Skirrid Hill

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We also have the repetition of the phrase ‘I think I understand’, which we have already heard him use in ‘Y Gaer’.

The distinctive shape of this Old Red Sandstone hill comprises a long ridge oriented nearly north–south, with a jagged western side resulting from ice age landslips. Whilst animals are able to mate and reproduce without emotion, Sheers is showing us that this is not the natural way for humans to behave and creates a distinctly un-natural feeling. It is interesting that his father’s contributions here are weaknesses, a ‘stammer’ and ‘a tired blink’. As a former Adventure Tour Leader she has spent the last 15 years travelling Asia, Africa and the Americas. A number of poems have the structure of situation–interpretation; that is, the poem describes a situation and then explains the meaning of that situation for the poet.It is important that it is a female horse – use of the pronoun ‘she’ encourages us to extend the horse as a representation of all females.

Sheers gave us an ‘ending’ right at the beginning of the book, now he is giving us another ending in a situation which is usually the mark of the beginning of something (getting new keys cut). If you’re looking for a Mountain Leader to guide you on a mountain adventure, please contact me here to discuss rates and availability.

The quotation itself ties in with the ideas of national identity in this collection – by depicting a flag as a ‘vital organ’ we get the sense that everyone feels the need to belong somewhere, and so it is vital to the Welsh people that Wales retains a sense of national identity so that its inhabitants aren’t left feeling ‘homeless’. Skirrid Hill demonstrates Sheer’s descriptive ability, the sensuousness of his imagery, and his imaginative and emotional conviction. A clear narrative follow-on from ‘Show’ – the lovers have had an argument which links in with the idea of ‘skirrid’ as divorce. Because elephants are known for seeking a quiet place of solitude, away from the pack, when they are about to die, Sheers gives an otherworldly sense that the cars have gone to this quiet quarry of their own volition. This disproportionate stress on the vehicle of a metaphor appears to be part of a larger problem in Skirrid Hill: an apparent lack of trust in the reader to understand or in the poet to be able to convey his intended meaning.