A Portable Paradise (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Robinson uses free verse to convey a casual conversation:

• Beginning the poem with a conjunction reflects the informal tone: “And if I speak of Paradise”

The irregular form contributes to an intimate and personal monologue, which presents an individual’s inner thoughts 

Later, Robinson uses a second-person address:

• This makes the advice offered more personal: “hum its anthem under your breath”

The direct address gives the poem immediacy, as if the speaker is sharing a secret:

• Here, Robinson appears to be spreading the advice given to him to anyone who feels similarly isolated 

The poem uses repetition to imply urgency: “And if life puts you under pressure”, then, “And if your stresses are sustained and daily”

The speaker’s continued advice contributes to Robinson’s message about persistence in desperate times 

  Robinson builds a close relationship between the reader and the speaker, promoting the poem’s message about the comfort found in connections and community 

Irregular stanza and line lengths convey an emotional speaker 

Robinson may be conveying the unpredictability in the speaker’s tense life 

Robinson uses enjambment in certain lines to convey the speaker’s breathless narration:

• A tense voice is created in the run-on lines: “my grandmother/who told me to carry it always/on my person”

Robinson increases the pace to reflect the speaker’s nervousness in their world

A controlled, defiant voice is reflected in end-stops: “That way they can’t steal it, she’d say.”

At other times, caesura reflect urgency and disruption: “get yourself to an empty room – be it hotel,/hostel or hovel – find a lamp”

Robinson’s speaker delivers a message about finding personal peace in times of stress:

• The speaker attempts to be calm, but the threats in their life interrupt this

Robinson portrays pressures in an individual’s world that disrupt peace and personal security

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Belonging and heritage  

Robinson uses natural imagery to describe emotional escape:

• The poem describes how “your white sands, green hills and fresh fish” are a “paradise” you can carry anywhere 

The poem reflects the need for a relationship with the natural world, especially when the external world creates stress

However, alliteration highlights the urgent need for solitude in the line: “be it hotel,/hostel or hovel”:

• Furthermore, the use of the word “concealed” implies the need to hide

• The speaker needs to keep this secret,”so/no one else would know but me”

Robinson suggests the speaker feels isolated and vulnerable in their environment: 

• The contrast of natural imagery related to paradise and the urban world in these lines present the speaker’s disconnections  

The poem begins and ends linking the idea of “Paradise” with ancestral wisdom: “then I’m speaking of my grandmother”:

• 
  The grandparent’s advice refers to a “paradise” that you can “Shine the lamp on”

• 
  Robinson’s imagery related to light ends the poem with a positive message: “the fresh hope/of morning”

Robinson conveys the significance of family heritage for an individual’s sense of well-being:

• Robinson’s poem alludes to how this brings enlightenment and escape from despair

Robinson portrays an individual whose broken relationship with the external world leads to solitary reflection on more natural environments

'A Portable Paradise'

'In a London Drawing Room'

Robinson conveys the speaker’s desperation using enjambment:

• The pace increases in the lines: “carry it always/on my person, concealed, so/no one else would know but me.”

Eliot uses enjambment to reflect the speaker’s despair at the view from their drawing room: 

• “the houses opposite/Cutting the sky with one long line of wall/Like solid fog”

The unbroken stanza may convey the speaker’s relentless struggle to defy the negativity in their life:

• The lines are controlled with end-stops to reflect a disciplined speaker

Eliot’s poem is also one unbroken stanza

• This form contributes to the speaker’s sense of “Monotony of surface & of form/Without a break”  

Robinson presents an isolated individual: 

• An imperative verb instructs, “get yourself” to an “empty room”, suggesting a need for solitude in threatening circumstances

Eliot’s speaker feels similarly cut off from life: 

• This is shown via repetition in the lines: “No bird can make a shadow as it flies” and “No figure leaning”

Both poems present solitary individuals whose external worlds bring them unease 

'A Portable Paradise'

'In a London Drawing Room' 

Robinson’s poem hints at conflict in the speaker’s life: 

• A threatening, unnamed group, (“they”) want to “steal” his “paradise”

Eliot criticises her world as without compassion or joy: 

• She says London is like a “prison-house”, where “men are punished at the slightest cost”

Robinson highlights the constant challenges with repetition: 

• “And if life puts you under pressure”, then, “And if your stresses are sustained and daily” 

Similarly, Eliot draws attention to disconnected relationships in the city: 

• The speaker describes how the crowds “All hurry on & look upon the ground”

• Eliot repeats “All” to highlight the homogenised and passionless nature of the people: “All closed, in multiplied identity”

Both poems present harmful relationships in a cruel, urban world

'A Portable Paradise'

'In a London Drawing Room'

Robinson describes a “paradise” that includes “white sands, green hills and fresh fish”:

• Sensory imagery alludes to comfort of tracing “its ridges” and smelling “its piney scent” 

Eliot, however, uses natural imagery to describe an industrialised London:

• The sky is “yellowed by the smoke.” 

• “All is shadow” and the “golden rays” of sun are “clothed in hemp.”

Robinson’s speaker relies on ancestral wisdom about the natural world to find peace and enlightenment: 

• The poem guides a listener to imaginative reflections, to “empty your paradise onto a desk” and “Shine the lamp” on it

Eliot, however, describes urban London’s mundane environment as restrictive to the imagination: 

• Eliot describes the urban world as “Without a break to hang a guess upon”

Robinson’s poem ends with advice for the future:

• The speaker advises solitude and a connection to objects from the natural world

• This will bring the “fresh hope/of morning”

Eliot’s poem ends with a bleak conclusion that speaks to the poet’s gloomy response to the Industrial Revolution: 

• The city has the “lowest rate of colour, warmth & joy”

Robinson’s modern poem draws attention to the comfort of heritage and suggests hope can be found in even a small connection to the natural world, while Eliot’s Victorian poem is a critique on industrialisation and urbanisation 

'A Portable Paradise'

'Thirteen'

Robinson illustrates the speaker’s breathless response to pressures in their life through enjambment:

• In contrast, a sudden caesura represents moments of tension: “on my person, concealed, so”

Femi’s poem has an irregular structure, which also conveys tense narration:

• Enjambment at the beginning reflects the boy’s fear as he is stopped by police 

• Caesura represents the fear as he is “cornered”: the description of a man? – You’ll laugh.”

Robinson’s desperate speaker is portrayed with imperative verbs and a list, which implies urgency: 

• The speaker instructs “get yourself to an empty room – be it hotel,/hostel or hovel – find a lamp”

• The adjective “empty” connotes to loneliness

Femi’s speaker, too, conveys powerlessness:

• Imagery shows the boy’s need to appeal to the officer: “You will show the warmth of your teeth/praying he remembers”

• A question presents the boy’s sense of anonymity: “Don’t you remember me? you will ask.”

The speakers convey a sense of desperation as they attempt to find reassurance in a discordant world

'A Portable Paradise'

'Thirteen'

Robinson suggests the speaker feels part of a neglected, isolated group:

• The speaker refers to the third-person plural, “they”

• A nameless opposition suggests conflict between the speaker and others: “That way they can’t steal it”

Femi presents the children as separated from the adults in their community:

• The unknown officers present a threat to the singled-out boy

• He is “patted on the shoulder” by “another fed” whose “face takes you back”

Robinson criticises the “pressure”, highlighting it with sibilance in “stresses” are “sustained and daily”:

• Repetition of “And if” implies  persistent challenges 

Femi depicts a pressured environment: 

• Repetition highlights the boy’s shock when accused: “Thirteen, you’ll tell him: you’re thirteen.” 

• The speaker implies they are patronised through the diminutive adjective in “little stars”

Both poems describe their homes as oppositional, which in turn creates vulnerable individuals 

'A Portable Paradise'

“'Thirteen'

Robinson relates how advice from a grandparent can provide comfort: 

• Robinson capitalises the word “Paradise” and links it to family: “then I’m speaking of my grandmother”

In contrast, Femi presents an isolated child who finds little comfort from adults:

• The speaker pleads with officers to recognise him

• The classmates are offered superficial praise: they are all “the brightest and biggest stars” 

Robinson uses imagery to convey hope against the challenges of their world:

• He finds his own “paradise” of “white sands, green hills and fresh fish”

• They suggest “empty your paradise onto a desk” and “keep staring at it till you sleep”

Femi’s metaphorical language leads to a dark conclusion:

• Instead of being a symbol of aspiration, as the officer suggests, the star is a symbol of destruction

• The children are “in fact, dying stars”

• The poem ends describing them as “on the verge of becoming black holes.”

Robinson’s poem describes a way of providing one's own comfort in the face of adversity, but Femi’s poem presents a young boy whose vulnerable position under powerful authorities leads to despair 

'A Portable Paradise'

'England in 1819'

Robinson describes a vulnerable individual in a city (arguably, London):

• An imperative verb instructs, “get yourself to an empty room”

• The speaker’s urgency is clear in the broken line “ – be it hotel,/hostel or hovel”

• The speaker refers to a powerful group who forces them to conceal their “paradise” so “they can’t steal it”

Shelley describes the negative conditions and powerlessness of the working class in nineteenth-century  England:

• They are “A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field”

• There is “public scorn” toward the monarchy and aristocracy

Robinson uses sensory imagery to contrast the external world and the speaker’s inner world: 

• The speaker advises: “hum its anthem under your breath” and “smell its piney scent”

• Alliteration and sibilance, however, highlight problems in the outside world where “stresses are sustained and daily”

Shelley, similarly, contrasts dark and light imagery to convey ideas about good and evil:

• The poem ends describing a “glorious Phantom” that “Bursts” from “graves” of dead systems

• Shelley hopes this will “illumine” the “tempestuous day”

The poets both comment on inner conflicts as individuals struggle to find hope in places of suffering 

'A Portable Paradise'

'England in 1819'

The poem is written in free verse:

• The tone is conversational: “And if I speak of Paradise”

• The poem is a controlled narrative: “That way they can’t steal it, she’d say.”

Shelley uses a sophisticated sonnet ironically to convey the “public scorn” under what Shelley describes as corrupt and powerful systems:

• Shelley breaks the rhythm, which creates a bitter tone in a list of criticisms

Robinson’s poem presents a resistant and reassuring speaker:

• Repetition offers advice from a grandparent: “And if life puts you under pressure” with “And if your stresses”

• The speaker has a solution, to find a paradise and “carry it always” 

Shelley’s poem makes use of alliteration and assonance to create a resentful voice: 

• He highlights violence: “blind in blood, without a blow”

• He describes the monarchy as “The dregs of their dull race”

Robinson illustrates an individual who, although vulnerable in their world, finds comfort in simple advice passed down through generations, whereas Shelley offers a severe critique of England