Compare and Contrast Beautiful Old Age by D.H. Lawrence with Geriatric Ward by Phoebe Hesketh

The poems Geriatric Ward and Beautiful Old Age are related by the exploration of old age. Phoebe Hesketh (a female) is the writer of Geriatric Ward; D.H. Lawrence (a male) is the writer of Beautiful Old Age. The theme of Geriatric Ward is with death and old age. Beautiful Old Age has a similar matter of referring to the opinions of old age, but includes a different response.

Geriatric Ward is basically the opposite of Beautiful Old Age. The theme of the poem is concerning the tension faced by the doctors; social order, responsibility and justice command them to save lives but their inner feelings wonder why the natural world doesn’t take its route and let them die. The title instantly gives the reader the impression/image of old unwell people, incapable of looking after themselves.

To reinforce the thought of how helpless they are, Hesketh presents us with “I wondered how they found their mouths”; this imagery shows us that patients need the help of professional doctors.

Hesketh reveals the feelings of the elderly as being animals in a zoo. This animal imagery is toughened with the opening line “Feeding time in the Geriatric Ward”. This line also brings the reader the image of the infirm aged. Geriatric Ward contains 3 stanzas, in which the second stanza containing the majority of the poem. Most of the poem is dialogue which gets rid of most punctuation. Punctuation usually gives feelings; it may have been taken out to show that there are no feelings in death (faced by the doctors).

The first stanza brings across the image of frail and lifeless patients. These images are made stronger with the interesting question of “Do they have souls?” This instantly brings across a very significant question that immensely encourages the reader to try and figure out the answer. However, Hesketh doesn’t answer the question simply; she makes the reader want to find the answer in the poem themselves (by making the reader feel strong emotional feelings).

The second stanza contains the answer to the above question (Do they have souls?). The answer is located where the doctor begins to speak. Hesketh uses a doctor’s opinion for disagreement with keeping these patients alive. She uses the doctor to complain, about wanting the natural process to take place, to stop patients suffering. More argument occurs in this stanza; Hesketh uses more imagery to show how the anger of the doctor reveals. The imagery she uses is to do with war “machine gun”, “under orders”, “dragged out detention” these are used to show the doctors battle to save lives. The poem from the second stanza onwards shows what the doctor has to say, Hesketh uses the doctor to feel angry, “I’d show you dignity in death instead of living death”; the doctor prefers them to be dead instead of being the living dead, this speech gives a very strong emotional feeling towards the elderly. This also shows the zombie imagery (dead) “living death”. The doctor may feel irritation but he’s “under orders”. He cannot give up that easily and still has to “pump blood and air in after the mind has gone”; even if the patients are ‘dead’ or passed out still the doctor needs to try and keep them alive. To calm the reader, Hesketh begins to use alliteration and assonance on the soft letters to find the difference of the cruel images and theme, “dignity in death”, “under orders”. The doctor’s lack of understanding souls is presented to show us that his understanding of their ‘feelings’ are lacking yet he learnt how to keep them alive, “I don’t understand souls; I only learned about cells”. Hesketh uses natural imagery to prove the point of not giving up “…leaves withering under frost”. The doctors will never give up and let them die they’d always try to keep them alive even when uncertainty of living takes over their minds “…we never handing over to the Mother who knows best, spray cabbages with oxygen, hoping for a smile…” Metaphors occur in this poem to indicate that life IS something (death) not LIKE. For example, Hesketh mentions that cells are “law-abiding as leaves” and that they “spray cabbages with oxygen” Hesketh also refers to the patients as being “breathing bags”. The last two lines of the second stanza shows that the patients are kept alive by science not will power.

The last stanza is very important as the doctor knows that keeping these patients alive will lead to death anyway. The use of Onomatopoeia gives the reader a very strong emotional feeling “one by one they ooze away in the cold”. The poem has no steady rhyme or rhythm which suggests the uncertainty of life and death but the rhyme at the end of the poem shows us that scene is being repeated over and over again (death).

Beautiful Old Age is involved with exploring the positive response to old age. D.H. Lawrence, the poet, presents us with the ...

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Beautiful Old Age is involved with exploring the positive response to old age. D.H. Lawrence, the poet, presents us with the encouraging response, and the indication of passion of old age. Using aspects of life Lawrence turns them into a poem showing what life is like for the elders (he uses love and accepting lies). The title instantly gives the reader an impression of the loveliness of the old age “Beautiful Old Age”. “It ought to be lovely to be old” gives you the impression of it being a curious question. The first stanza is very short; it contains a brief summary of life for the aged. It refers to being old must be lovely as you have had a peaceful experience and have completed life. Already the poem contains personification “wrinkled ripe fulfilment” this is to show the elders have lived a mature and complete life. The personification gives the feeling that with the positive response the elderly can be compared with anything as they have now faced it.

The first stanza shows us how respectable life is as already Lawrence mentions the peacefulness and completeness of life. Already this would give the reader curiosity as they wouldn’t have expected the elderly to have felt like this.

The second stanza begins to use the poetic devices and goes into detail about life. Again personification is used to talk about the completeness of life, “…wrinkled smile of completeness that follows a life”. Personification is repeated to show that the completeness of life will repeat over and over in/for old people. Accepting lies is mentioned in this stanza to show how important it is. Living fearless and accepting lies is part of completing life “…of completeness that follows a life lived undaunted and unsoured with accepting lies” this is mentioned in the first two lines of the second stanza, already Lawrence has talked about what the completeness of life involves. Lawrence uses alliteration to give a clearer understanding of that particular stanza (he uses the soft letters to calm the reader) “undaunted and unsoured”. Lawrence then begins to talk about what the elders would be like without accepting lies. “If people lived without accepting lies they would ripen like apples, and would be scented like pippins in their old age”. This means if lies were not apart of life, you’d grow completely and have the sense of admiration.

The third stanza begins to talk about love, as according to Lawrence is an important feature of life. Lawrence commences with similes and metaphors in this stanza. The first two lines are comparisons between love and apples, “Soothing, old people should be, like apples when one is tired of love.” This line means that peaceful old people should be like apples (be complete) like in the second stanza) when they are tired of love. The last two lines of the second stanza compare the feelings of the aged to autumn, “Fragrant like yellowing leaves, and dim with the soft stillness and satisfaction of autumn” this means that the elderly will live peacefully like the season of autumn (is a calm still season). The whole stanza encloses of imagery, “yellowing leaves”, tactile imagery”…dim with the soft stillness…” similes occur in this stanza to show comparisons “Fragrant like yellowing leaves” and metaphors to show what love IS, for example “and dim with the soft stillness and satisfaction of autumn”.

The last two stanzas consist of the juvenile giving their judgement of the elderly. The first of the last stanzas contains a young girl giving an opinion of her old mother, “It must be wonderful to live and grow old. Look at my mother, how rich and still she is”, this means the child is giving a positive view of her mother. She says it must be great to live and grow old because her mother is still rich. This gives an imagery of happiness and money “how rich and still she is”. The last stanza is the opinion of a son of his father, “By Jove my father has faced all weathers, but it’s been a life!” this shows the son is looking up to his father even though ‘it was meant to be’ for his father to face a lot of trouble but he has still lived his life. The idea of the younger generation speaking of their parents is important as the older generation is usually looked at as idols to the juvenile. As this poem has an assured attitude towards old age, containing a wise and confident opinion from the younger generation would be ideal. The closest to aural imagery occurs “And a young man should think” in the last stanza, it gives the reader the feeling the child is ‘thinking’ aloud. The lack of punctuation in this poem is to show how quick life goes; the unsteady rhyme in this poem is to show that a positive view for old age will not always take place.

There many comparisons and differences between the two poems. The main difference is that they both have different views to old age, e.g. “Beautiful Old Age” and “Do they have souls?” Both the poems are written in separate stanzas. Both the poets have strong emotional feelings and opinions of the old, for example “…full of the peace that comes of experience and wrinkled ripe fulfilment” and “I’d show you dignity in death instead of living death”. These two parts give strong emotional feelings because the first one shows that life is complete so the poet is happy whereas the second one shows the elderly as being the living dead so the poet is annoyed. The two poems obviously do contain comparisons. They contain accepting old age, “Look at my mother how rich and still she is” and “But we’re under orders to pump blood and air in after the mid has gone.” There are punctuation similarities; Geriatric Ward has dialogue and Beautiful Old Age has the ‘thinking’ dialogue “a young man should think”, these dialogues take away the a lot of the punctuation. Both the poems have an inconsistent rhyme scheme which shows the uncertainty of life and death. Both the poems contain poetic devices; imagery, similes, metaphors, alliteration etc. Both the poets use leaves as comparisons “fragrant like yellowing leaves” and “leaves withering under frost”. Both poems have a beginning, a middle and end. Both poems contain the majority in the middle. Both poems have opinions of others, other than just the poet’s opinion.

The differences in this poem occur often. The views of the poems are different; Beautiful Old Age gives a positive response whereas Geriatric Ward gives a negative response to old age. The gender of the poets is a difference and can result for curiosity as they have both given different views. In Beautiful Old Age the language is very soft and calm where in Geriatric Ward the language is harsh. What is interesting is that Geriatric Ward gives a masculine response even though the writer is a female and Beautiful Old Age gives a feminine response even though the writer is a male (the tone is different). There is assonance in Geriatric Ward “dignity in death”. D.H. Lawrence gives a religious response to old age “By Jove…” Geriatric Ward is miserable but Beautiful Old Age is joyful. The point of view is different in both poems as in Geriatric Ward Hesketh uses a doctor to speak and in Beautiful Old Age Lawrence speaks and then the two children. Geriatric Ward contains rhyme at the end to show the repetition of death over and over. Geriatric Ward has a set scene (in a geriatric ward). Beautiful Old Age is a metaphor for life. Geriatric Ward has speech. Geriatric Ward opens with a very controversial statement! There is animal, zombie and war imagery in Geriatric Ward. Beautiful Old Age has seasonal imagery (autumn).

In conclusion, I found the poems to be extremely effective. The two poets cleverly use the different images to compare to the old. I admired the positive view in Beautiful Old Age and the idea of using idolatry makes me begin to think about my parents/grandparents. The two poems give different responses which make me wonder, as people may think badly of their parents whereas others will think nice of them. The realistic poem, Geriatric Ward is great as it is true whereas Beautiful Old Age is all an opinion; it’s an opinion which many people will agree with (including me). The unsteady rhyme scheme in both poems is a brilliant way to spread the message of uncertainty of life and death. Personally I think that these two poems are very successful, and make you think about the elderly!

Khorum Sarwar 10dr