1. An Abortion
Liz Lochhead

2. An Abortion What are the connotations of the title?
What do you expect this poem will be about?

3. Task Two
Summarise the events of the poem and explain the narrator’s involvement.

4. Task Three
Now, give a detailed summary of each stanza.

5. Task Four – Writer’s Message
What impression are we given of the men and their attitude to the cow? Use evidence to support your answer.
How does their attitude contrast with that of the narrator? Use evidence.
Overall, what message do you think the poet is communicating? The final stanza gives a clear indication.

6. Writer’s Message
Men’s attitude to women – women often left alone to deal with ‘women’s issues’ (ie childbirth, abortion, miscarriage), then shamed, judged and condemned by men.
The pain of childbirth and grief of loss. Abortion never explicitly mentioned, but perhaps an idea that abortive mothers still feel pain and loss – don’t deserve to be taken away by the ‘men in blue’.

7. Themes Pain Grief/Loss Attitude to women Compassion (or lack of)
For each of the above themes, find two pieces of evidence.

8. Task Five – Personal Response
What does this poem make you feel? Use evidence.

9. Annotating the Poem
There are a variety of techniques within the poem. Using different coloured highlighters, identify all examples of:
Word choice
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Imagery
Enjambment
Short sentences/sentence structure

10. Textual Analysis
Comment fully on the effectiveness of the following three phrases:
‘her cow-tongue lolled then spiked the sky’
‘neck distended in a Guernica of distress’
‘green foam flecked her muzzle and drizzled between the big bared brown teeth’
‘Spasms, strong, primeval as the pulsing locomotion of some terrible underwater creature’