The identification by Roger Mcgough - An analysis
...ation that each item belongs to Stephen. The horror of the task is revealed in a very matter of fact way – in a question – ‘that mask of charred wood, blistered, scarred, could that have been a child’s face?’ The father has to face the horrific ordeal of identifying his son’s body when the body is actually unrecognisable. The father seems to be quite calm and speaks in a matter of fact way. However, this is a way of protecting himself from the ordeal. He attempts to keep up the pretence of normality and this is a common response to tragedy when someone is in shock. He numbs himself to the task and protects himself by making sure that he is as thorough as possible, that every avenue must be explored before he faces reality, that Stephen is dead – ‘Remove all trace of doubt. Pull out every splinter of hope.’ There is one last spark of hope when cigarettes are found as the father doesn’t believe Stephen would disobey him. It is here that we see how a parent can know very little of their child’s life. The hope is smashed again however by finding the penknife and the keyring. There is finally acceptance of the fact that he is dead but still an unwillingness to believe Stephen would smoke. He blames older boys so as to protect the memory of his son in his mind. IMAGERY: The poet presents the poem through the eyes of the father which makes it hard to bear as we get the image of the ‘blackene...