Country School-Allen Curnow

Allen Curnow (1911 –2001) was a New Zealand poet and journalist.

Curnow was born in Timaru and educated at Christchurch Boys' High School, Canterbury University, and Auckland University.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R1OxcmdoDw

155

Tone

The tone of the persona sways between enthusiastic and apathetic (indifferent). Since it describes a country school that seems to be in a broken-down condition.

About the poem

‘Country School’, the persona pays a visit to his old school and takes a longing walk down memory lane recalling his childhood.

As we move on this poem looks back, the persona seems to realize that things are not as bad as they seemed before.

Stanza 1You know the school: you call it old-Scrub-worn floors and paint all peeledOn barge-board, weatherboard and gibbet belfry

The vivid image drawn by the alliterative phrase ‘Paint all peeled’ supports the fact that the school is deteriorating.

Stanza 1

You know the school: you call it old-Scrub-worn floors and paint all peeledOn barge-board, weatherboard and gibbet belfry

The ‘b’ sounds in ‘bargeboard, weatherboard and gibbet belfry’ calls attention to the detailed observation of building materials and structures creating a vivid image.

Stanza 2

Pinus betrays, with rank tufts topping The roof-ridge, scattering bravelyNor' west gale as a reef its waves While the small girls squeal at skippingAnd the magpies hoot from the eaves

With the alliterative phrase ‘tufts topping’, one is able to picture a country school. Pinus tufts on the ‘roof ridge’, an image of a typical country school.

Stanza2

Pinus betrays, with rank tufts topping The roof-ridge, scattering bravelyNor' west gale as a reef its waves While the small girls squeal at skippingAnd the magpies hoot from the eaves

The tripping and abrupt ‘r’ sounds in “rank,… roof ridge” punctuated with the alliteration of ’t’ in the second stanza have an awkward effect like someone learning to speak.

Stanza2

Pinus betrays, with rank tufts topping The roof-ridge, scattering bravelyNor' west gale as a reef its waves While the small girls squeal at skippingAnd the magpies hoot from the eaves

“Nor’west” is colloquial and leads into the simile about a ‘gale’ like waves breaking over a ‘reef’.

Stanza 2

Pinus betrays, with rank tufts topping The roof-ridge, scattering bravelyNor' west gale as a reef its waves While the small girls squeal at skippingAnd the magpies hoot from the eaves

‘Girls squeal skipping’ presents a familiar auditory and visual picture of several sound effects which helps to describe what the persona is thinking.

Stanza 3

For scantling Pinus stands matureIn less than life of a man;The rusty saplings, the school, and you Together your lives began

Use of the pronoun ‘you’ helps to include readers in his recollection and prompt their own memories of school.

Stanza 3

The rusty saplings, the school, and you

The persona refers to himself as a third person and this is deduced through the repetition of the word ‘you’, The persona is having difficulty reconnecting with his old school or his old self that he feels more comfortable referring to himself in third person.

Stanza 4:

O sweet antiquity! Look, the stoneThat skinned your knees. How small Are the terrible doors; how the sad the dunnyAnd the things you drew on the wall

The colloquial word ‘dunny’ evokes a distinctly rural New Zealand image conjuring up the past.

Stanza 4O sweet antiquity! Look, the stoneThat skinned your knees. How small Are the terrible doors; how the sad the dunnyAnd the things you drew on the wall

Curnow has employed parallelism as well as repetition in order to draw links in this poem. The parallel comparison of ‘How small; how sad’, reinforces how the persona is recalling his days back in school.

Stanza 4

O sweet antiquity! Look, the stoneThat skinned your knees. How small Are the terrible doors; how the sad the dunnyAnd the things you drew on the wall

The passing of time and the diminishing of his memory suggests he is aging for the very doors that seemed huge as a kid are rather ‘small’.