At Cider Mill Farm

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At Cider Mill Farm David Harmer’s “At Cider Mill Farm” retrospectively looks back on the speakers fond childhood memories spent at his uncle’s farm. The poem has an irregular structure with 5 stanzas of various lengths. The first three focus on his childhood memories, whilst the penultimate stanza depicts his final visit to “Cider Mill Farm”. There is also no rhyme scheme featuring in the poem which connotes the speaker is lost in memories – too preoccupied to focus on including a rhyme scheme. The title of the poem “At Cider Mill Farm” provides the location of the poem. “Farm” has strong connotations with the quaint like countryside feel, along with crops, animals and tractors – all of which are associated with a traditional British farm. The first line of the poem: “I remember my uncle’s farm” immediately shows the poet is reminiscing about past experiences and the memories that accompany them. “Summer” has suggest warmth and happiness. This implies the speaker has fond, warm and happy memories of his time at his “uncle’s farm”. The use of archetypical farm imagery such as “red roof tops”, “a couple of stables/clustered around a small yard” suggests a child like memory which is emphasised by the alliteration of “red roof tops” as all is quite simply stated. The enjambment of “clustered around a small yard” emphasises that the farm was tightly packed together. “I rolled with the dogs” is incredibly childlike which reflects how he visited the farm when he was younger. “Hay bales stacked high” signifies the specific detail that has been remembered, which in turn supports that the memories were happy ones. The verbs “tunnelled” and “burrowed” reinforce the childlike feel to the poem. The idea that the speaker had intended to “burrow for gold” yet instead found his uncle had “buried/ three battered fords” suggests that one man’s junk is another’s treasure
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