Two Hands

The poem two hands is written in a fairly formal style, there is no use of slang or colloqualism. The poem is written in one long stanza, with a heavy use of ejampment. It is a free verse poem, as it doesn't seem to conform to any recognised poetry style. It is written in the first person, from the point of view of the poet himself, speaking about his own life and profession and father. There is a subtle ryhme scheme, the second and third lines ryhme, then there are two non rhyming lines, then a rhyming couplet, then two non-rhyming lines, then another rhyming couplet etc until you get the last line which is non-rhyming, just like the first line. These lines are desgined to stand away from the poem, as the beginning and end. The poem's enjampment has been carefully set out to adhere to this unusual rhyme scheme, which isn't obvious to a listener of the poem.
There is a heavy use of personification in the poem, as the two hands mentioned in the poem are metaphors for the poet and his father. The poem is about the contrasting careers of the two men, so the poem title "Two hands" is good as it represents the two different men, about which this poem is about. The first piece of personification is when the pencil in his fathers hand is described as "nodding stiffly." This creates an image of his father tapping his medical journal with a pencil at certain sentences, like some people do when reading (though we only learn later he is reading a medical journey) but the word stiffly suggests fatigue and tiredness, and when we learn this man has performed thirteen operations that day, we understand why the word stiffly is used, as his fathers hand is exhausted. The same hands is described as "leading the scalpel an intricate dance." Scalpels don't really dance, but is is another use of personification and creates an image of the quickness of movement of the scalpel, and the different moves it must make during an operation, controlled by the fathers hand. The phone is described as having "sobbed itself to sleep." This personification creates the image of the phone ringing and ringing, and being ignored by the father, has eventually become silent. The word sobbing makes the phones ring sound loud and desperate, and perhaps the incoming calls are to summon the father to another operation. He has chosen to ignore the call as he "has articles to read." The poet is at the other end of the house, listening to the phone calls, and he begins to curse his own hand (the hand represents himself and his own talents.) He blames the hands indescisions, but he means his own indecisiveness. He describes his fingers as having "some style on paper, elsewhere none" This imagery is referring to his own talents, he is a talented writer and poet, but has little other talent. He describes the two hands as being similar in appearance, but completely different in what they do. The hands represent the two men as a whole, so the two men probably look very similar, and may even have some similarites in personality, but the men have completely different talents and different jobs, Jon Stallworthy is a poet, while his father is a surgeon. Stalworthy is jealous of his father's profession, and uses the hands metaphor to describe how he writes all day, saving no-one's life, not really helping anyone, while his father saves many people's lives everyday, and is really having a positive impact on society. The poet feels useless and feels like his poems are completely pointless compared to the important work his father does. Stallworthy Junior feels he is in the shadow of his better and more talented father. He again uses the word dance as personification, but to describe his own hand writing with a pencil. He describes his fathers hand as fast, while his as slow, this contrast enforcing an unfavourable comparison, making himself sound like a bit of a lazy bum while his father is the superhuman lifesaver. The tone is that the poet is jealous of his father, and feels useless in his current profession