Antartica
From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes
| English Poem | |
| |
| Antartica | |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| Section | Poetry |
| Paper | 2 |
| Poet | Derek Mahon |
| On syllabus | 2008, 2009 |
| Note | |
Contents |
Poem
‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’
The others nod, pretending not to know.
At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime.
He leaves them reading and begins to climb,
Goading his ghost into the howling snow;
He is just going outside and may be some time.
The tent recedes beneath its crust of rime
And frostbite is replaced by vertigo:
At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime.
Need we consider it some sort of crime,
This numb self-sacrifice of the weakest? No,
He is just going outside and may be some time
In fact, for ever. Solitary enzyme,
Though the night yield no glimmer there will glow,
At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime.
Themes
Cruelty/Suffering
The description of the blizzard "into the howling snow" and "frostbite replace by vertigo" all convey the harshness of the situation and evoke even stronger sympathy in us for Captain Oates and his plight. The team of explorers are weighed down by the weakest link in their chain. This man knows that he is jeopardising the lives of the others, and the external conditions of the environment serve as pathetic fallacy to emphasise the harshness of the reality and the choice that he faces. This is echoed in the repitition of the line "He is just going outside, and may be sometime." This is the reassurance that the expiditioners use, and the line that Captain Oates gives to numb the reality of the sacrifice he has to make.
