Suspended Sentence
by
John Cooper Clarke
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Suspended Sentence
read the paper humdrum
what's the caper what goes on
eat die ho hum
page one some bum
is giving a lunatic a loaded gun
he walks others run
thirty dead no fun
do something destructive chum
sit right down write a letter to the sun
bring back hanging for everyone
they took my advice they brought it back
the national costume was all over black
there were corpses in the avenues and cul-de-sacs
piled up neatly in six-man stacks
hanging from the traffic lights and specially made racks
they'd hang you for incontinence and fiddling your tax
failure to hang yourself justified the axe
deedley dee deedley dum
they brought back hanging for everyone
the novelty's gone it's hell
the whole place is a death cell
the bang bang bang of funeral bells
those who aren't hanging are hanging someone else
the people pay the paper sells
death by the lorry load it smells
swinging britain don't put me on
they brought back hanging for everyone
-- John Cooper Clarke
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[Questions for students]
-1-
In Suspended Sentence the poet uses a compressed form of
language. Turn the following sentences into grammatical English
by adding the words that have been left out.
a. ___ read the paper humdrum ___ what's the caper ___ what goes
on.
b. ___ page one some bum is giving a lunatic a loaded gun.
c. He walks ___ others run.
d. Thirty ___ dead, ___ no fun.
e. ___ something destructive, chum.
f. ___ sit down and write a letter to The Sun, ___ that ___
bring back hanging for everyone.
-2-
Complete the sentences.
a. 'they took my advice'; by 'they' is meant ___.
b. 'the national costume was all over black'; it is black because
___.
c. The two methods of carrying out the death sentence are ___ and
___.
d. The line 'deedley dee deedley dum' indicates that the speaker
is in a ___ mood.
-3-
In the third stanza the poet plays with the meaning of words.
a. 'the bang bang bang' is here the sound of the bells, but usually
it is the sound of ___.
b. 'those who aren't hanging' can have two meanings. Which ones?
Because of what follows it is clear that here it means ___.
c. 'the people pay' usually means that they give money in return
for some article, but here it means ___.
-4-
The poet becomes very ironic in the third stanza. Find the lines
in the poem of which the following statements are the interpretations.
a. All the corpses hanging by their necks may make the impression
of a dance.
b. Hanging was all right when it first started.
c. Certain economic interests are served by all the hangings.
-5-
A suspended sentence is a sentence that is not carried out (for
a certain period) even though a criminal has been convicted. Say
whether the following statements are true or false.
a. The speaker realizes he made a mistake when he asked to bring
back hanging.
b. The speaker is most guilty but his sentence has been suspended.
c. The poet is in favour of capital punishment under certain conditions.
d. The title of the poem also refers to the abolition of capital
punishment in Britain.
e. The poet is critical of a certain type of newspaper.
[Assignments for students]
-1-
Form groups of three or four students and discuss the pros and cons
of capital punishment. Write down three arguments for and three
arguments against the death penalty. Each group reports back to
the class after the discussion.
-2-
A commuted sentence is a sentence that is changed into a less severe
sentence. In the following poem the convict asks for this change
of sentence, but his request is remarkable. Read the poem.
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The Commuted Sentence
Shut me not alive away
From the light of every day
Hang me rather by the neck to die
Against a morning sky.
Oh shut me not behind a prison wall
I have a horror of this sort of place
Where I may sit and count the hours pass
And never see a smiling human face.
Here is all straight and narrow as a tomb
Oh shut me not within a little room.
-- Stevie Smith
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Which sentence is more severe, life imprisonment or death? Write down
your thoughts in 190 to 210 words. |
