Lines To My Grandfather.

607 Words3 Pages
Explore how the writer presents relationships between himself and his grandparents in ‘Lines to my grandfather’. The writer presents the relationships between himself and his grandparents in ‘Lines to my grandfather’ by using emotive language and verbs. The writer uses emotive language to create a distinction of feelings for both of his grandfathers in this poem. He talks about his grandfather Harrison with some dislike in line 9. He says the “he, while grandma slaved to tend the vat, graced the rival bars”. I can infer that he disliked his grandpa in this quote because he says that his grandma ‘slaved’ on the vat. The word slaved is a negative verb, showing that his grandfather used his grandma in the possessive term as almost free labour. And while he “graced the rival bars”, he shows that his grandpa didn’t really care about the condition he left his grandma in, saying that he would rather go to the local bars than help his grandma. He then goes on to describe how he spent his money. He says that although he was “no coin baser” and “he dressed the gentleman beyond his place” shows that his grandfather thought more about his own image rather than anything else. He also hints that his grandfather was a drunkard. He has said already that he “graced the rival bars” instead of staying home with his wife, and also “paid in gold for beer and whiskey chaser”, signalling that, by paying in gold, he spent a lot of money on alcohol. He also seems to mock his grandfather by saying that he “took his knuckleduster, ‘just in case’”. ”’Just in case’” seems more like a fighting excuse than a protective excuse, because it’s in inverted commas, and maybe because drinking and violence almost go hand in hand, this could be signalling that he was a violent drunk (which a lot of people tend not to favour). He then proceeds to touch on his feelings for his other grandfather. He
Open Document