Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Discuss how poets describe their attitude to place.

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Discuss how poets describe their attitude to place. Poets often write about the place they live in or come from. I am going to examine how poets how poets express their relationship to a particular place while considering their intentions, how thoughts and feelings are expressed, the use of language, connections between different poems and include my personal response. In "Hotel Room, 12th Floor" Norman McCaig is writing about America. We know that he is more precisely writing about New York because he mentions the "Empire State Building" and the "Pan Am skyscraper". We know his place is America because he uses the word "sidewalks" which is essentially an American terminology for a footpath. McCaig is amazed by the technological achievements of the city in "Hotel Room, 12th Floor". He uses the simile "a helicopter skirting like a damaged insect" and the phrases "jumbo sized dentist's drill" and "glittering canyons and gulches" to express the sheer size of the city to reader. ...read more.

Middle

McCaig contrasts the sophisticated modern technology of the city with the Wild West. The Wild West dominates over the technology of the city and the technology of the city is being used as a cover for uncivilised ways. McCaig uses time structure of day and night as contrasts and metaphorically personifies midnight in the phrase "but now midnight has come in" because midnight doesn't literally "come in" as such. The fact that the second stanza begins with "But midnight is not so easily defeated" indicates that despite the technology making places civilised, there is still a native and primitive, uncivilised midnight in us all. The phrases "warwhoops continually ululating", "broken bones", "blood glazed on sidewalks" and "harsh screaming" emphasises the brutality of the frontier. The statement "not so easily defeated" exaggerates the sense that this native reaction is always with us and could be unleashed at any time. ...read more.

Conclusion

He uses a second person pronoun "to you Ireland" then a first person pronoun "my Ireland", yet then goes on to personify his place, Ireland, as "both a bore and a bitch". My Favourite of these poems is "Hotel Room, 12th Floor" because it describes civilisation as it appears and not as it is. We appear to have changed, due to advances in technology, but we haven't, we are still the same savages as before and always will be. The idea of civilisation not existing appeals to me, technology is a cover up of reality, technology is all around us and created by us, but it means nothing in out uncivilised world. the poet feels towards his place. Due to how McCaig describes the violent side of the city, it makes me think that he has a distant relationship with his place. The phrase "Odi Atque Amo" by Louis McNiece defines the poets feelings in this case, it means to be attracted to and repelled by something at the same time. Laura Shearer 5R ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Design and Technology section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level Design and Technology essays

  1. Free essay

    Systems Case Study

    This is all shown and explained below. "These make an effective system when combined with XP, Norton anti-virus and Bulldog programs"- Mr. Paul Stubbs Is the system efficient? Efficiency comes down to how well the system works along with factors like usage, how easy and user friendly it is, and how fast the system e.g.

  2. Jared Diamond versus Charles Mann on the Sophistication of Metalwork in Native America

    time of arrival of the Europeans the "new world societies had just begun making bronze artifacts and had not started making iron" (Diamond 259). Diamond stresses the crudeness of the Incas metalwork and the tools. He then contends that the Incas used metal for "almost nothing useful" (3).

  1. Research in the uses of silicon

    Of growing interest in rock shops, however, are laboratory-grown silicon boules. Most such specimens are end fragments or flawed discards from the integrated circuit industry. Silicon boules are grown (pulled) from a molten state from a seed crystal, in such a way as to produce a single large crystal which

  2. Physics in everyday use: Nympsfield Gliding Club.

    (This relates to Bernoulli's principle.) The now higher pressure beneath pushes the wing upward into the vacuum, creating a lifting force. This lift acts through a point about 1/3 of the distance between the leading and trailing edges of a wing, the point of maximum camber.

  1. The Poem that I am going to talk about in this essay is

    to their own breathing and the fact that you don't normally hear your breathing, the author uses it in the fact that if you cant hear your breathing then you will stop breathing and you will die. I believe that this is an extremely good image to use and it

  2. Nano technology - Screen technology is a fast changing technology area.

    by up to 2 million liquid crystal cells. It then bounces off a reflective surface behind them, through another filter and out into the lounge room. Better than plasma, says the hype. "Great picture quality, excellent colour representation and no visible pixel grid," Philips says.

  1. Technology in American History.

    In today's world a normal day at home would be as follows: Get up, take a shower, make breakfast, wash the clothes, vacuum the carpet, mow the lawn, drive to the grocery, make dinner, wash the dishes, and go to bed.

  2. The Differences and Assimilation of Chinese and American Diet

    Third, sauces made from soy beans are important in Chinese people?s daily life too. It is used to add flavor to all kind things Chinese people eat; it can be made into black bean sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauces.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work