Harmonium, Simon Armitage

The narrator heads to church to pick up a church organ.

The class decided that it was the narrator and his father.The poem looks at how time has affected the organ and his father.

The poem is written in free verse and much of the language is unromantic. The effects of time are described through the damage to the organ.

The make of the harmonium and the place are given; this adds a sense of reality to the poem. Onomatopoeia is used when describing the sound of the harmonium.

The poem uses a pun and internal rhyme to show the father and his  dark humour. Some of you suggested that the father may be ill; 'the dottled thumbs'.


The harmonium is personified. Humour is used but the poem is bleak; the father joke about his own death. There is a sense of awkwardness, the narrator doesn't respond to the 'joke'.

Repetition emphasises the passing of time.

Much of the poem uses ordinary language, therefore line 17 stands out.

The poem deals with family relationships; Nettles could be used for comparison.