn't play with the others,
And that, I think, is sad."

While the other boys played football,
He worked in the laboratory,
Got a scholarship to college
And a first-class degree,

Kept awake with black coffee,
Took to wearing glasses,
Writing a thesis
On the toxic gases,

Went out into the country,
Went by a Green Line bus,
Walked upon the Chilterns,
Thought about phosphorus,

Said: "Lewisite in its day
Was pretty decent stuff,
But, under modern conditions,
It's not nearly strong enough."

His Tutor sipped his port,
Said: "I think it's clear
That young James Honeyman's
The most brilliant man of the year."

He got a job in research
With Imperial Alkali,
Said to himself while shaving:
"I'll be famous before I die."

his landlady said: "Mr Honeyman,
You've only got one life,
You ought to have some fun, Sir,
You ought to find a wife."

At Imperial Alkali
There was a girl called Doreen,
One day she cut her finger,
Asked him for iodine.

"I'm feeling faint," she said.
He led her to a chair,
Fetched her a glass of water,
Wanted to stroke her hair.

They took a villa on the Great West Road,
Painted green and white;
On their left a United Dairy,
A cinema on their right.

At the bottom of the garden
He built a little shed.
"He's going to blow us up,"
All the neighbours said.

Doreen called down at midnight:
"Jim, dear, it's time for bed."
"I'll finish my experiment,
And then I'll come," he said.

Caught influenza at Christmas.
The doctor said, "Go to bed."
"I'll finish my experiment,
And then I'll go," he said.

Walked out on Sundays,
Helped to push the pram,
Said, "I'm looking for a gas, dear,
A whiff will kill a man.

"I'm going to find it,
That's what I'm going to do."
Doreen squeezed his hand and said:
"Jim, I believe in you."

In teh hot nights of summer,
When the roses all were red,
James Honeyman was working
In his little garden shed.

Came upstairs at midnight,
Kissed his sleeping son,
Held up a sealed glass test-tube,
Said: "Look, Doreen, I've won!"

They stood together by the window,
The moon was bright and clear.
He said: "At last I've done something
That's worthy of you, dear."

He took a train next morning,
Went up to Whitehall
With the phial in his pocket
To show it to them all.

He sent in his card,
The officials only swore:
"Tell him we're very busy
And show him to the door."

Doreen said to the neighbours:
"Isn't it a shame!
My husband's so clever,
And they didn't know his name."

One neighbour was sympathetic,
her name was Mrs Flower:
She was the agent
Of a Foreign Power.

One evening they sat at supper,
There came a gentle knock:
"A gentleman to see Mr Honeyman."
He stayed till eleven o'clock.

They walked down the garden together,
Down to the little shed:
"We'll see you, then, in Paris.
Good night," the gentleman said.

The boat was nearing Dover,
He looked back at Calais,
Said: "Honeyman's N.P.C.
Will be heard of some day."

He was sitting in the garden,
Writing notes on a pad:
Their little son was playing
Round his Mum and Dad.

Suddenly out of the east
Some aeroplanes appeared.
Somebody screamed: "They're bombers!
War must have been declared!"

The first bomb hit the Dairy,
The second the cinema,
The third fell in the garden
Just like a falling star.

"O kiss me, Mother, kiss me,
And tuck me up in bed,
For Daddy's invention
Is going to choke me dead!"

"Where are you, Jim, where are you?
O put your arms round me,
For my lungs are full
Of Honeyman's N.P.C.!"

"I wish I were a salmon,
Swimming in the sea,
I wish I were the dove
That coos upon the tree."

"O you are not a salmon,
O you are not the dove:
But you invented the vapour
That is killing those you love."

"O hide me in the mountains,
O drown me in the sea:
Lock me in a dungeon
And throw away the key."

"O you can't hide in the mountains,
O you can't drown in the sea,
But you must die, and you know why,
By Honeyman's N.P.C.!"

• 39 Stanza's and ballad form
• several settings included in the poem
• imagery
• ambition and greed
• Chronological order - from birth to death
• Repetition with the 'O'.
• Change in voice.
• Subjective opinion.
• Irony
• Moral - Don't invent weapons.
• N.P.C - Unknown Gas.