Hi. I need help on two John Foulcher poems. One is "Loch Ard Gorge" and the other is "Martin and the Hand Grenade".

I need to know the themes involved and the key ideas. And how this is represented by the imagery portrayed in the poem. Also I need to know what message the poem is trying to convey and how Foulcher represents his ideas through his words.

Loch Ard Gorge

We climb along a weathered cream precipice
look down into the waves,
tide thrust into the dark interior of earth
with a sound like fire uncontrolled
A century ago, there was a shipwreck here. Its gravestones
hump the grass
a hundred yards away - you can just make out their name,
the hammocks of bone and meat
lugged from the sea and dumped in the soil
Sheep and cattle surround the place,
kicking tufts of unconcern
through the sea’s brittle, incessant static,
their heads slung
to the grass,
their teeth locked on the earth,
while, somewhere past the unfinished cliffs,
savage dark fish
are tearing the prey apart, blood phrasing the water
decked with light.

'Martin and the hand grenade'

Martin displays the grenade, the class pauses
for history. With his father's bleak skill
Martin edges out the firing pin, indicates

the chamber where the powder went; he fingers
the serrations, bristles with the shrapnel
possibilites. Questions. No-it had limited

power: ten yards, then the spread
became too loose to catch a man's mortality.
Around the class now. And each boy holds

the small war, lifts it into the air
above the desk trenches: the dead weapon hurls
across mind fields, tears the heart ahead.

Thanks in advance; I REALLY NEED HELP!!

Ben,

There are no 'right' answers to be revealed to you, because people can have different opinions about what is the theme of a poem; and a poem may have more than one theme. The 'theme' of a poem means its underlying subject matter, or idea, or philosophy or point of view. Perhaps something that combines more than one of such elements.

For these particular poems, the answers to the other questions you have asked depend on what you take as the poems' main themes.

This isn't a site where we do all your homework for you. If however you show you are prepared to make an effort, we can help you improve your answers.

How about starting by telling us what you feel the theme of each poem is?

[If you hit the search button at the top of this thread, and enter in Loch Ard and grenade, for this forum [all dates], you will find some prior discussion of these poems, though not directly on the topics you are addressing.]

You might also tell us what level your studies are at, and what country/state you are posting from.

Ian