Your Attention Please Poem Essay
The poem I am writing about is called ‘Your Attention Please’, which is written by the Australian poet Peter Porter. The poem is a dramatic monologue written in the early 1960s, less than 20 years after the Second World War 2. The writer makes this poem interesting and dramatic using many techniques such as form and structure, sentences, word choice, language patterns and themes.
The poem is in the form of a Radio Announcement which is pre-recorded. It gives information to families on what to do for the Nuclear Attack, which it announces imminent. It is very precise as it gives exact timings on how long the broadcast will take and the time it will take it to perform instructions after the broadcast. The main purpose of the Announcement is to tell the listeners to go to shelters, (to be safe) and what else to do in case of difficult situation. It is a survival guide, a matter of life… and death. The poet tries to emphasize his point using ‘Dry Humour’ to explain that he is anti-nuclear war.
Imagery is partially used in this poem, as when you hear or read it you can picture everyone very tense; doing the tasks they are being given on the radio. You can also visualize families anxious as while they are listening they have the thought in their head of being killed. One very cruel instruction says they will have to leave the old and pets behind when going to shelters, as they will consume air. There are no similes, metaphors or personification to explain the ideas more clearly in the poem however, there is a part of the poem that asks you to use your senses; “Watch for the cuckoo in your Perspex panel”, this make you use the sense of ‘sight’ , to imagine a cuckoo appearing on a screen. It is sort of a humorous yet sarcastic image, as seeing a cuckoo would be funny but it also could mean one of the family members going crazy as well as meaning that cuckoo will not appear so therefore you will not be able...