Full Analysis (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Full Analysis
Form and structure
The poem is divided into four quatrains. Each stanza contains two rhyming couplets. This structure creates a clear narrative progression, moving the reader from the community's past through to the present day.
The consistent stanza form mirrors the rhythmic patterns of oral storytelling, which is appropriate given the poem's focus on communal memory and the passing down of stories through generations.
Lines 1-4: The living community
The opening stanza presents an idyllic vision of crofting life:
"I can see da rüfs aa taekit, an da hens aroond da door; Fok kerryin twartree paets hame, an rigs delled every voar."
Although written in the present tense, the phrase "I can see" creates distance between the speaker and the scene. The speaker is not directly experiencing these events but recollecting or imagining them, as though observing a time that has passed. The repetition of "I see" and "I hear" throughout the poem functions as a narrative device. The speaker becomes a witness, perhaps drawing on memories passed down through older generations. This repetition is common in oral storytelling traditions.
The use of Shetlandic dialect establishes the poem's setting and cultural identity. Fok is a colloquial term that connects the speaker to the community and evokes a traditional way of life. The people are sustained by the land: they collect peat to heat their homes and dig the surrounding plots each spring to grow crops.
Rigs refers to the runrig system, a form of communal agriculture where land was divided into narrow strips assigned to different families. This system encouraged collaborative farming and fair sharing of resources. Rigs were periodically re-allocated to ensure equal access to good land, and the absence of hedges or fences meant the land was farmed collectively. The system disappeared during the 18th and 19th centuries as landowners enclosed land for profit.
The image "Aa da lums ir reekin" represents life and activity in the township. Smoking chimneys bring to mind people gathered around fires, suggesting home and family life. This domestic warmth is reinforced by the "happy soonds / O peerie bairns skirlin, as dey play dem ower da toons." The children's voices represent the safety and harmony of the community, a contrast that will become important as the poem progresses.
Lines 5-8: Growing tension
The second stanza moves inside a croft house:
"I see eens sittin roond da fire, an twartree mair oot by; Sookin infants at da breest, an weemen gjaan ta cry."
Assonance adds to the rhythmic quality of the stanza, reinforcing the oral storytelling tradition. The first line portrays community members gathered around the fire, echoing the way stories would traditionally be shared.
The scene depicts pregnant women and nursing infants, continuing the portrayal of domestic life. However, the harmony from stanza 1 is disrupted. Adjectives such as tochtfil (thoughtful/worried), fractious, and feytin (fighting) emphasise mounting tension. The adults "at's lived ower lang" have tired faces, suggesting they anticipate what is coming. Even the children are "sensin somethin wrang", unable to sleep properly.
By depicting a multi-generational community, Bulter draws attention to how the Clearances affected not only those who worked the land but also their families. The displacement from ancestral lands meant the repercussions were intergenerational, affecting babies, children, working adults, and the elderly alike.
Lines 9-12: The eviction
The third stanza depicts the moment of eviction:
"I hear a lood, lood knockin, an da crump o monny feet; Men's voices raised in anger, an da bairns start ta greet."
The repetition of "lood, lood" heightens the tension established in stanza 2. External sounds of knocking, feet, and voices represent an unwelcome intrusion. The phrase "monny feet" intensifies the sense of danger approaching from outside, signalling the defencelessness of the women and children within.
Code-switching as a power dynamic
Bulter shifts from Shetlandic to English in the phrase "Men's voices raised in anger". This code-switching represents the voices of the men sent to Shetland to evict the community. These men are outsiders, speaking a different language, enforcing orders from absent landlords. Bulter immediately reverts to Shetlandic with "da bairns start ta greet", returning focus to the frightened children inside and highlighting the community's helplessness.
"I see da fok aa hirded oot afore da laandloard's men; An aa da bits a things dey hed, fired ower da briggy-stane."
The verb "hirded" draws a parallel between the treatment of the community and the treatment of farm animals. The people are stripped of autonomy and voice. Landlords enforced evictions yet were often absent from their estates, powerful enough to order others to carry out their bidding. The phrase "da laandloard's men" emphasises this hierarchy, which persists today: landlords can live anywhere in the world, whilst crofters must live within twenty miles of their registered land.
"Bits a things" works in two ways. It may signal that the community owns little, contrasting the impoverished tenants with the wealthy landlord. Their possessions would typically be cobbled together from found items, beach salvage, and repurposed cast-offs—literally bits of things. Alternatively, it may reflect the disdain shown by the landlord's men, who treat the community's belongings as worthless.
The physical act of possessions being "fired ower da briggy-stane" (thrown over the house's boundary marker) symbolises the clearing of people from their homes and from the land.
Lines 13-16: Aftermath and lament
The final stanza portrays the consequences:
"I see da bare waas staandin, an aa da laand lie green; Lang syne da fire wis slokkit, an monny a year is geen."
The lack of human presence mirrors the rural depopulation following the Clearances. The croft houses survive but stand uninhabited. The surrounding plots are now green, indicating they have been left to grow wild and are no longer harvested. The detail of green contrasts with the peat mentioned in stanza 1. When cut, peat is black; when stacked and dried, it turns dark brown. These colours signify land being worked and homes having fuel for warmth. The green therefore represents the absence of these signs of life and labour, an image developed in the following line: "da fire wis slokkit" (extinguished).
The second line evokes the passage of time. The long-extinguished fire symbolises an eradicated way of life. It also alludes to the literal torching of croft houses during the Clearances. The speaker's acknowledgement that many years have passed creates a tone of lamentation for a people and place now consigned to history.
"Noo dey aa hae equal portions o aert ta tak dir sleep. Tell me, wis it wirt it aa for twartree extry sheep?"
The speaker alludes to the imbalance of land ownership. Only in death has the community been afforded "equal portions" of land. A poignant image emerges: the community returned to the earth in burial, having been removed from the land when alive. All graves are the same size, offering an equality denied in life.
The power of "Tell me"
"Tell me" functions in multiple ways. As a colloquial expression, it changes the tone from reflection into direct conversation, with the speaker addressing somebody directly. This conversational quality reinforces the personal nature of the poem, emphasising the emotional connection between the speaker and the events. The speaker appears to be speaking on behalf of the community.
"Tell me" is also a demand. The speaker seeks acknowledgement of the devastating impact of the Clearances on the township, its people, and their descendants.
This leads into a rhetorical question, which draws attention to what was lost—livelihoods, heritage, and identity—for so little. "Twartree extry sheep" represents the commercial gain that landlords valued over the lives of the community.
The transhistorical speaker
The poem presents a transhistorical speaker who moves across time, witnessing the clearance of the township as if it were unfolding in an eternal present. This perspective reinforces the enduring trauma and cultural memory of the event, suggesting its impact resonates in the present day.
However, in the final stanza, the speaker's direct intervention marks a shift. The speaker distinguishes the past as something separate and concluded, acknowledging the weight of history whilst also asserting agency in shaping its legacy. The speaker is not merely witnessing but actively challenging the reader to confront the injustice of what occurred.
Key techniques
The poem employs several powerful literary techniques to convey the trauma of the Clearances:
- Shetlandic dialect establishes cultural identity and connects the speaker to the community. The use of Shetlandic for the community's voices and experiences, contrasted with English for the oppressors' voices, creates a linguistic division that reflects power imbalances.
- Repetition ("I can see", "I hear", "lood, lood") reinforces the oral storytelling tradition and builds tension throughout the poem.
- Assonance contributes to the poem's rhythmic quality, making it feel like a story being passed down through generations.
- Contrast between stanzas emphasises the change from harmony to disruption. The idyllic opening gives way to mounting tension, violent eviction, and finally desolate aftermath.
- Imagery of fire appears throughout: smoking chimneys represent warmth and community in stanza 1, whilst the extinguished fire in stanza 4 represents the destruction of that way of life.
Key Points to Remember:
- The poem uses a four-stanza structure to move from past harmony through eviction to present-day desolation
- Bulter employs Shetlandic dialect to establish cultural identity, whilst English represents the outsider oppressors
- The speaker functions as a witness across time, connecting past trauma to present-day memory
- Key imagery includes fire (life and warmth vs. destruction), green land (abandonment), and equal grave portions (justice denied in life)
- The closing rhetorical question challenges the reader to consider whether commercial profit justified the destruction of an entire community