Compare and contrast the poems 'Brendon Gallacher' and 'Yellow' in terms of language, ideas and imagery.

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COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE POEMS 'BRENDON GALLACHER' AND 'YELLOW' IN TERMS OF LANGUAGE, IDEAS AND IMAGERY

Jackie Kay wrote both the two poems 'Brendon Gallacher' and 'Yellow'. The two poems give many ideas about family relationship. They are also giving an autobiographical view of Jackie Kay's experiences in childhood although the two poems contain a different perspective of her childhood and family relationship. The ideas of family relationship become narrowed down to intimate relationships such as mother-daughter or father-daughter relationships.

The two poems reveal problems in her childhood through ideas such as freedom. In 'Yellow', Jackie Kay uses imagery of birds to convey freedom. The poem 'Brendon Gallacher' tells of Jackie Kay having an imaginary friend. This tells us there may have been difficulties in her childhood and to escape these she would think about other things that would make her forget these problems.

Both poems contain a lot of language, in particular personification. The language is very strong in both poems. In the poem 'Yellow', the idea of freedom is frequently shown through the language in the poem. The first example is, 'the yellow bird I the birdcage is let out'. Throughout the poem