GEORDIE

Starting from the title, the reader may expect the poem to deal with a man, maybe someone who has to face some difficulties.

Taking into consideration the layout, the reader can understand this text is a poem because it is organised by the use of punctuation in seven stanzas with four lines each.

Moreover every stanza begins with a capitol letter and there are some lines repeated as “O, my Geordie”, “Go brindle me my” and “Stole sixteen of the Kings' royal deer and he sold them in Bohenny”.

Another important aspect to highlight is the use of direct and reported speech.

This poem focuses on the girl's lament, talking about her man who is going to be hanged.

In the first stanza the speaking voice is a man walking over London Bridge who hears the girl's monologue.

From the second stanza until the last one the main subject discussed is Geordie's fate, between death and life.

Between the first and the fourth stanza there is a setting change: in the first one the location used is London Bridge but in the second one the speech is taking place in front of the London's Court.

The first stanza is used to introduce the girl's monologue and to give the poem a setting: it takes place in the past, because of the use of Simple Past and Past Progressive, over the London's Bridge, as it is said in the first line.

The second stanza is a direct speech of the girl saying she's proud of her Geordie because “he was born from King's royal breed” and he will be hanged with a golden chain that isn't used for many people, but only for the more important ones and even if he was a rich man he felt in love with her ad he left everything for her love.

The next stanza opens with a prayer from the maid and the reader can understand this from the use of Imperative and words with long vowels that sounds as a vocation. In the last lines of the third stanza she reports her desire to go to London's Court to plead for Geordie's life.

In the fourth stanza, where there is the setting change, the girl is talking in front of the court and she's trying to describe his man as someone who had never done anything wrong, except when he stole sixteen of the King's deers. It looks like between the second and the third line there's a separation, highlighted from the punctuation and the use of the words “O Geordie” and “Stole”, that have long vowels and they make the reader slowing down and stopping between the two parts: in the first one the maid talks about Geordie's innocence and in the second one she tells the court about the only crime he had committed.

In the following stanza the woman tries to save her man's life by giving one of her children. The tone used in this four lines is at the same time medieval and contemporary because it talks about a topic very discussed nowadays: how some mothers behave with their children, treating them as merchandise to get something back as the maid in the poem.

The sixth stanza changes another time the speaking voice that from the girl moves to the judge.

There is also a reported speech and a direct one used along the stanza.

At the beginning the judge looks over his shoulder as to see Geordie in chains and then he answers to the maid's request saying he can't leave him free.

The judge repeats the words “Fair maid” as to catch her attention on his sentence and to try to comfort her for the loss she has to face.

The last stanza of the poem is the same as the second one: it's a direct monologue of the girl after Geordie's sentence. It seems to the reader that the woman doesn't want to accept the judge's decision and she tries to look for something that can make her feeling better as the fact that Geordie was probably one of the King's sons or grandchildren and he fell in love with her.

In conclusion, the poem is a representation of what the convicted mens' wives felt when they lost their men. They tried to save them in every way, even by giving their children away.

They had the strength to fight against many obstacles and difficulties, they didn't want to leave anything unturned.

But, at the end, they had to face the reality even if they didn't want to accept it.