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Please help - the structure in Hitcher by Simon Armitage?

I've been assigned to analyse this poem and I am having trouble with the structure. I know that the lines get longer and then shorter but what does this mean? And is there any imagery I need to talk about? Also the themes I've got are: violence, jealously, two extremes of society, freedom - are there any more? And one last thing, does the use of 'him' to refer to the hitchiker show how violent the speaker is as he doesn't make it personal? I am really bad at poetry as you can probably guess :s-smilie:

Here's the poem:

I'd been tired, under
the weather, but the ansaphone kept screaming.
One more sick-note. mister, and you're finished. Fired.
I thumbed a lift to where the car was parked.
A Vauxhall Astra. It was hired.

I picked him up in Leeds.
He was following the sun to west from east
with just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed. The truth,
he said, was blowin' in the wind,
or round the next bend.

I let him have it
on the top road out of Harrogate -once
with the head, then six times with the krooklok
in the face -and didn't even swerve.
I dropped it into third

and leant across
to let him out, and saw him in the mirror
bouncing off the kerb, then disappearing down the verge.
We were the same age, give or take a week.
He'd said he liked the breeze

to run its fingers
through his hair. It was twelve noon.
The outlook for the day was moderate to fair.
Stitch that, I remember thinking,
you can walk from there.
Reply 1
Note the enjambment "dropped it into third/and lent across". I think this is used to show the switch in the character's mindset.
Reply 2
To be honest, I hate poetry but we've just had to do some coursework similar to this, the comparison of themes in mordern poetry. I got 26/27 which is an A* and the only way I did it was by making up deductions from certain parts of the text that seemed logical to the themes! I found it that simple! This does look a difficult poem to analyse and I personally wouldn't have chosen it but I've found my technique works well throughout a lot of Enlgish Lit analysis tasks. Just look at each word, mention the connotations it creates and how they relate to the theme. Mention any ambiguity within the text and pick between 4 and 5 quotations. Simples!

I've noticed that this poem uses a lot of Proper Nouns. I don't really know the relevence of this but if you can think of one then maybe it's a good point to pick up on. Often Proper Nouns are used to mention specifics, maybe it's something to do with that?
The first two verses end properly, with a '.', which is like he has completed that line of thinking and moved on.
This makes the switch to the violent third verse all the more shocking, as we aren't expecting it. This could also show the quick switch of the man from seeming normal to extremly violent in the space of an instant. The gap between verses as a short, sharp, passage of time, perhaps?
He uses proper nouns, which show that he's materialistic. In other words he loves o mention names and brands. E.g. he says "Astra Vauxhall". This is usually what rich people do, but we know that he's not rich because he's job got threatened. Although, maybe he was in the past??

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