The Ballad of Calvary Street by James Baxter

The poem ‘The Ballad of Calvary Street’ by James Baxter, the film ‘American Beauty’ (directed by Sam Mendes and released in 1999), and the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ written by J.B. Priestley and performed at Circa Theatre in 2005, are all texts that share a similar theme. Although these three texts are different in terms of authorship and the medium through which the significant messages are communicated, what the texts do have in common is that they all convey ideas about how facades and superficial images of family life only lead to soullessness and domestic disorder. The unique approach that each text takes to this issue heightens the impact of the texts in every case, and allows the discussion of facades to become more pertinent in a time when domestic problems still mar our society.

Baxter’s poem, ‘The Ballad of Calvary Street’, satirises the concept of facades and fake family life by ironically using religious imagery, and by utilising figurative language and clever diction to develop a rounded depiction of the sad characters at the heart of the poem. The poem discusses firstly the trellises that line Calvary Street (an image which conventionally would symbolise happy domestic life), and mentions the flowers that bloom “as bright as blood”. In addition to being an insidious suggestion that there is violence beneath