Laundrette

HOW DOES THE POET CREATE EFFECT BY USUING LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES IN ‘LAUNDRETTE’?

To create effect in the poem ‘laundrette’ the poet Liz Lochead uses a variation of writing technique and language. Throughout this poem there is a semantic field of negativity among the characters described and a theme of inequality between and the rich and the poor the poem has also been written with atone of sourness for first world poverty.

A way in which the poet has done this is through comparison between “big houses” and “bedsits” Liz brings them together for comparison by using alliteration making us think about how dramatically they differentiate. In the way she writes “not a patch on what they were before” could also mean that houses that were once mansions have now been downgraded o bedsits, telling us that the life of the poor (the life of those in the Laundrette) is not a patch on the life of the wealthy that once inhabited the oversized homes.

Another way the poet describes inequality is ’our duds don’t know which way to turn’ this could feasibly be a metaphor to describe the existence of the people in the laundrette- having no control. We can interpret from this that their lack of control and lack of freedom for choice or their life path could form from classism or through their own means of fault- we are left to imagine and to decide. This also helps us realise why this poem is laced with sadness, sourness and melancholy.

The people in this poem are rarely depicted as joyous. Whilst in the laundrette the people “stuff the tub, jam money in the slot” which are aggressive and frustrated movements, making us believe they’re taking out their anger at the world. But truly, what are they aggressive about? And frustrated about?