Armitage compares what he has done with the more exciting things which other people want to do. He shows that we could celebrate ordinary things as much as sensational ones.

He writes about 'spots of time' as Wordsworth does in 'The Prelude'

The balanced rhythm emphasises the meaning: balancing experiences.

Armitage uses 'ordinary' language (eg 'bummed', 'busted Levis') therefore celebrating the ordinary in another way: language itself. The language is deliberately 'unpoetic'.

[A posh word for the 'ordinary' is the 'quotidian'.]

Armitage uses metonymy effectively here.

Our 'ordinary' is extrordinary to others: we should value our experiences.

'Sense of something else' - same thrill (spiritual) in ordinary as in extra ordinary.

'That feeling I mean' - unsure, vague (just a feeling) : not telling you exactly what he means.

It's a poem about the ordinary things a man has done, some of which are good and some of which are bad.

It is an English sonnet: 4+4+4+2=14

There are more lines that have good things in than the bad things: but the bad things balance the poem, just like the last 2 lines somehow balance the first 12: the whole poem is about balance.

The language Armitage uses is sometimes deliberately 'ordinary', eg quid.

Rhyming and line-rhythm make the poem flow and provide a climax to each group of lines.

We do more good things than bad but the bad things often outweigh the good things.

That's life.

* (the flare of a match)

A 14 line poem like a (very) loose sonnet.

The poem is about a chemistry lesson and how someone tries to attract another person through a dangerous and painful act: offering them red hot scissors to use.

Lots of words have more than one definition: butterfingered, for example. If you are 'butterfungered', you are clumsy; putting butter on a wound (don't do this!) was an alod ;cure' for burns.

The poem says 'Don't believe me' but somehow we do.

This is a poem about a lesson: a lesson he has learnt as well as a lesson in school.

There is also 'chemistry' between the two youngsters!

O is also the shape if the ring, but shows emotion at the same time.

The naked lilac flame is the hottest flame you can get, representing perhaps honesty and purity.

Marked for eternity: the person has been branded, belongs to someone.

Also 'eternity' could be like love (or possessions) for ever. An 'eternity ring' is a sign of love.

In this poem even the word 'I' is a play on words: the poem could be about Armitage, but there is no point in th epoem which actually identifies gender: anyone can relate to the poem.

Descriptions of everyday thigns by someone who used to be blind (or partially sighted), making ordinary things seem more majestic than they might to someone who had been able to see them all their life.

He refers to animals a lot

'I drop the blind': giving up being blind?

'Contact lens' also relates to theme.

Is this what poems are supposed to do, too?

That is, make us see ordinary things as if they were special again.