SIMON:I just caught the tail-end of punk rock when it all kicked off in 1977. And, you know, when you're that age, things that are offensive and anarchic are very exciting. But the poem, The Clown Punk, is set 25 years later. The speaker in the poem bumps into a punk from that era, who's still wearing all the trappings of punk rock, including lots of tattoos.
SIMON:Driving home through the shonky side of town, three times out of ten you'll see the town clown. Like a basket of washing that got up and walked, towing a dog on a rope. But don't laugh. Every pixel of that man's skin is shot through with indelible ink. As he steps out at the traffic lights, think what he'll look like in 30 years’ time. The deflated face and shrunken scalp, still daubed with the sad tattoos of high punk. You kids in the backseat who wince and scream, when he slathers his daft mush on the windscreen. Remember the clown punk with his dyed brain, then picture windscreen wipers, and let it rain.
SIMON:I think the poem is a very visual poem, especially when it's describing the punk.
SIMON:I've gotta ask, does that hurt?
Yeah.I can't tell lies.
SIMON:It's the language of ink, and dyes. The word pixel is also used, and I think that modernises the speaker. He's kind of entered the digital age, really, whereas the punk is still trapped in the age of pen and ink.
SIMON:You guys are too young to remember, but I grew up in the punk age and that was the thing then, if you were a punk, you had a tattoo. Would you have a face tattoo?
Nah, don't think I'd go that far. Never been that daft.
SIMON:There is a tradition of this kind of poem in English literature, where two apparently very different people encounter each other. I might have been thinking a little bit about Shelley's poem, Ozymandias, where a carved head is found in a desert some old ruler of an ancient land, and the person in the poem is explaining how time has passed and, and left him marooned, an object of a bygone era. I suppose the punk in the poem is a little bit like that.
SIMON:Remember the clown punk with his dyed brain, then picture windscreen wipers, and let it rain.
SIMON:On first reading, you might feel that the Clown Punk is very much the one with the tattoos and earrings who's out on the street. I think I'm inviting you to wonder whether or not the man in the car might also be a clown punk of some kind, because he's the one who's betrayed his ideals. He's the person who's become separated from the thing he really believed in.
Simon Armitage reads his poem ‘The Clown Punk’ and analyses the themes, ideas and language it contains.
The film includes a visualisation of the encounter between the poet and an ageing punk that lies at the centre of the poem, along with archive footage of the punk era and a modern-day visit to a tattoo parlour.
Key words and phrases are picked out.
He considers the theme of the passage of time and how this type of encounter poem is a familiar trope in English literature, making reference to Shelley’s ‘Ozymandius’.
This clip is from the series Simon Armitage: Writing Poems.
Teacher Notes
Can be used to explore the use of tone in poetry.
For much of the poem the tone seems dismissive and derogatory of others, but students are asked to consider if this is the whole story. Is this angry tone only directed at the punk?
Which words or phrases betray the tone to us?
What is the over-reaching tone of the poem and why has Armitage chosen this?
How can the poem be considered an 'exploration of the passage of time'?
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching English Literature.
It will be relevant for teaching poetry analysis at KS3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Level 3 in Scotland.
This clip could also be used for teaching general poetry analytics skills at KS4/GCSE/National 5.
