The Field Mouse

1. The Field Mouse by Gillian Clarke F/H

2. The poem describes hay making in Wales, one summer in the early 1990s. The Field Mouse Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum. The air hums with jets. Down at the end of the meadow, far from the radio's terrible news, we cut the hay. All afternoon its wave breaks before the tractor blade. Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field in a cloud of lime, drifting our land with a chance gift of sweetness. The child comes running through the killed flowers, his hands a nest of quivering mouse, its black eyes two sparks burning. We know it will die and ought to finish it off. It curls in agony big as itself and the star goes out in its eye. Summer in Europe, the field's hurt, and the children kneel in long grass staring at what we have crushed. Before day's done the field lies bleeding, the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles, frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke from a rumour of pain won't heal, and we can't face the newspapers. All night I dream the children dance in grass their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned stranger, wounding my land with stones. This poem recalls Robert Burns‘ famous poem To a Mouse, on turning up her nest with the plough. In both poems the mouse represents a creature that is powerless against outside influences. The poem is concerned with the Bosnian conflict which was going on at the time and how the weak are affected during wars. Why is the conflict never explicitly named in the poem? What is the effect of this? F/H

3. Three nine line stanzas contain lines of varying length. This could suggest the unpredictable, changeable nature of life and, specifically, life during war. The Field Mouse Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum. The air hums with jets. Down at the end of the meadow, far from the radio's terrible news, we cut the hay. All afternoon its wave breaks before the tractor blade. Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field in a cloud of lime, drifting our land with a chance gift of sweetness. The child comes running through the killed flowers, his hands a nest of quivering mouse, its black eyes two sparks burning. We know it will die and ought to finish it off. It curls in agony big as itself and the star goes out in its eye. Summer in Europe, the field's hurt, and the children kneel in long grass staring at what we have crushed. Before day's done the field lies bleeding, the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles, frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke from a rumour of pain won't heal, and we can't face the newspapers. All night I dream the children dance in grass their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned stranger, wounding my land with stones. This stanza gives the background of hay making and the war and is quite general. This stanza deals with the death of a mouse as a result of the hay-making process. The final stanza deals with Clarke’s own struggle with what she sees in the world. The nightmare vision of her children becoming embroiled in the brutality she sees in nature and on the news F/H

4. The poem contrasts hay-making with war. • Think about the links between the images used and how they link with each other F/H

5. The title is deliberately deceptive. Instead of being a simple poem of country life the reader is bombarded with violent, negative images of war What is the effect of the poem being written in the present tense? The Field Mouse Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum. The air hums with jets. Down at the end of the meadow, far from the radio's terrible news, we cut the hay. All afternoon its wave breaks before the tractor blade. Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field in a cloud of lime, drifting our land with a chance gift of sweetness. Far from what news? What brings them back to this news? The sound of the insects in the grass are metaphorically a snare drum. Rhythmic and comforting. This sound is contrasted by the jets passing overhead This image suggests both the sea-green colour of the grass and the whooshing sound it makes as if falls. Once again Clarke uses metaphors to make the scene more vivid for the reader F/H

6. The neighbour is putting lime on his fields to improve fertility and some of it drifts over onto Clarke’s land. The ‘chance gift’ is more fertile land. What could fertile land symbolise? The Field Mouse Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum. The air hums with jets. Down at the end of the meadow, far from the radio's terrible news, we cut the hay. All afternoon its wave breaks before the tractor blade. Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field in a cloud of lime, drifting our land with a chance gift of sweetness. Assonance is used throughout the poem to express the close connection with nature that the poet feels Violent imagery sets the tone throughout the first stanza despite the fact that violence is only hinted at here F/H

7. Continuation of violent imagery How do these images link to the war in Bosnia? Both Bosnians and Britons are European and Clarke emphasises our similarities and differences in this line The child comes running through the killed flowers, his hands a nest of quivering mouse, its black eyes two sparks burning. We know it will die and ought to finish it off. It curls in agony big as itself and the star goes out in its eye. Summer in Europe, the field's hurt, and the children kneel in long grass staring at what we have crushed. The death of the mouse is an unexpected result of something pleasant In what sense does the poet feel responsible? Is she emphasising that violence can be unintentional? Or does this mean that we are all guilty for war, too? F/H

8. Although a mouse’s death may be insignificant to us it is not to the mouse. The pain is as big as the mouse. Could this stress the scale of pain of a whole country Shows the child’s concern for the creature but also highlights the fact that the real nest has been destroyed by the tractor The child comes running through the killed flowers, his hands a nest of quivering mouse, its black eyes two sparks burning. We know it will die and ought to finish it off. It curls in agony big as itself and the star goes out in its eye. Summer in Europe, the field's hurt, and the children kneel in long grass staring at what we have crushed. The children in Britain see the pain of a mouse whereas in Bosnia the see human pain, death and suffering. Do children look reproachfully at the damge adults do? Images of fire and light and darkness. How might this link to the poems meaning? F/H

9. The filed is personified again as being in pain. In one sense this could be the pain of all the animals that have been killed by the tractor The animals in Wales that have survived and the refugees in Bosnia Clarke is possibly commenting on the stupid reasons for the Bosnian conflict and the fact that old grudges ‘won’t heal’. Could the ‘rumour of pain’ also refer to the sounds of the harvest? Sounds which are linked to war throughout the poem. "We call hay making cutting the hay", says Clarke, "but the Welsh equivalent translates as 'killing the hay'." Before day's done the field lies bleeding, the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles, frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke from a rumour of pain won't heal, and we can't face the newspapers. All night I dream the children dance in grass their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned stranger, wounding my land with stones. They can’t bear to read of the conflict which, at least symbolically, the mouse makes her remember F/H

10. The poem ends with Clarke’s nightmare vision of her own vulnerable children living in a world of gunfire and neighbour turning on neighbour. Before day's done the field lies bleeding, the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles, frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke from a rumour of pain won't heal, and we can't face the newspapers. All night I dream the children dance in grass their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned stranger, wounding my land with stones. Might the dance be the frantic attempts to avoid gunfire? Or worse, the jolting bodies of those being shot? Contrast with the first stanza in which the neighbour gave a ‘gift of sweetness’. This mirrors the conflict in Bosnia where neighbours became enemies over night over religion F/H

11. Review 1. How does the poet show her concern in the poem: • for the animals threatened or harmed by the mowing? • for her own children? • for peace in the wider world? 2. How well does Gillian Clarke succeed in showing how things around one and things happening in other places are all parts of a joined-up process in the world? 3. Does the poem associate the children's concern for animals with other themes? 4. What has this poem, which describes events in the countryside, got to do with the newspapers? Why can the poet not "face" them? F/H

12. Comparisons Patroling Barnegat • Both poems are from personal experience; both have nightmarish qualities. • Out in the storm, Whitman reflects on the violence of the natural world; Clarke is awakened to violence committed by man. • Sonnet: Clare • Clare's poem is very celebratory and innocent. There is no violence in the natural world he describes - and no humans to cause it - unlike in Clarke's poem. • The Field Mouse is more loosely structured than Sonnet, and its language much more varied. F/H

13. Comparisons Heaney • List the Heaney poems you know that link to this one. • Write down the key themes, ideas and techniques used and then try to match them to other poems. F/H