In the poems 'Jac Codi Baw' and 'East Moors' Gillian Clarke writes about the demolition of particular buildings and is able to create a strong sense of place. Write about each poem and explore the effect the events have on individuals and the community.
In the poems 'Jac Codi Baw' and 'East Moors' Gillian Clarke writes about the demolition of particular buildings and is able to create a strong sense of place. Write about each poem and explore the effect the events have on individuals and the community.
Gillian Clarke is a female poet. She was born in Cardiff in 1937. She is one of the most popular Welsh poets of today. I will be looking at two poems, which are both written by Gillian Clarke, they are 'Jac Codi Baw' and 'East Moors'. Both of these poems describe the demolition of a building, in each poem Clarke explores the effects the events have on individuals and the community.
In the poem 'Jac Codi Baw' Clarke describes an incident in her life. The title itself is Welsh and it literally means 'Jack raises the dirt'. People started using this phrase as a nickname for the massive earth-moving machine, which has the letters J.C.B.
This particular poem is about the destruction of a building. The overall theme of this poem is 'change' and Clarke carefully describes her reaction to this change. In this poem Clarke shows a lot of emotions, her anger and hatred to the people that were in charge of the demolition of this building and her shock at how quickly it was torn down.
Overall the poet deals with transience, which is the passing of time. In the first stanza Clarke describes how fast the demolition was and in the second stanza Clarke describes how the J.C.B driver does not care and how we are the ones who are killing buildings. The building is symbolic, because the buildings are a piece of history and they are part of our lives. She makes this clear by saying 'Blood on our hands' which makes us think that we have committed murder.
The building is valuable to her as she is Welsh and so is the building. She takes it very personally, by saying 'Inside the car dust lies, grit in my eyes, in my hair' by saying this Clarke draws my attention to the fact that the building is ruined, and so is she, she gives the impression that she likes the old Wales as it is and doesn't want it to change, she shows this by saying 'the handwriting of a city will be erased' by this phrase Clarke means the structure of the place, all the buildings side by side are the handwriting of the City but by demolishing a building the hand writing of the City is being erased. The building is a piece of this cities history and identity.
Clarke writes her poem in such a way that it seems like the building that was demolished is alive, by using personification, for example, 'windows blind with boarding' Clarke used this phrase to make the reader think that the building is a person or individual and she says,'blood, smoky with ghosts, which suggests that the building is old and haunted, but its alive.
Clarke is shocked by this dramatic change because she goes shopping and by the time she comes back she is amazed to see the building she parked her car next to has turned to a pile of bricks and wood, she says 'they have torn down in the space of time it takes to fill a shopping bag' this shows us how fast it took to demolish this building, and this tells us how easy it was to erase the cities hand writing. Clarke doesn't mind natural change of the building by the weather and by age, she says ' we are used to the slow change that weather brings, the gradual death of a generation, old bricks crumbling' it is like us killing the old people because they are the old generation and they have gone crumbly and they are of no use to us, but she is astonished to see the destruction of this building.
The first sentence in the second stanza is 'He doesn't care' which strikes me, the reader. Here Clarke is talking about the J.C.B driver and how he doesn't care about the demolition of the building. It is just his job, he was told to do it and nobody can stop him. It is a normal everyday thing to him; 'It's a joke to him' by using this phrase Clarke shows how the J.C.B driver has a complete opposite feelings to her. She is very angry at what has happened, but he is simply finding it as a joke. ...
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The first sentence in the second stanza is 'He doesn't care' which strikes me, the reader. Here Clarke is talking about the J.C.B driver and how he doesn't care about the demolition of the building. It is just his job, he was told to do it and nobody can stop him. It is a normal everyday thing to him; 'It's a joke to him' by using this phrase Clarke shows how the J.C.B driver has a complete opposite feelings to her. She is very angry at what has happened, but he is simply finding it as a joke. Clarke describes the J.C.B driver as being in his 'yellow machine, cat-calling, laughing at my grief' by using the word yellow she emphasises cheerfulness, this reflects the J.C.B driver's mood as being happy because of what he is doing. Clarke uses the words 'cat-calling' this is about the machine and this is personification of the machine, the machine is cat-calling. By using these words she means the noise the machine is making as it lifts its trunk up and down, this movement also looks like a person laughing, and so the machine looks like its laughing at her grief. This part of the sentence is also personification because the machine looks like a laughing person.
One of the phrases that Clarke uses in this poem stands out, she says 'I can't laugh' this is an unexpected phrase and it makes the event sound personal to her. Clarke ends the poem by saying 'Bloods on our hands' she uses this distinctive phrase, which really stands out and it really draws the readers attention. It's kind of a summary of her feelings. This phrase has indirect personification, personifying the building, making it sound like a person and we killed it so we have blood on our hands.
When I read the phrase 'smoky with ghosts' I imagine smoke coming out of the demolished building and ghosts rising from the dirt and flying away from the ruins, going to find another old building to haunt.
The overall tone of this poem is depressing, unhappy and melancholic to both the reader and to Clarke the one that experienced this sad event that caused her to write this poem. It is like the ghost of the building has gone to heaven because the building has been killed. The character of the building has been destroyed.
The overall tone of this poem is depressing, unhappy and melancholic to both Clarke and the reader. Clarke writes the poem in such a way that she puts you in her position and she makes you feel the same way she does.
The second poem that I am going to be looking at is called 'East Moor'. This poem also describes an incident in the poet's life. East Moors was a steelworks that could be seen from Cardiff if you looked out towards the 'two blue islands beyond the city'. The two blue islands are Flatholm and Steepholm
This poem is very similar to 'Jac Codi Baw' as it reports the demolition of East Moors Steelworks and in the poem Clarke explains the effect the demolition has on individuals and the community.
Just like the poem that I studied above the poet deals with transience. In this poem Clarke deals with change and she uses juxtaposition to explore and describe the positive and negative changes to the area after the demolition of the steelworks.
Clarke doesn't really express her emotions in this poem, but she simply defines the changes this demolition brings to the area.
The first stanza is all about change, but the second stanza shows that things are staying the same, which is completely opposite to the first stanza. The third and the sixth stanza deal with the consequences of the change. But the fourth and the fifth stanza outline the time of the demolition. She provides almost a commentary on the event.
The poet starts the poem by saying 'At the end of a bitter April' Clarke uses the word 'bitter', this is an unusual adjective she uses to characterize April, she has noticeably used it on purpose, because by using this adjective Clarke is pointing out that something has went wrong win April. It is unusual to be bitter in April but Clarke is actually trying to reflect the mood of this month and she is showing that something is not right. When Clarke uses 'bitter' in her phrase it has two meanings, therefore it's a pun, and it could mean that April's cold or the second meaning is that it's reflecting the mood of the miserable people in the community.
This poem is extremely detailed and has many poetic devices, for example it has a lot of personification. Clarke uses this device on the last line of the first verse, when she says 'Where the steelworks used to smoke' the steelworks obviously don't actually smoke, but when its working smoke comes out of the chimney, so Clarke personifies the steelworks and says that its smoking. Also Clarke says that the steelworks 'used to smoke' implying that it was in the past and now they don't smoke because they are not there any more.
This poem defines a fight between nature and industry 'The cherries flower at last in Penylan' this phrase is telling us that Cherrie blossoms finally grow after the steelworks was torn down. They couldn't grow before because of the polluted air from the steelworks. By saying this Clarke is showing us the advantages of the destruction of the steelworks, it is a much more pleasant and more natural place, she creates the same impression when she says 'In Roath and Rumney now, washing strung down the narrow gardens will stay clean' and once again here Clarke is trying to show the advantages of the destruction of the steelworks, which now leaves the air unpolluted, and for a change the washing stays clean and there is no sulphur smell in them. At the beginning of this phrase Clarke uses two typical Welsh names 'Roath and Rumney' this is to make sure that the reader knows that it is the Welsh people that are going through this pain. This poem links to her other poem as she reflects on Welsh life and issues.
I really like the phrase 'the smell of sulphurs almost natural' I love the way Clarke has worded this sentence and it makes me want to read it again and again. This phrase is a pun, so it has two meanings. The first meaning is that she is trying to tell us that she is used to the smell of sulphur that comes from the steelworks so much that its almost a natural smell to her. The other meaning is that she contrasts between nature and industry.
Now that the steelworks have gone, there is high unemployment in the area and the men are sitting at home, and so their wives have asked them to do some chores around the house. 'Lethargy settles in front rooms and wives have lined up little jobs for men to do' Clarke uses the word 'Lethargy settles' and by this she means that the men are tired and they can not be bothered because they are unhappy and depressed because they have lost their job. The men feel that they have lost their family role because the man of the house is meant to bring the money for the family, but no work means no money, this is a disadvantage that came from the destruction of the steelworks.
Then Clarke writes a phrase on its own and she wants it to stand out and wants everyone to know that 'At East Moors they closed the steelworks down' Clarke writes this noticeable phrase on its own because she wants the reader to understand the bad effects this event had on individuals and the community, this shows that not all the changes are for the better.
Another poetic device Clarke uses is repetition, for example, 'bitter April' from the first stanza and 'bitterest time' from the second stanza; she does this to make the poem memorable. Clarke uses the same word, but in different context. Clarke does this to emphasis the bead time that everyone was going through.
As I said earlier the fourth stanza outlines the time of the demolition, as a few men stay to see it through, they watched the steelworks get torn down and Clarke describes it as 'Theirs the bitterest time' by saying this, Clarke is showing how the men are prolonging their agony by seeing the steelworks last moment alive. They watched their happy memories get torn down with the steelworks.
In this poem Clarke makes it sound like the steelworks were forced to die, by saying 'Demolition gangs erase skylines' this seems like, gangs of fierce men on their tractors came to beat the steelworks down. It sounds like these 'gangs' are in charge and they are doing something against the law, but they do not care, they are determined to finish the job. Clarke says 'erase skylines' Clarke means that because the steelworks is tall, it is a line in the horizon and by demolishing the steelworks that line in the horizon will change.
When the steelworks was torn down, it seems like the workers memories and history were berried underneath the rubble of the torn down steelworks, Clarke makes this clear by saying 'whose hieroglyphs recorded all our stories', this phrase suggests that the steelworks was destroyed and so was the workers history, their happy and sad memories and the place they earned their living, it was all gone in a few minutes.
Clarke makes it seem like the steelworks has been standing in its place for such a long time, generations have come and gone but the steelworks is still there. This is true because men saw the steelworks get built and children saw it get blown up 'recalling the appalling void in the sunshine like a death' by using this simile Clarke gives the impression that now the high steelworks has gone the sun can now shine through. It is also a physical and emotional experience.
In this poem Clarke uses pathetic fallacy, to show the people's mood 'icy rain is blowing through this town', this is reflecting the Welsh peoples suffering. Another poetic device that Clarke uses is alliteration 'quieter, cleaner, poorer' for all of these words she uses 'er' on the end of each one, these words are called comparatives, Clarke uses this device to make the poem more memorable and to emphasis the impact the demolition has in the area.
Another area of the poem where Clarke uses personification is on the last line, were she says 'Already over East Moors the sky whitnes, blind' she uses the word 'blind' to give the impression that nothing is there any more, because the steelworks has gone and that everything has been wiped away.
As the theme of this poem is very similar to the theme of 'Jac Codi Baw', its melancholic, but for the event of this poem there are advantages and disadvantages so the tone of this poem is not only sad unhappy but also nostalgic.
I will now compare the two poems. In my opinion the poems 'Jac Codi Baw' and 'East Moors' are very similar, because they both describe an incident in the poet's life and in both poems the incident is the demolition of a building, but the buildings have a lot of differences. In 'Jac Codi Baw' it are the demolition of an old abandoned house but in 'East Moors' it are the steelworks, where people worked and earned their livings. In both of the poems Clarke mentions something about erasing of buildings, in 'Jac Codi Baw' she says ' the handwriting of a city will be erased' in 'East Moors' Clarke says 'erase skylines' by doing this we can see the similarities between the poems. Clarke also mentions the word death in both poems. This is an unusual word to use for the destruction of a building, but it gives the building human characters and by using this word Clarke show that the destruction of this building is like the death of something personal to the people of the community, therefore it shows how sad the people are. Also in both of the poems, Clarke describes the people that demolished the buildings, in 'Jac Codi Baw' she says 'in yellow machine' by saying this Clarke means the driver of the big J.C.B machine. By using the adjective 'yellow' Clarke explains to use that the J.C.B driver is happy doing his job. In 'East Moors' she says 'Demolition gangs', this is very sinister.
In both poems Clarke uses personification, but in 'East Moors' Clarke uses more poetic devices, for example, alliteration and pathetic fallacy. In both of the poems the poet is the one who experienced the events and she is recalling it all by writing the poems. In 'Jac Codi Baw' Clarke expresses her anger at the J.C.B driver for demolishing the building. In 'East Moors' Clarke doesn't really express her feelings, but she defines the advantages and the disadvantages of the demolition of the steelworks. By doing this Clarke shows us the slight differences. Another difference is that in 'Jac Codi Baw' only the poet is affected, but in 'East Moors' the whole community is affected, because men lose their jobs and their family role, but the community is affected in good ways, for example, there is no more pollution, no more sulphur smell, clean washing and Cherrie blossoms can now grow.
I find the images that the poem 'East Moors' creates in my mind are more interesting than the images 'Jac Codi Baw' creates in my mind, for example, 'the sudden glow of flame in the night sky', 'Demolition gangs' and 'icy rain is blowing through this town' in all these phrases that Clarke uses she makes me feel that I am in her position and that I am really experiencing this event. These types of phrases draw the readers attention, making pictures appear in the readers mind, which makes the poem more effective and making it stand out.