By Andrew, Natasha and Mairead S. Nil Nil

Beginning

First story – Part 1

First story – Part 2

Second story

Third story

Ending

Themes Fate In the final story fate is one of the main themes. “yesterday having been April the 1st” suggests bad luck and relates to the fate of the pilot. The plane crash was an unfortunate event. Duality The first and second story in the poem shows a game of two halves. The title in its self implies the theme of duality and it coveys the idea of there being no winners and no losers.

Themes Meaningless of existence Change Starts off from “The Zenith” , the highest point, to the football team dropping down to the bottom leagues. The games of 30 a-side eventually just between two boys. The pilot is living and then dies. Meaningless of existence No matter how hard we try our successes will always become insignificant. This is shown especially after the pilot returns from war but only to die in his own country. He goes on in to the “failing light” which suggests that it is juts going to get worse from then on.

Areas of comparison Ferryman’s Arms 11:00 BALDOVAN Both poems share the theme of duality: the ferryman’s arms is a snooker game played by only himself and in Nil Nil, the score is 0-0 which shows there’s no winners or losers Contrast: In the ferryman’s arms, it starts off with a snooker game which ends up exploring the theme of Death. In Nil Nil, it starts off with a football game which eventually ends up with a fighter pilot’s death. Theme of Change: both of them start with a usual situation which changes to a more serious situation