Alison

Alison (head injury) analysis:

Alison is a dramatic monologue about a woman remembering her former life before she suffered head injury and lost her memory. She talks about how different her life was before, because she is another person now. She feels sorry for her former self.

This poem has got a jagged structure, as stanzas are often broken linked through enjambments. These enjambments makes Alison’s memories seem disjoined. Caesura and enjambments also used to give the impression that her thoughts are disturbed and she’s not able to speak continuously about her past as cannot remember that happened. The whole poem begins and ends with isolated lines which highlights Alison’s dislocation from her past. The first line of the poem is a stage direction making the character seem more distant to readers as if they are watching over her life.

There are several examples of juxtaposition in this poem. Some examples include: enmeshed in comforting fat... delicate angles airy poise... lugs me upstairs her face, broken... smiles clever girl... damaged brain. This indicate that the poet wants to show the contrast between the two Alisons of past and present and make clear how the injury has affected her life. There are also lots of words used to reflect loss - loss of family members ("my father's dead"), loss of memory ("I do not remember") and loss of happiness or quality of life ("shall never get over"). All these expressions make the reader very sympathetic with her because he can feel that she’s suffering other pain beside her loss of beauty and cleverness, feelings of loneliness are consuming her thoughts and putting her in an isolated environment as she can’t remember the people around her.

Many pronouns have been used in this poem. The poet uses the pronoun “I” to talk about herself in the present, while she uses the pronoun “she” to refer to her former self in the past. Many contrasts have been used as well, especially when she talks about Alison’s past who’s full of hope and her present self. There is a language of injury has been used as well, such as “ Hardly”, “ broken”, “damaged brain”,  as the character constantly reminds us of her injury. There is a repetition of the word “Smile” which suggests that she trying to accept her current conditions. Another repetition of the word” Faith” is used to indicate that she’s trying to recover her lost faith. Using all these words indicate that there is something universal affecting everyone suggested in this poem (even though Alison’s situation is extreme) one day we will all look back on an earlier photograph of ourselves and realise that we were a very different person than what we are now. That makes us always have to remember those lonely people and try to ease their holiness and make them reintegrated in our society once again.