This is the time of day when we in the Men's ward
Think "one more surge of the pain and I give up the fight."
When he who struggles for breath can struggle less strongly:
This is the time of day which is worse than night.
A haze of thunder hangs on the hospital rose-beds,
A doctors' foursome out of the links is played,
Safe in her sitting-room Sister is putting her feet up:
This is the time of day when we feel betrayed.
Below the windows, loads of loving relations
Rev in the car park, changing gear at the bend,
Making for home and a nice big tea and the telly:
"Well, we've done what we can. It can't be long till the end."
This is the time of day when the weight of bedclothes
Is harder to bear than a sharp incision of steel.
The endless anonymous croak of a cheap transistor
Intensifies the lonely terror I feel.
Leave a guest comment (subject to review)
Comments
-
From guest Paige (contact)
This is easily one of my favourites of all time. The betrayal established in the last line of the second stanza portrayed in the third stanza is the kind of betrayal that is very subtle at first but more damaging than anything that might be more acute, so to speak. The sister is only there because she has to be, and the crux of this situation is that she feels comforted by the fact that she has fulfilled her "duty" of being there for the speaker for just a little bit of time during the day, showing that she has no real care for the speaker. The speaker may not be dying physically alone, but emotionally he is alone to be sure. The troubling thing about this is to think about all the times we, too have been at a hospital with a loved one, or at their funeral, just so that we can look like a 'good' family member or friend? It happens all the time. How many people truly die alone? The answer may be disturbing, if an answer could be found. -
What a vivid picture is conjured up by these few verses. Those of us who have spent time in hospital know the mental anguish that descends once the afternoon visiting is over and your visitors have left. Doctor's rounds are over and they too have escaped for a round of golf. Even the ward sister has left albeit temporarily and is relaxing in her office with a cup of tea.
The rejection you feel coupled with the dejection that you are not leaving with them. The isolation you feel even in a crowded ward as you hear the cars driving away. The frustration at not even being able to choose what music to listen to on the tranisitor all add to the pall, or shadow, cast on the day.
Not even allowed out of bed to sit on a chair the bedclothes feel that much heavier because you feel you don't need them at 5 o'clock in the same way as you would at midnight.
The quick pain of a cut-throat razor, removing this five-o-clock shadow on your soul, sometimes seems more desirable than the bored futility of these periods even to those who know they will eventually recover. -
Essay I Wrote in School
From guest Sabri (contact)
Sabri Khaled Dr. Bowen AP Literature and Composition 28 September 2008 Diction’s Contribution to Tone The diction in Sir John Betjeman’s “Five O’Clock Shadow” enhances the narrators feeling of ongoing agony and despondency to show the conditions of the nursing home and the emotional impact it has on its occupants. Through his use of diction, each line in Sir Betjeman’s poem has an underlying meaning supported with connotative terms and expressions to illustrate tone. Diction’s effect on tone is evident within the very title of this poem, "Five O'Clock Shadow," which is a beard growth visible late in the day on a man whose face was clean-shaven in the morning. The term is often used to describe the appearance of men who work the traditional nine-to-five workday. “Nine-to-five,” also a phrase, is used to describe a conventional and possibly tedious job that is monotonous. One could relate this to life in a nursing home because the occupants are there to live, while repeating the same cycles of everyday life until they pass away. The idea of a “five o’clock shadow” and not taking care of one’s personal hygiene (for instance, not shaving) shows the narrator’s lack of interest in living life and that he no longer cares, is no longer motivated, and is giving up (letting himself go, so to speak). If one looks at the term “five o’clock shadow” from a different perspective – instead as a time of day - this could also represent the fact that visiting times are over because people usually leave around five to return to their homes and back to their normal lives, leaving their loved ones behind. The narrator is pointing out that for the rest of the afternoon he is to be alone. He is relating himself to a "shadow," meaning nothing remains of them but a shadow; no real tangible figure, just a mark in their lives or a memory in the back of their minds. This idea leads the reader into the first stanza of the poem with the idea that the narrator will be dilapidated and hopeless. Within the first stanza, "Think ‘one more surge of the pain and I give up the fight’ " tells the reader of the immense suffering the occupants of the nursing home are going through (2). “The fight" in itself means living life has become a fight, rather than a blessing. In the third line of Betjeman’s “Five O’Clock Shadow,” the narrator uses the word "struggle" which enhances what "the fight" portrays. In the fourth line, Betjeman uses "worse than night" which is a connotation with “night is loneliness.” The day becomes worse than being alone, once again sustaining a tone of hopelessness. The term “five o’clock shadow” shifts the setting of the poem to later in the afternoon. The “afternoon” is a connotation with “gloomy,” giving a more depressing tone to fit with the situation. In the fifth line of Sir Betjeman’s poem: “A haze of thunder hangs on the hospital rose-beds,” his diction adds on to the gloomy setting by making the day darker, further depressing the tone. His expectation of bad weather gives a sense of impending doom as he waits for his death. In line seven, the narrator goes as far as to say that even God himself has given up hope: “Safe in her sitting-room Sister is putting her feet up.” The nun, or “Sister,” symbolizes a greater being that is no longer helping because the occupants’ deaths are inevitable. In the eighth line of the poem, the narrator says, “This is the time of day when we feel betrayed.” Sir Betjeman’s diction implies that he was tricked into that situation (being put into a nursing home), robbed of something, having lived his entire lives for his children and now they “lock” him up. This momentarily shifts the tone to that of distrust as he reminisces on the irony that the ones he cared about for so long have now put him away in a nursing home where they do not have to care for him. In the third stanza of “Five O’Clock Shadow,” the writer Sir John Betjeman’s diction shifts from a more “serious” tone to a “sarcastic” tone in the first line (ninth line). When the narrator says “loads of loving relatives”, he is being sarcastic because of the aforementioned sense of abandonment he feels about his own relatives (9). "Changing gear at the bend" depicts his comparison between “shifting gears” and “bending roads” to “driving away from that awful place as quick as we can” and “every turn they take is one more turn away from me, leaving me with a swerve-induced nausea” through the use of connotative diction (10). He feels left behind and is sickened by it, further supporting the tone of loneliness. By the end of the poem in the last stanza, the narrator is at the apex of his misery. “This is the time of day when the weight of bedclothes / Is harder to bear than a sharp incision of steel” - his family has left him and his feeling of despair is at its climax (13). The clothes that once made him comfortable are now suffocating him. He is slowly dying as the weight becomes more and more unbearable: “The endless anonymous croak of a cheap transistor / Intensifies the lonely terror I feel” and the beeps of his heart rate monitor are counting down the seconds to his passing (15-16). The diction in this last stanza amplifies his portrayal of his loneliness and despair as his life is being counted down in front of his eyes, impacting the reader with a sense of terror for the narrator who is creeping towards death on his own. -
3 times. That's how many times I had to read this to completely understand it. Amazing that I did. Amazing point it carries as well. A story told, as it is in reality, and continues to be. Nothing much can change this...heart wrenching as it may be.
Haunting as Ody put it...very.
Peace
Chris -
Now, see - this is the kind of poem I would never have expected to read on a search of the word betrayed, but it is such an apt term to describe how you might feel in this situation. The pain and anguish in this is palpable, and extremely evocative.
Such stark imagery in this - a very descriptive and haunting piece. -
The pain of living outweighing the pain of dying. Stuck in a bed, knowing what is happening to you and not being able to do anything about has to be the scariest feeling I could imagine. I know so many people whose mainds are fully intact who suffer debilating diseases that eat away their bodies but nver touch thier minds. To suffer like this would be worse than drowning.
Adding your comment:
