MAN:Oh no, oh no.
SIMON:9/11, the 11th of September 2001, became one of those dates of collective consciousness. Everybody who witnessed the attacks on the World Trade Center remembers where they were at that time.
SIMON:The whole of Out of the Blue is written from the point of view of an English trader in the North Tower on the day that the planes strike. He's narrating and commentating on the events of the day, but from afterwards. It's a voice from beyond the grave.
SIMON:You have picked me out. Through a distant shot of a building burning, you have noticed now that a white cotton shirt is twirling, turning. In fact I am waving, waving. Small in the clouds but waving, waving, does anyone see a soul worth saving? So when will you come? Do you think you are watching, watching, a man shaking crumbs or pegging out washing? I am trying, and trying, the heat behind me is bullying, driving, but the white of surrender is not yet flying. I am not at the point of leaving, diving. A bird goes by. The depth is appalling. Appalling that others like me should be wind milling, wheeling, spiralling, falling. Are your eyes believing? Believing that here, in the gills, I am still breathing, but tiring, tiring. Sirens below are wailing, firing. My arm is numb, and my nerves are sagging. Do you see me, my love? I am failing. Flagging.
SIMON:This is girder sections from the North Tower. This would have come tumbling down under all that weight of the building and has arrived here in the Imperial War Museum, North. It's very moving to be standing here in front of it. In the poem, I talk about the gills of the building. These struts down the building, and that's what I was referring to, and these might well be those sections. I guess there's also the idea there of gills, a place where you're trying to breathe from. The extract from the poem was written to fit a piece of footage which was taken at the time. The frame of the picture wobbles around and can't always keep the person in the tower in focus, and to try and replicate that a little bit, I use repetition in the poem. So I've tried to get the nature of the poem to resemble the nature of that actual piece of film. In that respect there's a certain amount of irony in the poem, because the poem is written in a very controlled way, fairly neat stanzas with the same number of lines in each one, and I suppose what I'm trying to do there is to contain the tension, to build up that sense of stress, and panic. So in the same way that the lens of the camera finds the man in the building, so the poem focuses on him and describes his situation, and he becomes a metaphor for everyone. Everyone's terror, everyone's fear, and everyone's heartbreak.
Simon Armitage reads his own poem ‘Out of the Blue’, and talks about why he wrote it.
He explains the narrator’s voice, and how it was inspired by a real-life image of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
He analyses the poem’s structure and language, over documentary footage of the attack.
He considers a girder from the towers at the Imperial War Museum North, and how he incorporated these objects into the language of the poem.
He talks about how his use of repetition represents the wobbly camera footage of the event. Contains images of the 9/11 attack that some viewers may find upsetting. Teacher review recommended prior to use in class.
Teacher Notes
Can be used as a way of studying how the poetic form and choice of structure can help us to document and deal with some of the biggest and most important issues and events of our times.
Students can analyse and comment on Armitage's use of structure in the poem, for example, the shape of the poem reflecting the towers, the ordered structure of the poem containing tension before a climax or explosion of something, the repetition representing the shaking hand-held camera work and so on.
On a template showing the outline of The Twin Towers on the New York skyline, students could summarise their ideas and findings.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching English Literature.
It will be relevant for teaching poetry analysis at KS3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Level 3 in Scotland.
This clip could also be used for teaching general poetry analytics skills at KS4/GCSE/National 5.