Explanations of Matthew's poems

AUTHORS NOTE:

I am aware that many people believe that literature such as poetry should be cryptic so that the readers have to find their own interpretation of it. However, while I agree that that is a good use of the written word I also want people to understand what I was trying to say when I wrote it, for that purpose I have created this page. If reading my poems has provoked thoughts other than those I had while writing them than I feel I have achieved far more than I ever expected and that there is a real reason to continue writing.

THE DEAD EVENING:

This poem was the first I wrote on the subject of the decay of the world's social structure. When I use the word "evening" it is meant as a metaphor for civilisation, the references to various aspects of sorrow in the first two lines are a representation of the fear and paranoia present in the world, the reference to a clown throwing water instead of pieces of paper is a metaphor for the mistakes made by governments all around the world and the last two lines are a representation of the imminent demise of all respectable social structure.

THE SILENT SERVANT:

This is basically the same subject as "THE DEAD EVENING". The first two lines represent vandals and other petty criminals who are mainly active during the night, as is clearly suggested by the content. The master's enemies are simply the victims of the crimes committed. I included lines six and seven to provide a proper structure and the final part of this poem is meant to imply that as petty crime spreads and people's fear of it increases it may become harder to reverse the tide.

BROKEN MAN:

"BROKEN MAN" has a direct meaning with only one metaphor, being the last line which is just a way of saying that, against his wishes, his way of life has isolated him from others so he exists in a separate kind of reality. When I said it had a direct meaning it was both true and misleading, although it is about what it appears to be I have never actually seen evidence of the subjects' situation under quite those circumstances.

THINGS THAT GROW:

I have been told that "THINGS THAT GROW" is a powerful poem, but to be honest, I only wrote it because it rhymes.

DOWN BY LUGGER'S CAVE:

I wrote this after stepping in a puddle down by lugger's cave, hence the name, other than that I'm not really sure what I can say about it except something about lugger's cave itself, so here goes. In part of Cornwall (south England) the land slopes down to the sea gradually hardening into rock. Near the bottom it drops suddenly and then levels off, in the side of the sudden drop in about the seventeenth century a man by the name of Lugger excavated a cave believing it would cure his gout, which I discovered is caused by drinking too much port (although I wasn't sure about that at first). Lugger proceeded to engrave several dozen poems on the top and sides of this cave most of which can still be seen although some were destroyed by a cave-in on one side.

ODE TO BADEYE:

There isn't really much to say about this either except that it is about one of our cats, I know that Badeye is a strange name but there you go! Anyway, this is just a sequence of events that I felt like writing some sort of poem about, so I did!

SECOND ODE TO BADEYE:

I wrote this for basically the same reason as the first "ODE TO BADEYE" so there still isn't much to say, sorry.

THE DEATH OF TRUTH:

"THE DEATH OF TRUTH" is not specifically about newspapers but in fact all elements of the tabloid media. I was mainly trying to say that the distortion of truth damages everyone and that the media has hidden and twisted so much information that it is almost impossible to discover the truth behind it, besides which many of us are so used to it that we ignore it just letting the problem get worse.

HELL'S ANGELS:

I wrote this one because I wanted to write something about stereotypes, I thought something about the hell's angels would be a reasonable subject. The metaphors in the first line are explained in the last three but anything else strange in it is just mixing images of angels and devils, so really the last four are the only lines in it that accomplished my goal.

FILTERED WATER REFINED WATER:

Although it has two titles this is one poem, "REFINED WATER" is the product of "FILTERED WATER" with an addition of eight lines. The portion marked "FILTERED WATER" was originally the end of a semi-poem I named Water. Upon reading Water I realised that the first eight lines didn't flow into each other or the end so I decided to remove them and write what that became "REFINED WATER".

CIVILISATION?:

The poem itself isn't finished yet and to be honest I think my plans have exceeded my abilities. I am writing "CIVILISATION?" to try to say something about everything humans are doing to damage Earth and the creatures that live on it. There are very few metaphors but I think I should explain those that there are, the Earth's skin is the atmosphere, the spires are trees and of course I don't think peat fields can feel pain but I'm sure you understand what I mean.

THE CLOCK:

I started "THE CLOCK" after thinking about the connection between the possible nature of the universe and the face of a clock itself. The first part is meant to represent the possibility that eternity flows in a loop, the second is an attempt to express my opinion that our culture is run by the mathematical precision of a clock. The next section is a representation of the multi-directional motion of the cosmos and the fact that stars are born from nebulae and eventually create others. At the end, I tried to give the poem an element of its own subject by matching the last lines with the first.

SILENT KNOWLEDGE:

I wrote this poem after finishing a set of questions in GCSE Mathematics and before being told what we where doing next, although I did leave at that point for a drink at which time I completed it. For the most part it is about how I was feeling at the time but the last two lines are a metaphor for my desire to do well in life in general.

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