Literature in English (0475) | Liz Lochhead, ‘Storyteller’

Storyteller by Liz Lochhead: Comprehensive IGCSE Study Notes

Welcome! In this chapter, we’re diving into Liz Lochhead’s powerful poem, ‘Storyteller’. This poem explores the universal struggle of finding the right words to express deep, personal truths. It’s an essential text for understanding how poets use everyday language and imagery to tackle big ideas like identity, memory, and artistic frustration. Don’t worry if the poem feels complicated at first—we will break it down piece by piece!

Remember: Your goal is not just to understand what the poem says, but to appreciate how Lochhead uses language to make you feel and think.

1. Understanding the Poem (AO1: Content Knowledge)

‘Storyteller’ is a confessional poem—meaning it feels like a personal conversation—where the speaker laments the difficulty of translating genuine experience into an articulate story or piece of art.

Quick Summary: What Happens?

• The speaker feels that there is a profound, important story inside them ("there’s a story there all right").
• However, the act of telling it is incredibly difficult; the words won't come out right or the moment to speak has passed.
• Lochhead contrasts the ideal, beautiful story with the messy, frustrating reality of daily life, often centered around domestic settings (like the kitchen).
• The core tension is between feeling something deeply and expressing that feeling successfully.

Analogy for Understanding: Imagine you are trying to describe the best dream you ever had. You know exactly how magical it felt, but when you try to tell someone, the words sound flat and disappointing. That’s the frustration the ‘Storyteller’ faces.

Key Takeaway (AO1)

The poem describes the speaker's internal struggle to move from personal experience (memory, feeling) to external articulation (story, art). This inability to speak creates tension and regret.

2. Exploring Major Themes (AO2: Understanding)

The themes in ‘Storyteller’ are central to achieving higher marks. They deal with universal human concerns.

A. The Struggle for Voice and Self-Expression

This is the most crucial theme. The speaker feels that their story, which is their true self, is trapped or hidden. The poem asks: how do we convey our authentic selves when language limits us?

• The story is often described as something missed or lost, suggesting regret over not speaking up when the time was right.
• The repetition of the phrase "there’s a story there all right" shows the speaker is certain of the content, but blocked on the method.

B. Gender and Societal Constraints

Lochhead is known for exploring the lives of women, particularly in the domestic sphere. The location of the speaker's frustration is often domestic (kitchens, waiting).

• The struggle for the female speaker to be a "Storyteller" suggests that women's stories are often overlooked or considered less important than grand, historical narratives.
• There is an implication that women are expected to be listeners or performers of routine tasks (like tidying the kitchen), rather than powerful, independent artists.

C. The Nature of Art and Memory

The poem differentiates between raw experience (memory) and polished art (story). A story requires structure and form, which can sometimes betray the authenticity of the original feeling.

Did you know? Liz Lochhead is a Scottish poet and playwright. Her work often features a very strong, distinctive, and often humorous female voice, challenging traditional views of women in art.

3. Writer's Methods and Language (AO3: Analysis)

Lochhead achieves her effects through careful use of diction (word choice), form, and imagery.

A. Form and Structure

‘Storyteller’ is written in free verse, which means it doesn't follow a strict rhythm or rhyme scheme. This choice is deliberate:

• Conversational Tone: Free verse makes the poem sound like the speaker is thinking aloud or talking to a close friend, enhancing the feeling of intimacy and honesty.
• Short Stanzas: The poem is broken into many small, irregular stanzas, often just couplets (two lines). This fragmentation mimics the speaker’s own broken concentration and difficulty in stringing together a cohesive narrative. It feels jerky and frustrated.

B. Imagery: The Contrast between Domesticity and Art

Lochhead frequently uses images of common, unglamorous household items to show how the grand act of storytelling clashes with real life.

• Example: References to "kitchen cloths" and "tidying the room" bring the grand idea of 'Art' crashing down to earth. The speaker is distracted by everyday chores, symbolizing how responsibilities can stifle creativity.
• The Story as a Physical Object: The story is often personified or materialized, making its capture seem like a physical task: it’s something you must "seize" or that is "lurking". This emphasizes the struggle involved.

C. Diction and Tone

• Colloquial Language: Lochhead uses very simple, conversational language (e.g., "all right," "a kind of ache"). This makes the poem incredibly accessible and reinforces the personal, intimate tone.
• Enjambment and Caesura: Look out for lines that run over (enjambment) or pauses mid-line (caesura, often marked by commas or dashes). These techniques mimic the hesitation, flow, and interruptions of real speech. The speaker often stops and restarts, showing the fragmented nature of her attempt to tell the story.

Memory Trick (AO3): Think of the poem's structure like a faulty microphone: it cuts in and out, reflecting how the speaker's thoughts and voice are constantly interrupted.

4. Detailed Line Analysis and Key Quotations

To demonstrate AO1 (Knowledge) and AO3 (Method), you must use specific quotes and analyze the effect of key words.

Quotation 1: "The tale's there all right, but the tongue's/not right for the story, and the story's not right for the tongue."

Analysis: This is a powerful expression of frustration. It uses chiasmus (a mirroring structure: A-B, B-A) to show a perfect deadlock. It’s not just that the speaker can't talk (the tongue is wrong), but that the story itself resists being contained by language. It’s a double failure.

Quotation 2: "the wordless story/the unbegun and unendable one."

Analysis: The use of negative prefixes (wordless, unbegun, unendable) emphasizes the story's inaccessible, eternal quality. It’s too big and profound for a simple beginning, middle, and end, highlighting the difference between a raw memory and a neat, packaged narrative.

Quotation 3: "I never could shut up, and I never could speak."

Analysis: This is an apparent contradiction (a paradox). It perfectly captures the agony of the Storyteller: she talks constantly about trivial things (can't shut up), but she cannot articulate the important, true things (can't speak). This shows her true voice is locked away.

5. Generating an Informed Personal Response (AO4)

The syllabus requires you to communicate an informed personal response. This means connecting the poet’s methods (AO3) and themes (AO2) to your own understanding of human experience.

How to approach AO4:

1. Identify the Emotion: How does the poem make you feel? (Frustrated? Sympathetic? Understood?)
2. Relate it to the Universal: Do you feel sympathy for the storyteller's situation? Why does this struggle matter to people today?

The power of 'Storyteller' lies in its honesty. Lochhead takes an internal, abstract problem—writer’s block or suppressed identity—and makes it concrete. We appreciate how bravely she articulates the very feeling of not being able to articulate.

Common Mistake to Avoid: Don't just say, "I liked the poem because it was sad." Instead, say: "The poem effectively evokes a sense of deep regret and frustration through the fragmented structure and the powerful metaphor of the 'unbegun story,' prompting the reader to reflect on their own unsaid experiences."