Poetry Anthology - City Jungle

GCSE Poetry Anthology - City Jungle

Text:

Rain splinters town.                                       - 'splinters' = metaphor: town = ripped apart

Lizard cars cruise by;
Their radiators grin.

Thin headlights stare -                                  - sibilance - snake-like, hostile, threatening, sinister
shop doorways keep their mouths shut.    -'mouths shut' - is there a terrible secret which can't be said?

At the roadside                                             - town = sick, run down, flat.
Hunched houses cough.                            

Newspapers shuffle by,                   - personification: substitute for humans; humans = not safe outside
hands in their pockets.                  -'shuffle' = passive + cautious. newspapers = subject to propaganda?
The gutter gargles.

A motorbike snarls;                                       - More personification
Dustbins flinch.

Streetlights bare
Their yellow teeth.                       - 'bare their yellow teeth' = aggressive, predatory
The motorway's
cat-black tongue
lashes across                                - sibilance + assonance
the glistening back                      - colour has lost vibrance and is decaying, like city
of the tarmac night.

Notes:

Title: 'Jungle' represents lawless/anarchic/claustrophobic area

Themes: Dystopian world; plenty of hostility and aggression; Predators (vehicles) Vs Prey (Houses and other objects)

Appearance: The flow is disjointed, making it awkward to read -> symbolises struggle and discomfort

This poem represents an apartheid: vehicles Vs houses, and other inanimate objects

There is a lack of humans, which suggests that the surroundings are far too hostile for anyone to be caught outside