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'Dares to bleed' also sums up the themes of the poem in that neither son nor father show weakness, or dare to show weakness.

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The simile likening poetry to a tumour, gives negative connotations, and suggests it is something to be 'cured' perhaps by his father, in that the son is afraid of his fathers opinion and the negative connotation suggests it is something he is ashamed of. This dynamic between father and son could be viewed as the motivation for the whole poem.

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The line “I put my face up to be kissed after an absence the rebuff still stuns my blood” paints a haunting picture of a son denied the love he so dearly desires from his father because of a culture of toxic masculinity which creates a self fulfilling prophecy whereby the son shows no emotion to those close to him which will then lead to those people bottling up their feelings, self perpetuating the inability to open up to those important to you.

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The "closed box" throughout the poem is not only a metaphor for the boy retreating into his own mind, it possesses a powerful connotation of a fixed mindset and this is supported throughout the poem, even in his later years when they are older, he still believes that shutting himself away is the best option to deal with his sorrows.

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The line in which the poem states “judgement is trying to reject a part of what we are because it hurts" implies that the son has realised that he has become his father and cannot judge him because they are the same.

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The use of enjambment, assonance and alliteration in the poem creates a flow and rhythm. The sound "s" is repeated throughout and offers a smoothness; but towards the end the lines become more harsh and threatening and the "D" sound is used e.g. "day I draw near, descending..."

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'My father had dammed up his Irish blood.' is a line which collaborates with a line a few stanza's down 'My blood.' When the father's blood is referred to as being 'dammed up' it, although we know it means that he's blocking up or neglecting his core emotions or feelings but it's very symbolic and makes us imagine his blood actually being dammed up. this then provides as a commonality between the father and his son with a later reference to the SON's blood(whose blood is still flowing freely). this is a bit of a contradiction, as although they are related by blood, they're both unique in their own emotional responses to situations. At this point in time their differences are apparent, although this is then followed by 'But home the lesson went' meaning that the son who is still innocent and looks up to his father and that what his father does is what is right.

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"why should this matter to me so much now?" The rhetorical question here shows the child desperately trying to explain his own behaviour or rationalise his parents'. The later reference to a steeple and his own 'judgement day' suggests that the poet is now married and feels like he has followed in his parent's footsteps in his relationship and been cold towards his significant other. therefore he is now trying to rationalise his behaviour, trying to excuse himself by making the reader understand that such behaviour is all he knew how to express. it disturbs him that he has become like his father

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The line in which the poem says “that we were all closed to the same defeat” shows the harsh cycle of the child developing his fathers tendencies to hide his emotions and how that the cycle will repeat itself  again and again.  Almost in a prophetic way with no hope of an alternative outcome. But it also reveals the effect this has on the mother and how it will happen to bystanders once again.

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“Amnesia lies

behind our peace”. This example of Enjambment is used to create a double meaning with the word “Lies”. The sentence spread out over two lines can have two separate meanings: “Amnesia lies”, as in, Amnesia is not truthful, or “Amnesia lies behind our peace.”, representing the persona and father mutually agreeing to not speak of the father’s treatment of the persona again.

They’ve both moved on, and are willing to forget, hence “Amnesia”.

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“How can I judge without ingratitude” Shows character feels like he can't judge his father because he was the same way and because his father did so much for him that he doesn’t want to believe he was a bad person. Not only this but it makes him doubt his own judgement to a certain extent.

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"Silence bred rich fruits" - being shut off resulted in eventual relationships of himself, and developed an appreciation for the simple things; the "neutral beauty".

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"Silence bred rich fruits" describes the goodness that came out of the child's hardships

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the simile 'small things can pit the memory like a cyst:' insinuates that the memory is filled with pain as cysts are usually filled with some sort of infection. Also the fact that cyst are usually bad enhances the negative connotations around the simile.

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"Neutral beauty kept me company" - he views the world in a detached way so any seen beauty of the world doesn't effect his emotion,

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One of my favourite lines from the poem is the 4th line of the 4th stanza, "a soft fist eaten by love, impossible to hate." The words 'soft fist' put together could be considered an oxymoron, on there own the mean two completely different things, but together, has a whole new meaning. The word fist is usually associated with power, dominance or violence. However, by including the word 'soft' before 'fist', reveals that the father, who earlier in the poem was seen as completely cold and harsh, is actually not so bad after all. There is still this hardness about him, but I think this is a turning point for the relationship between father and son.

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"Happiness sometimes seeped outside the box 'Untrue!' I howled, and double-checked the locks" This shows his immediate refusal to allow himself happiness and refusal of positive feelings coming from a passion i.e poetry, rather viewing it as a sort of weakness and unnatural/unsuitable feeling to him

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The sentence "Neither of us dares to bleed." really describes the relationship that the persona has with their father. It shows how neither of them share their feelings with each other for fear of bringing up the past.

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The line "but we were all closed in the same defeat" suggests that both him and his mother felt that they had been defeated by his father's lack of emotion and the easiest way out was to close them selves off as well.

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The line " like the eagle or the dove. " tell the reader the that the love his father had was harsh and unforgiving, where as his mother had a love like a dove which is kind and soft, a symbol of love.

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The use of the words, "break" and "dragging" in the fourth stanza, suggest an unwillingness to
open up; to leave his 'box'.

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The use of alliteration in "hardness hammered" emphasises on the persona being trapped inside a metaphorical box.

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The fact that the boy in the poem is describing himself as "unreachable" , suggests that he is deciding to lock himself away from almost everything and everyone in order to deal with the torture of his farthers discipline and hardness. The poem states that the boy is fifteen years old, meaning that he is in the stage of life that he is becoming a new person, moving towards adult hood he is also under the stress of other aspects of life as a teenage and with raging hormones this most likely aided in his decision to shut down to deal with his problems instead.

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The line "Amnesia lies behind our peace. Neither of us dares to bleed" shows that neither of them wish to reflect on the past as they have reached "peace" and doing so would cause them to "bleed".

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The simile comparing the persona's love to 'the Sydney Morning Herald' suggests familiarity, regularity and banality rather than the great mythological passion of ' the eagle' or 'the dove'.