The poem The 5th of November is about an anarchist and terrorist trying to topple the British government. The poem addresses social issues of feelings of dissatisfaction with someone’s own government. The narrator of the poem is the anarchist that wishes to perform these acts of terrorism. The poem was written in 1870 so one is to assume that the timeframe for this is also 1870. The words of the poem appears to be free of cliches and concrete in its meaning. The poem has a serious tone in the beginning, and in the latter half of it switches to a sarcastic telling of how much the narrator loves the King and political situation of Britain.

Picture Choice

1. The main focus of this poem is remembering the 5th of November, and since this poem is quite literal I wanted to find a literal representation
2. In Historical context this particular gunpowder plot involved putting “threescore” barrels below so we wanted to find a basement filled with barrels of gunpowder to show the extent of this plot
3. The Author believes that the event is so significant to history that he can literally not think of any reason to forget that the event happened
4. The now infamous hacker group Anonymous uses the Guy Fawkes mask as a way to seem like a giant group of the same person, this is what Guy and his group of anarchists did back in the 1600’s and we wanted to show that
5. The plan that Guy Fawkes and his group came up with was so outlandish and almost impossible to succeed we thought the only way to convey that was a Bond villain looking person scheming
6. The plot to overthrow the government was a very simple and emphatic plan, which was to blow up the British House of Commons, and House of Lords and we just wanted to show what that might look like
7. With the amount of gunpowder they had hidden under the parliament, it wouldn’t have looked as bad as this nuclear mushroom cloud but it would’ve been pretty close
8. As we stated earlier the plot to destroy parliament was hoped to be achieved using threescore (30) barrels of gunpowder and this is a modern day representation of what the basement of parliament looked like all those years ago
9. The anarchists wanted to prove that England was old, out of date, corrupt and inert, and they thought blowing it up would do that, this is what the town square adjacent to parliament would’ve looked like back in 1605
10. As they were Catholic they believed that most of their life and the decisions and things that happened in it were all a result of god, and so they believe that god is punishing them for being violent by getting caught, the mugshot is just the most stereotypical image we think of when we think arrest so that’s why we picked it
11. This is the point in the story after they are caught where Guy Fawkes himself starts talking about his process of Punishment and what happened to him, started with them lighting a match with an old lantern
12. Next it tells of how they start tying Guy Fawkes to the stake and light in on fire, thus burning him at the stake, the picture is from a different trial but it would look similar
13. When they say “ for King James sake” this is referring to King James I as he was the first Protestant king of Great Britain and was the main cause of the “corrupt” government, as a result the burners, say that his death was for the King’s Sake, the picture being an image of King James
14. Guy then says, while he is being burned, that if the British government won’t give him one half of the legislative branch of government (the House of Commons) he’ll take both of them( being the Commons as well as the House of Lords) the image showing the act of stealing 2 instead of taking the one the refuse to give him
15. Guy is saying that this will end being worse for the government (which he’s right about), this is represented by the ripe fruit
16. Guy continues his statement form earlier and now is saying that government not giving him 1 will actually end up better for him as well as worse for the government (which he is again right about), which is represented by the rotten fruit
17. This part of the poem is again the author talking to the British people again, this time in the 1870’s, when the poem was written, The noose shows the fact that the Protestant church and the Protestant government wanted to hang the pope and kill him as he is the highest ranking member of the Catholic Church
18. The author is now mocking the Protestant leaders, who were actually mocking the popes extensions riches and wealth by saying that they will feed him well before they hang him
19. The beer was symbolic as it was a very rich and have people drink, the pope being the most have at the time and the government being opposed to that was using as a crown of thorns of sorts
20. Even after they hang the pope for a while after this on November 5th they would burn Guy Fawkes and Catholic effigies as a way of remembrance and sign of the dominance of Protestantism in England
21. Often in England when there is a celebration the bells on Big Ben would ring and as the government viewed thwarting this plot as a success, they rung the bells every year for the next 250 years, these are some of the old bells from and old clock tower in London
22. The national anthem of Britain is God save the … so they sang this a lot as you can imagine as the government viewed this as a hug proud moment
23. Finally, as I’ve said it was a big celebration and there were government sponsored celebrations in order to commemorate it until the 1880’s

Music Choice

The music matches the explosive tempo of the poem as well its been featured in the movie that was made based on this poem

Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Guy Fawkes and his companions
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive.
Threescore barrels, laid below,
To prove old England’s overthrow.
But, by God’s providence, him they catch,
With a dark lantern, lighting a match!
A stick and a stake
For King James’s sake!
If you won’t give me one,
I’ll take two,
The better for me,
And the worse for you.
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,
A penn’orth of cheese to choke him,
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a jolly good fire to burn him.
Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!
Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!
Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!