Trying to Talk with a Man (Leaving Cert English): Flashcards

Breakdown of communication within a marriage

Over 1,000 US nuclear tests between 1951-1992

Both literal location & metaphor for emotional wasteland

39 lines arranged in nine stanzas of varying lengths

Mirrors fragmented nature of couple's communication attempts

Nevada desert as symbol for barren relationship

Out in this desert we are testing bombs

Communication problems are entrenched pattern in relationship

Like an emergency

Desert condemned for testing; relationship marked for destruction

Without you - isolation within togetherness

Emotional currents beneath surface, seeking expression

His emotional intensity has become alien and threatening

What it may become - once alive, now empty/abandoned

Condemned, emergency, testing, power