“CHAINSAW”-ANALYSIS AND NOTES

SUMMARY
- The battle between man and nature where man will never win.
- Also a battle of man and machinery; industrial concept.
- Could also represent a misogynistic persona; a battle of genders.
- A battle of power and the loss of it. Irritation of not being in control.
- Could be about the things that happen when men don’t express their feelings.
ANALYSIS
“chainsaw versus the pampas grass” – “versus” implies that there was a battle or a match.
STANZA 1
“it seemed like an unlikely match” – double entendre, declarative sentence: competition or relationship?
Maybe that man and women or man and machinery wasn’t intended to be conflicted.
“grinding its teeth…swung nose down” – personification makes it seem a lot more human than machine.
“a hook in the darkroom/ under the hatch in the floor” – extended metaphor: the chainsaw is within the
person, hidden away and suppressed; suppression of feelings.
“knocked back a quarter pint of engine oil – a mimic of a man drinking alcohol; gives it a very human
quality.
“and juices ran from its joints and threads” – sibilance at the end of words give a sinister tone.
STANZA 2
“flicked” “dropped” “gunned” – dynamic verbs that mimic actions of a weapon.
STANZA 3
“just an instant rage”– all the suppressed feelings that all of a sudden burst, not gradual.
“the chainsaw with its perfect disregard” – ‘man’ doesn’t care about anything. The machine has a mind of
its own; will not pay heed to anyone.
“its mood/ to tangle with cloth or jewellery, or hair” – syndetic list; all of these things are significant to
woman and he has the urges to destroy it; implications of aggression towards women; misogyny?
“its sweet tooth/…flesh of the face” – fricative sounds that are soft and contrasts the nature of the saw;
hinting at a woman.
“nail or knot” – actual nails could signify machinery but it could also mean nails and hair of a woman.
“I let it flare lifted it into the sun” – burst of light, action of holding a trophy like a monumental moment.
“hundred beats per second drumming in its heart” – personification; quicker heart rate indicates
excitement or nervousness?
“drive-wheel gargle in its throat” – gargling has connotations of sickness, prevent it from going down the
throat.
STANZA 4
“…pampas grass with its ludicrous feathers” – the appearance value (women); ludicrous means laughable
at its absurdity. As if the man thinks that it is pathetic that the ‘grass’ thinks it can exist in such peace and
 “CHAINSAW”-ANALYSIS AND NOTES
overthrow his power. Or that he sees it has big as if it shouldn’t be allowed to be this big and thriving.
Female context: this man sees it as a woman who has too much and isn’t supposed to.
“the pampas grass, taking the warmth and light” – how dare the grass take something that would
otherwise be his? Warmth and light have positive connotations. Female context: how can women be so
full of life?
“sunning itself, / stealing the show” – envy; making him jealous that grass is taking away attention that
could be on him. Also the “sunning” shows that there is a sense of power that comes with ease to the
grass that the machine has to try hard to occupy.
“twelve-foot spears” – hyperbolic; an exaggerated view; it looks like a spear to someone who is
intimidated by it; he is scared of the pampas grass.
STANZA 5
“probably all that was needed her was a good pull or shove…overkill” – unneeded power and aggression.
Machinery context: the machine was unnecessary, all the power needed was within the man himself.
“I touched the blur of the blade/ against the….it didn’t exist”- with the slightest touch, the whole part of
the plant never existed; eradicated its existence. Shows the power.
“I dabbed at a stalk that swooned” – “swooned” at him; the view that the plant is in admiration or
adoration of his strength and power.
“I lifted the fringe of the undergrowth, carved at the trunk” – implied sexual assault? Carved being very
aggressive by purposeful and forceful.
“I ripped into the pockets of dark, secret/ warmth”” – the warmth she/the plant had he gained back
for himself. The ‘secret’ is as if he thinks she was hiding it from him to prevent him from accessing it.
The indentation before “warmth” shows how he had to dig and dig and search for it, as if it was hidden
deep within; the plant/woman did not give it up easily, the man struggled to gain it.
STANZA 6
The stanza itself is paradoxical; the man destroys the grass yet he seems to have given it more power to
overthrow him. Industrialism concept: it is paradoxical that man created the industry and machinery but 1.
Wishes to destroy it and 2. The machines won’t allow it: man has lost power over what they created.
“cut and raked, cut and raked” – syntactic parallelism, repetitive and almost angry nature, trying to get
something off his chest.
“size of a manhole cover or barrel lid” – with the potential of shutting him off or powering over him. Or
to use it to hide himself.
“wouldn’t be dug…prized from the earth” – it has no way of coming back to find him and get him.
“the blade became chocked with soil or fouled with weeds” – sense of anger and irritation. Impotent.
What he is trying to destroy and then though he was succeeding at is making a comeback.
“what sliced or split somehow closed and mended/ behind” – every time he cut something apart, he
is giving it the ability to repair itself impossibly. Also, the idea that his isn’t something humans can do.
The indentation or line break before “behind” symbolises exactly this: the rest of the stanza before this
point is him getting ready to fully destroy it, and this point he cuts but the rest of the stanza after this point
shows it mending itself. Mimesis.
“like cutting at water or air with a knife” – impossible and pointless. It does nothing but waste energy.
 “CHAINSAW”-ANALYSIS AND NOTES
“I left it at that” – he destroyed it enough and thought that that would be the end of it, or is he giving up?
STANZA 7
“riding high in its saddle, wearing a new crown” – metaphor; it flourishes nevertheless. It triumphed.
Seems to taunt him. “new” it died and came back, something a human can’t do but nature can.
“corn in Egypt”– biblical reference; allusion- 7 years of famine and 7 years of abundance. The idea that
it will take back exactly what was taken from it. No more, no less. This wins over the man as he takes
more than what he is entitled to.
“midday moon” – anonymous ambiguity; the moon is always there but it is not seen all the time. As if a
warning to say that it will never go away.
STANZA 8
“Back below stairs on its hook, the chainsaw seethed”– personification and sibilance shows a burning
passion and emotion. Readers may feel intimidated. Seethed means to be filled with intense unexpressed
anger. The man has supressed emotions that have built up. The rage returned to its place, defeated. Pissed
off at the lack of self-potency.
“man-made dreams” - oxymoronic so it implies that the dreams are forced desires from himself.
“try to forget” – line break shows that this ‘trying’ only lasts for a short while, after which he returns to
his original state.
“the seamless urge to persist was as far as it got” – seamless means continuity and persist is to continue
doing it. 1. The urge to continue telling himself to forge this desire was as far as it got, he never overcame
them and it never stuck, he eventually returned to those desires; foreshadows a possible future violence. 2.
Or, the urge to go back and get his revenge never stuck, he had the urge but never acted on it, he has
given up because he can’t stop it.
FEATURES
-
STRUCTURE
- Eight stanzas; free verse
- Dramatic monologue; only male persona
- Vary in stanza length; no strict structure
- There is no enjambement between the stanzas which could show a strict sense of control over the
natural form that would flow. A sense of restriction perhaps.
- Since there is no strict structure and varying lengths of stanzas, it could show the unpredictable
nature of the chainsaw, making everything more uneven and fragmented.
MUSIC/PROSODIC FEATURES
- Fricatives: “felt” “flesh” “flare” sounds like the humming of an engine.
- Sibilance and assonance create the impression of a hissing sound and seething in “the seamless…
persist was as far as it got”.
o This is an irregular rhyme scheme that creates a sense of abnormality and uncertainty.
- Hard and plosive consonants create a sense of anger and aggression. E.g. “dismissed”.
TERMINOLOGY
 “CHAINSAW”-ANALYSIS AND NOTES
Personification: “grinding it’s teeth” makes object seem more formidable and powerful. Not only does it
have the qualities of a chainsaw, it also has the added qualities and therefore abilities of a human.
THEMES
Power: the power exhibited by the chainsaw with a potential harm. The grass also shows power, more
subtlely, as it is able to survive. The power of man/machinery and the power of nature.
Masculinity: the anger a man possesses when they aren’t able to be in control.
Violence:
Gender: masculinity vs. femininity. The pampas grass represents stereotypical aspects of women like
desire for attention, preoccupation with appreances etc… The chainsaw presents stereotypical aspects of
men like violent temper, overreaction, not admitting defeat.
Conflict
Nature
LINKS AND CONNECTIONS (TO OTHER POEMS)
- Eat me: GENDER, POWER, VIOLENCE