Wild Grapes

The old orchard, full of smoking air,
Full of sour marsh and broken boughs, is there,
But kept no more by vanished Mulligans,
Or Hartigans, long drowned in earth themselves,
Who gave this bitter fruit their care.

Here's where the cherries grew that birds forgot,
And apples bright as dogstars; now there is not
An apple or a cherry; only grapes,
But wild ones, Isabella grapes they're called,
Small, pointed, black, like boughs of musket-shot.

Eating their flesh, half-savage with black fur.
Acid and gipsy-sweet, I thought of her,
Isabella, the dead girl, who has lingered on
Defiantly when all have gone away,
In an old orchard where swallows never stir.

Isabella grapes, outlaws of a strange bough,
That in their harsh sweetness remind me somehow
Of dark hair swinging and silver pins,
A girl half-fierce, half-melting, as these grapes,
Kissed here –-- or killed here –-- but who remembers now?

• Orchard: a piece of enclosed land planted with fruit trees.
• Marsh: an area of low-lying land which is flooded in wet seasons, and typically remains waterlogged at all times
• Boughs: a main branch of a tree
• Mulligans/Hartigans: Traditional Irish surnames. We can assume Slessor means that they once tendered the orchard.
• Dogstars: is the brightest star in the sky at night (a colloquial name for Sirius).
• Musket: Type of gun. Slessor uses a simile to compare the grapes to a bullet.
• Gipsy: a free-spirited person, who doesn't live in one place.
• Defiantly: boldly disobey
• Swallow: is a small type of bird that mate for life and return to the same place to nest each year. Therefore, something bad must have happened for them to abandon their nest.

Access poem annotations here

These may help you address some of the following questions:

Explain the meaning of the title of the poem. What, at first, does it suggest about the mood and subject of the poem?

Explain the first impression we get of the orchard. What type of language is used to describe it?

Explain how the phrase 'bitter fruit' is used both literally and metaphorically.

Explain effect of the simile used in line 10 ("small, pointed, black, like boughs of musket-shot")

Why might Slessor have chosen to describe the orchard as a place "where swallows never stir"?

Slessor describes the grapes as having a "harsh sweetness" what is this an example of?

Identify the use of repetition in the last two lines and explain its impact.

Explain your interpretation of the final verse. What ideas does it suggest?

SHARED, ONLINE MATRIX

Use the information you've gathered responded to the Guiding Questions to complete a shared, online, ALARM Matrix. Please be considerate of others when using this method; used correctly it is a valuable way to share and improve knowledge. Fill in the gaps where possible to make it a more effective collection tool. 

Use the information gathered to respond to the following question(s):

You should respond to these questions using a formal, essay style. Consider one of these scaffolds to help structure the paragraphs in your response. 

 Remembering that Slessor’s earlier poems were more reflective of the Romantic style of writing, how might ‘Wild Grapes’ show that Slessor had matured and chosen a different style of writing?

How do the ideas in this poem fit in with Slessor's reoccurring ideas of life, death and time? Use other poems to support your response.

How does Slessor's personal context impact upon a reading of his poems? In what way is this altered by a modern context?