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Aunt Julia

At the start of the poem the narrator talks as a child and immature person. In Aunt Julia poem, the narrator feels frustrated and confused "Very loud and very fast", his language is plain and factual, he uses repetition to emphasise that her language which is the "Gaelic language" is very hard to understand. He is complaining from her annoying voice. He uses very easy and simple words to show us that he talks about his childhood in a childish language. He repeats "very loud and very fast" to show that she was proud of her culture and identity.

She had a sense of pride and dignity. "I couldn't understand her "and he is repeating it using first person narrator " I "because of his upsetting and anger because he cannot communicate with his aunt, the only one who can talk to in the house. He really wished that he can talk with her. He has a passion and anger because he gets no answer. He then starts to describe her as a strange person "She wore men's boots" which shows that she is a hard worker woman.

She gives the encouragement and the example of fast, active and strong woman who can do a man's work. He admires and compares her to nature and conveys her magical technique on the spinning wheel and he is comparing her with the air speed "marvellously out of the air "adjective to show us her magical skill. His descriptions give insights into her way of life. The narrator starts to feel sorry about what he said in the first stanzas.

He says "hers was the only house" shows how independent she was, he is inspired by his aunt, and he respects her and believes that he wouldn't feel safe anywhere but her house, and he seems to have a positive memories when he was a child and when he use to sleep in a "box bed" has connotations of loneliness and isolation. It gives a recipe for fear. In this poem the narrator seems to be friendly, hopeful and optimistic "crickets being friendly" it's personification to the concept of harmony with nature, and that nature is welcoming.

the narrator uses a lot of metaphors about aunt Julia performance "she was buckets" "water flouncing" "she was winds" he is inspired by her she influenced his feelings , that's why he compares her with nature like wind and water and how they are flexible and active. At the end the narrator starts to describe his aunt death and how she had transformed from the woman with the loud and fast "Seagull" voice to "silenced" it's really ambiguous and sad feeling.

"Absolute black" it's a metaphor mentioning the black colour has connotations of darkness and it's the end, like that all the nature feelings are disappeared and left nothing left. The narrator as he became older he feels desperate and so unlucky because "by the time I had learnt" some of her language she died and left him with no answers "questions unanswered" he expressing the frustration that he now feels about the fact that, with his present day greater understanding of Gaelic, he would like to ask her many questions but cannot as she has passed away.

The narrator was very inspired by Aunt Julia "I hear her still" seems like that there was a spiritual relationship between them, like he can feel her spirit flying in the house and talking to him. He became sane at the end and he feels guilty because he didn't learn her language earlier.

References: https://essaysamurai.co.uk/discuss-ways-in-which-edward-thomas-presents-memory-in-aspens/